THIRST

Season’s Greetings

And

 The Very Best of Wishes,

For The Extreme Delight and Joy

With which you Shelve,

All your Thirsts,

In Twenty-Twelve!

Today THIRST has two meanings (Source - American Heritage Dictionary):

1. A sensation of dryness in the mouth related to a need or a desire to drink

2. An insistent desire or craving or yearning

TRADITIONAL Definitions of Thirst

Source - liberatemedia.com

Traditional Jewish Water Law (as far back as 3000 B.C.) 

- Water is common property "belonging to every man."

- As reflected in the later writings of the Talmud, “Rivers and Streams forming springs, these belong to every man.”

- The “Right of Thirst” is reflected in the Old Testament text in Isaiah: “Let all 

you who thirst, come to the water!” Such a policy might be termed a “Rawlsian straw,” in that any traveler in an arid region could foresee a situation where he or she might need water from strangers for survival. In satisfying the Right of Thirst, rules of access still applied, for villagers’ necessary drinking requirements took priority over outsiders’. But outsiders’ thirst took precedence over local grazing and other uses. 

Traditional Islamic Water Law 

- The Arabic word "Sharia" means "the way of water"

- As the Koran relates: Anyone who gives water to a living creature will be rewarded…To the man who refuses his surplus water, Allah will say:  ‘Today I refuse thee my favor, just as thou refused the surplus of something that thou hadst not made thyself.’

African Indigenous Water Law

- While wells and boreholes are often built today for private purposes, they are made available for communal drinking.

- A general fear that denying water to someone could lead the drinking well to be poisoned

Bihar Indian Water Law

- Because of the complex social hierarchy, priority of access and management is much more carefully proscribed than in other cultures along social caste lines. But at times of water scarcity, even access to an upper caste well is allowed.

- The "rule of sharing", however, is widely observed and those in need must be given access to water.  

- A divine gift for all of mankind, sharing water is viewed as a spiritual act of generosity – one of the seven kinds of wealth (the ‘saptasantanas’).

Australian Aboriginal Water Law

- Most water sources are sacred parts of the dreamscape.

- Sharing is encoded and embedded within all social relations:  trade, marriage, ceremony and others.  The code is reciprocity.  Not only is the precept ‘always ask’ essential; so too is the fact that people are almost never refused.”

Roman Law

- Rome’s first aqueduct, the Appia, was built in 312 B.C. A priority system ensured that public needs were served first, then private uses, than baths.

- The water was always free for the taking

Source - Salzman, James, "Thirst: A Short History of Drinking Water" (2006). Duke Law School Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 31.                 http://lsr.nellco.org/duke_fs/31

Overcoming Distance by Raising Elevation of Water AT the Source

Once a few humans figured out that gravity would move water, available at higher elevations to lower elevations (see post dated November 19, 2011), other humans began looking at ways to replace pack animals and human water-carriers who were transporting water from lower elevations to higher elevations.In other words, some humans began to address the problem of raising water to levels that would allow gravity to supply water to points far away from a water source. And invent they did.


Shaduf (~ 2000 B.C.)

Source - waterhisrory.org

The Shaduf was probably invented to replace the slow and laborious process of using slaves and pack animals to transport water to higher elevations.
The Shaduf employed the lever principle to raise water from a river or lake bed onto a higher landscape i.e. to feed an irrigation trench. 
A Shaduf could raise water a maximum of 7-8 feet.
The historical record shows Shaduf use in Mesopotamia and widespread use in Egypt.
The Shaduf came into existence about 2000 B.C.
A Shaduf requires human power and is limited by the size of its bucket but could be deployed in very large numbers to raise large quantities of water. There is extensive evidence of the Shaduf being mainly powered by slaves and convicts.
Archimedes Screw (~250 B.C.)

Source - school-for-champions.com

Attributed to be an invention by Archimedes, water was raised to higher elevations by turning the handle.
The compact design allowed this device to empty holds of ships, to draw away water from mines, keep areas free of water and, of course, draw water for irrigation and drinking purposes.
The Noria  or Water wheel (~250 B.C.)

Source - eo.wikipedia.org

A Noria is a wheel that raises water, a bucket at a time, to an elevation that is at most equal to the diameter of the wheel.
The buckets are each attached along the length of the wheel rim. 
To operate, the wheel is placed in a body of water with the bottom-most bucket submerged in the water body.
As the wheel turns, the lower-most bucket slips under water, is filled with water, rises up to the top of the wheel where it is emptied of water which flows into a channel that leads to a reservoir. Through this process, water in the  water body is raised to a height nearly equal to the diameter of the wheel.
Three different types of Noria exist depending upon how the wheel is turned. 
One design uses human or animal power, harnessed to the wheel, to turn the wheel.
In windy places, where the wind is especially strong, the Noria is modified such that the wind turns the wheel - this same rudimentary design is assumed to be replicated in a windmill designed for milling wheat and corn.
In streams where the water current is especially strong, the current pushes against appendages attached to the Noria that turn the wheel.
The city of Hama in Syria, has the largest known Noria (20 meters in diameter) in the world.
Elaborate Combinations (~90 A. D.)

Source - wikipedia.org

Recent excavations in mines in Spain and South Wales in the 1930s have revealed the existence of layers of waterwheels to excavate water from mines.

Gravity: Nature's Tool for Moving Water Over Long Distances

Water flows naturally over long distances if a single condition exists: The elevation at the beginning location is higher than the elevation at the ending location. The force of Gravity naturally moves water from higher to lower elevations.


Human Settlements Around Nature's Rivers

The River Nile
Source - abbaymedia.com

Running downhill, rivers deliver water to communities all along its length. 
The longest river, The Nile, is over 6,600 km long 
Traversing this distance, the Nile sustains communities of life in ten countries, namely, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
The Nile originates at an elevation of 2,700 m (above sea level) and ends in the Mediterranean sea after its 6,600 Km journey.
The Nile and the other rivers contain an estimated 0.006% of all the freshwater on Earth. These 509 cubic miles of freshwater are regularly replenished by the hydrological cycle.


Human Settlements Away From Rivers and Lakes
Gravity is the first natural force that humanity learned to harness to bring water from a river or a lake to a human settlement.
Surface Structures
The first known successes by humanity to use gravity for irrigation were in four regions of the world: In Egypt around the Nile river, in Mesopotamia around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in India around the Indus and Ganges Rivers and in China around the Huang He (Yellow) river.
The larger channels feed water into the smaller and smaller channels using the force of gravity. The channel beds have to be sloped correctly for gravity-fed water to move from channel to channel. 
This method of irrigation, known as furrowed irrigation, is still widely used in the world. It originated as early as 5000 BC.
Underground Piping

Source - en.wikipedia.org

The puquios in Peru, use gravity to channel surface water into pipes dug out under ground by humans, that end at a settlement. Peru and the many other human communities in the Andes Mountains, used this method extensively to channel water into pipes.
Arranging a number of puquios to feed into a single pipe is said to have provided enough freshwater for a community of over a hundred people.

Speed of Remedy Deployment is Key to Reducing Water Scarcity

Any global effort to reduce the ranks of people (and other living things and nature's ecosystems) experiencing water scarcity and shortages must recognize two crucial facts:

1. As time progresses, the water-deprived group will continue to grow by the addition of more people, especially in the developing parts of the world.
2. To get a net reduction in the number of water-deprived people, any remedy must, therefore, be deployed at a rate much larger than the rate of addition to the water-deprived ranks.

Addition to the Water-Deprived Ranks

Source - wikipedia.org

The rate of addition to human population has generally declined over the past 30 years. 
At its peak, 88 million people were added in 1989. The recent lowest addition was 73.9 million people added in 2003. In 2009, however, the human population added 75.3 million people. The annual addition is projected to drop to 43 million people in 2050.


Current Estimates of the Water-Deprived

Source - collections.europarchive.org

Water scarcity was quantified as follows, in 2004, by UNICEF and the World Heath Organization:

• About 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water - This is more than 1 out of every 6 people on Earth
• About 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation - This is 2 out of every 6 people on Earth

It is, thus, an understatement to say that we have at least 2 billion people today whose thirst for safe drinking water still needs to be quenched.


Water Scarcity Elimination Target
Thus, to maintain the water-deprived population at current levels requires deploying water supply-increasing remedies that impact around 100 million people. Such a number might also reduce by just a very tiny bit, the size of the 2 billion water-deprived population.
A significant dent in the 2 billion water-deprived population will be a reduction in the population by 100 million per year. Thus, thus, requires us to provide safe drinking water to at least 200 million people per year i.e. 100 million in addition to the  maintenance number of 100 million.


Providing Safe Water to 200 Million
The goal of providing water to 200 million people in one year is equivalent to providing safe water to:
- nearly 548,000 people/day or
- nearly 22,831 people/hour, or
- nearly 381 people/minute, or
- nearly 6 people/second


Challenge of the MASSIVE SCALE of Water Scarcity
The 200 million goal, at first look, appears impossible to meet or imagine. But there may be clues in how other industries have reached numbers that come close to those required to provide safe water to 200 million more people every year.
The Lesson from the Telephone Industry - Joseph Schumpeter's concept of 'gales of creative destruction' applied to water scarcity implies that the existing water-industry complex has very little incentive to innovate and innovation can only come from outside - like it did in the telephone industry, where mobile phones have transformed the traditional telephone industry by being able to supply a "product" that requires minimal customization in the local environment.


Necessary Characteristics of the Remedy for Water Scarcity

1. What constitutes the product that requires insignificant local customization and increases supply of safe freshwater to people anywhere on Earth? The answer to this question incorporates humanity's need for speed in supplying safe drinking water to those that are deprived of this life resource today.
2. Must address the daunting variety of water problems that are found all over the globe, and
3. Must work anywhere on Earth

The second and third characteristics were identified in the post dated October 1, 2011, titled "Water Needs Thinking on a Massive Scale"

Freshwater Management's Achilles' Heel

Our expectations of what the future will be like, of literally everything related to water, is based upon what we know to be true today and our knowledge of how things have evolved or changed in the past. Unfortunately, we now live in a time where we cannot predict the future with any reasonable level of confidence.


Achilles' Heel

Source - wikipedia.org

In Greek mythology, Achilles gained an impervious armor all over his body - except on his left heel - when his mother dipped him into the river Styx.
Achilles left heel did not get the body armor because his mother held his body from this heel while she dipped him into the river Styx. 
With his body armor, Achilles became virtually invincible and a fearsome warrior.
Achilles' successes continued until an opponent's arrow struck him in his unprotected heel - Achilles' left heel was his only weak spot.




The Assumption of Stationarity - Freshwater Management's Achilles' Heel

Source - Wikipedia.org

The concept of Stationarity implies that a system always fluctuates within a reasonably narrow envelope which can be created using historical facts - facts that are usually numerical measure-ments.
Non-stationarity implies the opposite i.e. extreme difficulty in the creation of an envelope because of extreme variability that shows no clear pattern or a pattern that never repeats because it continues to change.


Why Non-Stationarity Now?
Human actions have always impacted Stationarity. For freshwater management in the late twentieth-century, it was easy to add-in the existence and impact of variability induced by human action.
Today, however, the patterns of change have become so complex that there exists no model on variability - especially one that reconciles and is supported by instrumented measurements.
The uncertainties around predictions today are extremely large primarily due to global warming and the resulting climate changes. We cannot model the effects of global warming and the resulting increases in rainfall (precipitation) with a level of confidence that makes the model believable for the present and usable for predicting the future.


Freshwater Planning WITHOUT benefit of Stationarity
The Achilles' heel of freshwater predictions today is the inability of water managers to predict with any real confidence how water-resources will behave differently from their historical behaviour i.e.

• The risk of water shortages has increased - Rainfall will come, but where, when and in what amounts cannot be predicted
• Risks of floods has also increased - The location and intensity of flooding cannot be foretold

 The bottom line: Extreme uncertainty in predicting freshwater supply


What's Our Best Course of Action Now?
In this Anthropocenic Era, humanity must do what it has always done i.e. imagine an acceptable future and work hard to make it a reality. Mankind must primarily focus on developing approaches that supply freshwater on demand.

Overcoming Distance is Humanity's Fundamental Freshwater Challenge

Transportation of water to where people have chosen to live or forcing people to live in close proximity to freshwater supplies are two solutions that mankind has practiced ever since the beginning of civilization. This "transportation" issue is still the heart of our current and future freshwater crises.


Places with Meager Freshwater Supplies
The story and images of women spending their day carting water from sources far, far away from where they live, are well known and publicized as a scourge on the already poor. 

Source - newstimeafrica.com

Source - workworthdoing.com

Innovators have developed devices, like the rolling container that makes water transportation a less physical activity, but does not address the basic issue - the water is far away from where the people who need it are.

Ancient Roman Aqueduct
Source - think2020.tripod.com

In the richer parts of the world the solution to this basic issue is no different, except in scale and institutionalization - the formation of an organization which exists for the sole purpose of supplying needed freshwater.

Source - planetforward.org

Source - spannertech.com

Without such costly and massive creations, most of the population centers in the developed world would also be susceptible to water shortages and supply disruptions.
Covering the distance problem is still the most basic issue behind the supply of freshwater.
Places with Abundant Freshwater Supply
Humanity's Freshwater crisis would disappear in an instant if people lived in locations where there currently exists an abundant natural supply of freshwater and where future freshwater supplies were assured.

Source - worldatlas.com

Unfortunately, however, the two locations with the most freshwater resources (the areas around the North and South Poles) are too inhospitable for long human existence.


And there are no other locations that have necessary freshwater supplies for the existing and future mega-cities that are projected to house nearly 50% of the world's population.


The Distance Eliminating Solutions
The only "local" bodies of freshwater, that can eliminate or, at least, drastically shorten the distance, are the bodies of water located in the "local" air (the atmosphere) and under the ground over which people live. The reality that local underground supplies are already non-existent or under severe stress of becoming extinct, leaves only the option of finding ways to harvest water from the local atmosphere.

TINY Creatures that Absorb Water Vapor from Air

Source - Wikipedia.org

Crabs, lobsters, crayfish and shrimp all share one physical attribute - they all have external skeletons. This skeleton surrounds nearly all their body organs and protects them from predators.
One structure of their body, pleopods, exists outside their skeleton. 


Pleopods of creatures on land

Source - animalcrossing.wikia.com

Source - derelia.com

Land-living brethren of crabs and lobsters, pill bugs, have succeeded in colonizing land by adapting their pleopods to absorb water vapor from air that is not saturated with moisture.
Pill bugs can loose as much as 30% of their body-moisture and still survive by replenishing this loss by absorbing water vapor in unsaturated air.
Their major loss of body-moisture is through evaporation from the body surface. One of the reasons to roll up into a ball is to reduce the body surface susceptible to promoting evaporation.


Other creatures that absorb water vapor

Flea Larvae
Source - en.wikipedia.org

Book lice
Source - asktheexterminator.com

Silverfish
Source - silverfishbugs.net

Other creatures that absorb water vapor from air are flea larvae, book lice, silverfish, meal worms and ticks.










Why are all of nature's creations that can absorb water vapor from the air, so tiny? Is this a dependency on the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere? Is this a dependency on the size of the water vapor absorbing body structure?

We ALL Live in a Hygroscopic (Water) World

We are aware that fishes live in a world of water. We believe that everything else, including us, exists in a world of air. Recent advances in science, however, are revealing that a layer of water covers everything that exists outside bodies of water i.e. everything on land.


Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor any Drop to Drink

Ship Sinking in a Whirlpool
Source - spiralwishingwell.com

This, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, relates the life-changing experience of a person who is the sole survivor of an ocean voyage and returns to tell of the dangers and challenges faced on the voyage. And, of course, the point he makes is that even with all that water around him, there was really no water (of the kind he could drink) to quench his thirst.
How the Gecko Walks On a Ceiling

Source - wallpaperbydesign.com

As the post dated 3/5/11 explains, there is a layer of water on the underside of ceilings, that enables each foot of the gecko to strongly adhere through the unique properties of water molecules, to the surface of a ceiling, with more than enough strength for the Gecko to walk upside down on the ceiling, while defying gravity.


Is Anything Ever 100% Dry?

Laser penetrating water-film
Source-Nano Letters, 2003, 3 (1), pp 19–20

Recent scientific research shows that water films are omnipresent in nature.
These films control interactions at bio-chip surfaces, coatings that prevent and facilitate surface-to-surface interaction and how electrical charges are transmitted from thunderclouds. 
Whether knowingly, or by chance, we need to find ways to control, direct and modulate the impact of these water films in everything artificial.


Hydropholic and Hydrophobic Surfaces
There are some surfaces, called Hydrophobic surfaces) that are resistant to the existence of water films.
At low humidity levels, less than 15%, the water film is difficult to detect, but is there. At higher humidity levels, the water film is clearly visible using scanning probe microscopes.


Strange as it may sound, everything on land also exists in a watery world.

Oxygen Isotopes and The Water Cycle

Water molecules tagged with different isotopes of oxygen have different tendencies to evaporate and condense.


Isotopes

An Atom
Source - antonine-education.co.uk 

An element is defined based upon the number of protons contained in its atoms i.e. different elements contain different number of protons in each atom.
With the number of protons being the same, the atoms of an element can contain a different number of neutrons. 
Isotopes are atoms of the same element or compound that differ in the number of neutrons contained in their atoms.


Oxygen Isotopes

8N and 10N Isotopes of Oxygen
Source - mhhe.com

The Oxygen atom has 15 isotopes of which 3 are stable while 12 are unstable (radioactive) with very short half-life. These unstable isotopes have variants, defined on their mode of decay, that increase their number beyond 12.

Stable oxygen Isotopes
Source - web.sahra.arizona.edu

The 3 stable oxygen isotopes have 16, 17 and 18 neutrons in the nucleus of each atom. 
The 16-Neutron isotope is the most abundant - 99.762% of all Oxygen atoms have 16 neutrons in oxygen atoms.


Primary and Secondary Isotopes of Oxygen
The 16-neutron oxygen isotope is known as the primary isotope as it is postulated to have been created by stellar evolution. The 17-neutron and 18-neutron isotopes are called secondary isotopes because their existence requires "seed nuclei" and they are created on earth.


Oxygen Isotopes and the Hydrological Cycle

Isotopes in air, ocean and ice
Source - wwnorton.com

Water molecules are tagged with the different atoms of oxygen. Thus, water molecules can be tagged with oxygen isotopes with either 16 or 17 or 18 neutrons.

Source - eesc.columbia.edu

Glacial ice, the oceans and the vapor in the air, all contain water molecules tagged with the most common 16-neutron isotope. However, concentrations of the 16-neutron isotope are different in ice, oceans and air. This difference is ultimately due to the slightly higher tendency to evaporate, of water molecules tagged with the 16-neutron oxygen isotope.

Oxygen Isotopes and the Water Cycle
Source - web.sahra.arizona.edu

Conversely, there is a slightly higher tendency of water molecules to precipitate (condense) that are tagged with oxygen atoms containing 18 neutrons.
In fact, the different isotopes of oxygen in water molecules seem to influence evaporation and condensation.


Harvesting of moisture (precipitation i.e. rain) contained in air and wind can, thus, be stimulated by the 18-neutron oxygen isotope that can be artificially created. 

Water has influenced languages all over the world

Water has inspired words, symbols and all kinds of communications between people all over the world


Chinese Character for "Political Order"

Source - Geographictravels.com

The concept behind 'political order' has always been about controlling the populace. 
It's interesting to note that the Chinese symbol for "Political Order" is simply a combination of two symbols:
- One to represent a "river" and 
- The other represents a way to control the flow of water in the river i.e. a "Dike."
It is estimated that the Chinese language and its component characters are at least from 1000 BC. The relationship between water and 'control' is, obviously, a very very old one.


The English word - "Rivals"

Source - overclock.net

The English word "rivals" has as its root the Latin word "Rivalis" that means "one taking from the same stream as another." 
Obviously, here the implication is that only one can (and eventually, will) possess what both want.

Water in Kanji
Source - waterstation.us

Japanese character for "Rice"
The Kanji symbols for water and rice too are nearly identical. 

Rice Symbol
Source - japanese-symbols.org

Water Needs Thinking on a Massive Scale

The fate of the world in the 21st century is tied closely to the ability to get the right quantity of quality water when and where nature and humans require it. 
The challenge, posed by the daunting variety of solutions required, can only be resolved through thinking on a massive scale.


The Challenge's Daunting Variety 

Source - asianews.it

Source - yousaytoo.com

Source - keetsa.com

Usually, we think of water only when we have a problem with either not having enough water or having unsafe water. 


Having too much water is a problem too.




The Challenge's Daunting Geographical Distribution

Source - gfdl.noaa.gov

Source - earthtrends.wri.org

Floods, droughts and unsafe water exist everywhere on Earth. 
Any effort to solve the challenge must recognize these multi-location issues and that if custom solutions are developed and implemented for every location and its specific water issue, water issues will always exist all over the world.


The Solution
Keeping the daunting variety of the challenge in mind, it is necessary and prudent to think of ways to resolve a vast variety of the challenge with the least number of solutions.


Such thinking will invariably turn towards attempts to increase supply from the water-laden air everywhere. Finding a way to extract moisture (both the liquid, but more importantly, the water vapor) from the atmosphere remains the ideal solution.

Water - Earth's Infinite Resource!

We solve the problem we see. We see what we have chosen to look for. We choose based on our background and knowledge while basking in the comfort that others with the same understanding will make the same choice!


Labeling Water as a FINITE resource is probably the biggest obstacle to solving the Worldwide Water Crisis! 


Starting with this mind-limiting perspective (that water is a Finite resource) restricts the options that can be perceived. Even though we call other resources as finite, we are keenly aware that 
(a) There is NO resource that we have actually run out of, and
(b) Non-evolutionary changes always require coming up with a unique perspective that starts with the recognition that the "Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones!"

Source - hightonps.vic.edu.au

What's half of 11?
To someone who divides using rules of mathematics, 5.5 is half of 11.

Source - squidoo.com

To someone who divides with a vertical cut, into a left half and a right half, 1 is half of 11

To someone who divides with a horizontal cut, with a top half and a bottom half, 11 is half of 11


What's half of 8?
Depending upon how we interpret the question, half of 8 can be 4, 0 or 3.


What characteristics define water as a resource?
Water supply is characterized by the following:
A. We cannot make water.
B. We cannot destroy water.
C. We cannot transform water, like we can oil ... say, into electricity
D. Water is a circulatory resource. The circulation process is called the Water Cycle or the Hydrological Cycle.
E. The Water Cycle never ends.
F. There is evidence that the Water Cycle can speed up and slow down, under specific circumstances.
G. Water, in every stage of the circulation process, is regularly recharged or replenished.
H. Naturally occurring bodies of water (e.g. lakes and rivers) and man-made reservoirs do run dry.
I. Empty reservoirs, devoid of water, may not be replenished ever again.


The above characteristics lead to the conclusion, especially by those of us who focus on reservoirs running dry, that water is a finite resource.


However, for those among us who focus on the flow in the Water Cycle and recognize that water flows will speed up when the Water Cycle speeds up, water is an unlimited and virtually infinite resource.

A Crisis in Water Supply Exists Everywhere

Every place on Earth has experienced a water supply crisis sometime in history. And the future is not expected to be any different - every place on Earth is expected to be hit with a crisis in water supply sometime in the future.


Drought
Drought is the worst form of water crisis. It is a term applied to locations that have experienced NO RAIN for an extended period of time. 

Source - thedailygreen.com

Drought maps have been produced for the world, and no continent is immune from severe drought except the polar regions that are awash in water and ice, and where no large human presence exists and where no human activity is performed.

Source - standeyo.com

It needs to be recognized that even areas not highlighted to experience any drought will have "minor" crisis with their water supplies. For example, some may find their water temporarily polluted and unsafe to drink; others may experience a break in the aging infrastructure that will temporarily cut their supply; others may simply get no rain to replenish reservoirs and a temporary restriction may be imposed on water usage.


The water crisis exists all over the world, but with varying impact. And everywhere there exists (a) the atmosphere, that contains water in vapor and liquid form and (b) Wind that continues to deliver water-laden air everywhere.

HOW to THINK, to Quench the World's Thirst?

NO, NOT THIS FATHER'S KIND OF THINKING:

Source - The Los Angeles Times Newspaper

YES, WITH THE KIND OF THINKING IN THIS NOTE:
Please visit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576559021141320808.html?mod=ITP_opinion_1#articleTabs%3Darticle%26mg%3Dcom-wsj

WATER - Our #1 Choice to Soothe Our Soul

There are many memorials to September 11 but only one National Memorial. The competition for it was fierce and hotly debated but what eventually got everyone's nod centers on water to showcase everything we feel about the events of September 11.


The September 11 National Memorial in Manhattan, NY USA

A Pool at the Footprint of Each Tower
Source - gearthblog.com

An inside edge of the North Reflecting Pool
Source - New York Times; Pool photo by David Handschuh

Names Inscribed on the Edge of Each Pool
Source - wnyc.org

A Rose on a Name on September 11, 2011
Source - ibtimes.com