Season’s Greetings

 & 

The Very Best of Wishes

 To You and Yours 

For a Blissful and Serene

 Twenty-Fourteen!

Why is Steam White?

Ever wonder why you cannot see the water vapor in the air around us?
Water in Vapor form

Source - scienceprojectideasforkind.com

Water molecules when in vapor form are transparent.
That's one reason why we cannot see the moisture in the air.
Another, of course, is the tiny size of water molecules, so tiny that our eyes cannot make them out or the loose chains that they form.
Yet another, is that the vapor molecules are randomly arranged and so present no discernible shape to the human eye.
Water Molecules in Liquid Form

Source - crazykitcheninventions.co.uk

Steam is essentially a lot of liquid water molecules suspended in a mixture of air and water vapor molecules.
As light rays that hit these randomly arranged liquid water molecules is a mixture of all colors (i.e. white light), the light exiting from the many liquid molecules appears as white - the color we attribute to steam.
If a different color light, say, red were to be falling on steam, the steam would appear to be red in color.

Definitions Matter for Water Scarcity to be Seen as a REAL Issue?

Everyone sees every problem from their own perspective - a perspective built from mostly their understanding, experience and interests. And when many definitions exist, the probability of getting a consensus decreases. Maybe, this lack of a common definition is the cause of lackluster progress against water insecurity!

Different Ways to define Water Scarcity

Which Regions are Under Stress" has many answers!
Source: globalwaterforum.org

Why a consensus is necessary and matters is clearly seen in the result of applying differing (the following of many others) indexes to West Africa and Europe!

As the different colors clearly indicate, different approaches - to describe water insecurity- do lead to different conclusions and, thus, different actions will be deemed necessary to alleviate this insecurity.

Water security: for Who?

Source - oxforddictionaries.com

Whose insecurity is to be eradicated is complicated by the following kinds of competing interests:

• Do the needs of people override the needs of the environment? Or must both go hand-in-hand?
• Does the need of industry override the needs of agriculture?
• When must human migration be the preferred option over staying put?
• How do the needs of different human settlements sharing water resource sources get balanced?
• ... ... ... 
• ... ... ...

Water Stress Index
The regional adequacy of natural sources of water for the "population residing in the region" is measured for each person:

• > 1700 cubic meters per person per year signifies NO Stress
• < 1700 cubic meters per person per year signifies a population experiencing stress from inadequate water supplies
• <1000 cubic meters per person per year signifies a population experiencing water scarcity
• < 500 cubic meters per person per year signifies a population under dire scarcity

These Water Stress definitions lead to some interesting conclusions depending upon the geographical definition of "Region", e.g.:

• If the "region" is the Whole Planet, then there is NO Stress
• If the "region" is a Continent, there is NO Stress
• If the "region" is a country, there may or may not exist enough stress worthy of remediation
• ... ...

Virtually every scenario we can dream up can be identified through the application of the numerical criteria underlying the definition of Water Stress!
Water Demand-vs.-Supply Index

In recognition of the fact that different people use different quantities of water, this index looks at regional water insecurity as defined through unmet need e.g.:

• If water demand is <20% of the supply, the region has NO scarcity
• If water demand is 20-40% of supply, the region is deemed water scarce
• If water demand is >40% of supply, the region is deemed to be under severe scarcity

Usually applied at the country level, this index can be adapted to anyone's interests by including man-made water sources, by emphasizing recycling and a number of other actions.

Water Infrastructure Index

Having water resources but not being able to get our hands on the water is the perspective behind this index. 

Water Poverty Index

This approach factors in prosperity of the population in a selected region. As the definition of prosperity varies widely, this index is extremely complex and thus easily manipulated to support the interests of individuals preferring to use this Index.

We surely need a way to build consensus!!


Source: http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2012/05/07/understanding-water-scarcity-definitions-and-measurements/

Rising Air Delivers Precipitation!

Precipitation of moisture in the air is the primary way that new safe water is delivered everywhere. Nearly all of this precipitation happens naturally as part of what we call the Water Cycle. If we could raise air artificially or manually, we could deliver safe water anywhere!
Air Circulation

Rising and descending air
Source - adapaonline.org

Large-scale rising and dropping air is a characteristic of the atmosphere. 
The location of both rising and descending air vary by location (by latitude and longitude) and by season (as the axis of the earth changes relatively to the sun as the Earth rotates around the sun.
The wettest areas are seen in the areas where air is 'naturally' rising i.e. at the equator and the mid-latitudes  40-60 degrees North and South.
The driest areas are seen where air is naturally descending: 20-30 degree North and South latitudes and around the poles.
Drivers of Rising and Falling air

Causes of Rising and Falling air
Source - cmmap.org

The primary causes of air circulation are surface heating, terrain changes, convergence of air masses. There is more rainfall on higher elevations of mountains and as weather patterns create turbulence in the atmosphere.
The rising and falling air moves northwards or southwards by season i.e. how the earth is oriented relative to the sun.
Like mountains, the presence of large bodies of water also influences incidence and rates of precipitation.
Adiabatic Cooling

Source - cmmap.org

As air mass rise, pressure on the air mass drops and the air mass cools.

Source - ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu

Source - ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu

As rising continues, so does the cooling, till water vapor molecules condense and coalesce to form water droplets.

Intensity of precipitation increases as the depth of the rising air mass increases.

Is there any way for us to artificially raise large bodies of air that we know are full of water vapor?

Fog Collection System in Cactus

Many naturally-occurring Biological Structures have the ability to extract liquid water from air. The common cactus that lives and thrives in arid locations is quite drought tolerant because it can collect liquid water droplets contained in fog.
The Opuntia Microdasys Cactus

Source -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia microdasys

Spine Clusters
Source - commons.wikipedia.org

The surface skin of this species of cactus is covered with micro- and nano-scale structures. These consist of clusters of spines and appendages (called trichomes) that are uniformly distributed all over the cactus' skin.

Source - Article titled "A multi-structural and multi-functional integrated
fog collection system in cactus by 

Jie Ju,

Hao Bai,

Yongmei Zheng,

Tianyi Zhao,

Ruochen Fang

& Lei Jiang

nature communications Journal

Study and analyses of cactus spines under an electronic microscope reveal the existence of wide and narrow grooves along the length of each spine and the existence of grooves and barbs on each trichome (figures on the left).
These specific designs are the reasons why cacti can extract water droplets from fog and do so with extreme efficiency.
Experiments in the laboratory have shown that the initial deposition of the water droplets in fog happen on the barbs on each spine and this water droplet falls down to the base of each spine while growing in size.
The trichome's job is to absorb the water arriving at the base of the spine. Thus, multiple spine clusters and trichomes working in close cooperation deliver water adequate for a cactus to thrive in very arid climates.
Two Underlying Science Phenomena
The gradient of surface-free energy and the gradient of Laplace pressure are the two mechanisms that come into play when cacti harvest water droplets from fog.

Surface -free EnergySource - wikipedia.org

Surface-Free Energy:
This is the amount of free energy on a surface and this energy increases as the area of a surface increases.
Folds in surfaces, thus, increase surface free energy. For isotropic materials this energy is the same as surface tension.
The gradient is the direction in which surface-free energy increases: as the spine is conical in shape, the surface area closer to the bottom of the spine is greater than that closer to its tip. Thus a natural gradient exists forcing water droplets to move from the tip to the base of each spine.
Laplace Pressure

Laplace Pressure
Source - hyperphysics. phy-astr.gsu.edu

Laplace pressure is the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of a surface.
As this difference gets greater, moisture droplets outside a surface get absorbed into the body through the surface.
This is the phenomenon underlying the trichome's ability to absorb water droplets captured and delivered by the spines.

How can we replicate nature's phenomenon to capture water droplets contained in fog ingeniously everywhere on Earth? That's the task - development and deployment of artificial fog collectors - before humanity today!

The First Building That Will Extract Water-From-Air

Imagine the Common Laser Pointer Delivering Drinking Water!

Local precipitation of water vapor in the air to produce rain (when needed and in necessary amounts) would be a god-send to humanity. Most common approaches so far have been ways to "seed" condensation of the water vapor in the air. Recent research has, however, surfaced the possibility of using lasers to promote condensation.
Traditional "Seeds" of Condensation

Dry Ice
Source - en.wikipedia.org

Silver Iodide crystal
Source - en.wikipedia.org

Dispersing tiny particles of dry ice, silver iodide and other salts is the traditional approach to seeding clouds to encourage precipitation in the form of rain.
The efficiency of this approach is, however, a bone of serious contention because the success of this approach is never predictable to any level of acceptable confidence.
Laser Filaments

A Laser Filament
Source - large.stanford.edu

A narrow column of plasma is known as a laser filament.

A Laser Filament
Source - large.stanford.edu

A column of plasma forms when a laser pulse self-focuses and when its self-focused intensity is high enough to ionize the medium the pulse is traversing through. At this point in time and location, the column of medium is actually a column of plasma aka a laser filament.
As the energy required for continued ionization detracts from the pulse energy, the filament steadily dissipates over time.
Air is as medium for laser beam propagation and, thus, for the formation of filaments.
Typical filaments are a few meters long but filaments with lengths in the hundreds of meters are not uncommon.
Inside a Laser Filament

HNO3
Source - ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu

The local chemical composition of the atmosphere appears to be altered by the existence of a laser filament.
In particular, at relative humidity levels higher than 70%, the HNO3 amounts inside a laser filament are found to be over 1,000 times the levels at which HNO3 is known to stabilize water droplets, increase their growth and increase their rate of growth.
The most interesting finding from experiments is that this higher concentration outlives the laser filament by orders of magnitude i.e. the water-producing effects of increased concentration can continue to make water droplets larger for as long as 15-20 minutes.

The eventual result: rain!

Freeze Sea-Water to Convert it into Freshwater?

As sea water freezes, dissolved salt is excluded, and the resulting ice has much less salt in it compared to sea water. Repeated recycling between solid and liquid can eliminate virtually all the salt in sea water.
Salt content of different waters
No water is totally free of salt. Sea water has a typical salinity of 3.5%.

Water salinity based on dissolved salts
Fresh water	Brackish water	Saline water	Brine
< 0.05%	0.05% – 3%	3% – 5%	> 5%

Crystal Structures
Ice and salt crystals have very different structures in solid form:

Crystalline Structure of Ice
Source - ps.uci.edu

Crystalline structure of  Salt
Source - webelements.com

Ice has a hexagonal (six-sided) structure while salt has a cubic (four-sided) structure. It is primarily due to this structural differences that salt and water separate during the freezing process.

The Freezing Process

As pockets of sea water start freezing, the crystalline structure of frozen water begins to appear which pushes salt molecules away to produce water pockets rich in salt (aka brine solution). As the salt-free water freezes, the brine solution resists freezing because its high salt content has lowered its freezing temperature.

As ice freezing continues, this brine solution, essentially, leeches out from the water crystals leaving behind water whose salt content is much lower than that of sea water.
Freezing speed, if fast enough, can trap some salt molecules inside ice crystals but these are gradually released as ice crystals reach for their steady state.

Is Any Place FREE from Potential Safe Water Risk?

Water risks come in many forms and if "amount of safe water" is used as a measure, then too-much water (flood) is one extreme while too-little water (drought) is the other extreme. Other measures that define risk are quality, limitations imposed by nature or constraints imposed by a lack of water supply infrastructure.
Flood Risk

Water Risk - Flood Occurrence
Source - http://aqueduct.wri.org/atlas

World Resources Institute's AQUEDUCT Project has mapped the occurrence of floods in the 1985-2011 period. Some interesting observations:
- The Eastern half of the US has experienced many floods; Much of Western Australia has had to cope with floods; Floods seem to cover all of South Asia and the Middle East excluding countries that have predominantly desert landscapes; Mid and Eastern Africa have needed to cope with floods; etc.
Areas free of foods include:
- Mid and south-western US; Much of Canada; Northern regions of Russia and the Scandinavian states; Southern tip of Africa; Midsection of Australia; etc.
Drought Risk

Water Risk - Drought Severity
Source - http://aqueduct.wri.org/atlas

Another map from the AQUEDUCT Project displays drought locations during the 1985-2011 time period. Some conclusions: Australia's midsection and west experience drought; The US west coast and western states are drought prone; Northern and southern Africa have experienced drought frequently; Canada's midsection will see drought as will north and northeastern Russia; The Scandinavian areas free from floods have seeen many droughts; etc
Combining Risk of Flood and Drought
A most interesting and ominous conclusion surfaces when the two maps, flood history and drought history, are superimposed: there seem to be very very few areas where water, as drought or flood, does not pose a hazard to humanity and, also, nature:
- Much of Australia, the US, Africa, Europe, Russia, the Middle East. Canada, etc have been prone to risks from water, either as drought or as flood.

Safe water is a worldwide issue! Very very few of us will not face some form of water insecurity in the near future. We are all in the same boat where safe water is concerned!

Water is a Renewable Resource because Air Exists!

The Earth's atmosphere is key to the Earth's water cycle. Without the atmosphere, Nature's  engine of delivery of a constant supply of water safe for drinking and irrigation all over the world, could not exist or function as it does and has for a very very long time.
The Atmosphere

Water Exists in Atmosphere
Source - op.gfz-potsdam.edu

All the water in the atmosphere is concentrated in the atmosphere near to and touching the ground.
It is from this atmosphere that water precipitates in its many forms - rain, snow, hail etc - down to the ground, with assistance from a combination of forces that include gravity, temperature variations, variations in the content of particles and bacteria in the atmosphere, etc.
Without the atmosphere, water would not move around as smoothly as it does today. And, maybe, it's renewable ability would be at risk if the atmosphere disappears or reduces in volume.
How much atmosphere is there?

Total volume of atmosphere
and all Water (safe and unsafe)
Source - Science Photo Library

Actually, not that much more than water!
If we represent the total volumes of water (1.4 billion cubic kilometers) and air as spheres:
- The water sphere would be 1,390 kilometers in diameter. Of course the safe water part of this sphere is miniscule.
- The air sphere would be 1,999 kilometers across.
Half of the air lies in the first 5 kilometers above ground level which contains 90% of the miniscule safe water in the atmosphere.
Running out of safe water
The key question that arises on running out of safe water is: What is the probability that we might run out of air?

Heracles' Way to Slay the Hydra of Freshwater!

Thinking of the Problem of Freshwater (i.e. the problem ranging from too little to overwhelming amounts of water safe for drinking and irrigation) as "a Hydra to be slain" - see blog post titled: The Problem of Safe Water - The Lernaean Hydra - can point us in the direction of a solution.
Heracles' Slaying of the Lernaean Hydra

Heracles' Slaying the Hydra
Source - wikipedia.org

After attempting to kill the Hydra with arrows and clubs, Heracles is said to have begun to chop off its heads.
Each chopping off, of course, produced two replacement heads to Heracles' dismay.
Upon reflection, Heracles is reputed to have focused on the single vulnerability of the Hydra: It was vulnerable only if it had one single remaining head. Removal of the last head would definitely kill it.
So how to stop heads from multiplying? Heracles did what we are so familiar with: He sought out individuals (Greek gods, of course, as this is a story from Greek mythology) who might have the knowledge to stop heads from growing back.

Heracles and Lolaus Slay the Hydra
Source - wikipedia.org

Seeking One with Special Knowledge
As the story goes, Heracles' sought out Lolaus, his nephew, who delivered the idea to cauterize each neck stump right after Heracles' chopped off each head.
Obviously, Lolaus had enough knowledge himself about using a firebrand to scorch each remaining neck stump or knew where to get it.

Constellation Hydra
Source - urnich.edu

Eventually, with Heracles cutting off each head and Lolaus cauterizing the stump, the Hydra was soon down in heads to its last head. This too got cut off by a golden sword in Heracles' hands.
For those of us that miss the Lernaean Hydra, the serpent can be found in the night sky as the Constellation Hydra where Hera, placed the biologically dead Hydra.
The moral from Heracles' and the Lernaean Hydra
Seek out someone with the special or specific knowledge that can help get the task done. Even when the task involves renewable heads?
This is the lesson that humanity could stand behind for over 200 years and one that  H.G.Wells so famously enumerated in his book titled "Outline of History"  and a lesson that helped humanity overcome the problem of freshwater time and time again through the ages.

The Problem of Safe Water - The Lernaean Hydra?

Could Greek mythology's water serpent, the Lernaean Hydra, be is an excellent model to define our problem of Safe water aka freshwater?

The Lernaean Hydra

Lernaean Hydra
Source - eaudrey.com

The Hydra was the guardian of the Underworld and lived beneath the waters of a lake, the Lake of Lerna. It was shaped like a serpent with its heads its unique feature: It had multiple heads and would grow two heads for every one head that was cut off. One of the Hydra's heads was called the Immortal Head because it could not be cut off.

Heraces
(silver sculpture from the 1530s)
Source - wikipedia.org

Heracles (Hercules, to us) was charged with the task to kill the Hydra. He initially tried cutting off individual heads but saw two new heads replace those he chopped off.

Eventually he did figure out a way to kill the Hydra. Maybe, Heracles' solution shows us the way to solve the problem of safe water - more on this in the next blog post.

Constant Amount of Freshwater Precipitation 

Precipitation in rain, snow and other forms is the only act of nature that makes safe drinking water (aka freshwater) a renewable resource.

Annual Precipitation
Source - http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2008/VernonWu.shtml

The aggregate global annual freshwater precipitation has stayed more-or-less constant over time - it has never changed in an amount that might give us reason to classify freshwater as a nonrenewable resource! 

Variability in annual amount is not significant by any measure.

Whatever action humanity may take, this cycle of aggregate precipitation continues unabated. So there would conceivably not be a water problem at all unless we are missing something

India precipitation change
Source - delayedoccilater.wordpress.com

Changing precipitation patterns

Change in US precipitation
Source - meted.ucar.edu

Change in Africa precipitation
Source - scrippsblogs.ucsd.edu

This missing something is variability in local rainfall, snowfall and other deposits of freshwater i.e. the variability in aggregate precipitation at any single location. 

The problem of safe water is, thus, characterized in the changes that surface when we examine local changes in precipitation patterns.

How is the Problem of Freshwater a Hydra?
Our global precipitation amount is the body of the Hydra that doesn't change while the heads are the local problems that are as many as places where people live and work - a new factory needs additional safe water but may end up polluting a local stream from where we used to get freshwater; a city grows in population that requires the city fathers to build a new aqueduct to transport safe water from hundreds of miles away; simply look at any local community for its future vulnerabilities to its existing safe water supplies!
Like the Hydra of Heracles, our Hydra of freshwater supply grows a new head - usually too many multiple new heads - whenever local precipitation levels change beyond humanity's ability to counter that change with a compensating change in demand.

The Challenge of Safe Water

Humanity's ability to cope at the local level with the variability of nature's continuously renewed safe water supply is our primary challenge that can rip apart the foundations of our societies everywhere in the world, once again, in the 21st century.

The Darker a Cloud the Stronger the Rain!

We all know from experience that the darker a cloud the stronger the rainstorm it will produce. 
Cloud Color and Rain Amount

Dark Clouds
Source - wallpapersget.com

From experience we know that there is a very strong correlation between the color of a cloud and the amount of rain it produces:
- the darker a cloud, the more rain we expect to get
or,
- the lighter (with the lightest being the whitest) a cloud the less rain likely.
Particulate Density
All clouds contain particles.

Light Scattered by Particles
Source - http://www.cas.manchester.ac.uk

When sunlight passes through a cloud it gets scattered by these particles.
The more light scattered the less light emerges from the bottom of the cloud - the bottom is what we see and use to describe the cloud as a dark one or a light one.

Light scattered by a cloud
Source - tutorvista.com

Water Droplets and/or Ice Crystals
In addition to particles, clouds contain water droplets and/or ice crystals. These droplets and crystals also disperse the sunlight that falls on the cloud from above. As the density of these droplets and crystals increases, less and less sunlight is able to penetrate the cloud. This lack of penetrations darkens the color of the cloud.
So what we know from experience is true: The darker a cloud, the stronger the rain falling from it because it contains more water droplets and ice crystals

Rain and Snow from Cloud Seeding

Cloud seeding is done to increase precipitation in areas where extreme drought or long-term scarcity conditions exist.
Typical inorganic seeding nuclei

Cloud Seeding
Source - en.wikipedia.org

Most seeding procedures use inorganic particles or artificially produced organic particles.

AgI Molecule
Source- axcessbio.com 

Silver Iodide (AgI) is a commonly used inorganic condensation nuclei.
Dry Ice (solid Carbon dioxide) is another inorganic nuclei commonly used.
Artificial Precipitation Process

Precipitation Process
Source - en.wikipedia.org

For rain to fall upon demand i.e. for artificial cloud seeding to work, the air needs to contain super-cooled water. Super-cooled water is liquid water colder than zero degrees Celsius.
Silver Iodide has a crystalline structure very similar to that of ice and it is assumed that existence of this structure induces freezing temperatures that convert water vapor into super-cooled liquid water.
Dry ice achieves the super-cooling effect by its expansion that in turn super-cools water vapor.
Rainmaking using silver iodide or solid carbon dioxide both require existence of liquid droplets in super-cooled air.
These initially miniscule liquid droplets serve as the base for liquid and ice droplets to grow to a size large enough that they end up falling to the ground.
Cloud Seeding Goal
Lots and lots of rain is the goal of cloud seeding. Humanity cannot, however, capture much, if any, of this rain and, typically must wait for hydrological processes that add this artificially produced rainwater to existing reservoirs of liquid water that are water is being drawn water from.
Obviously, cloud seeding is an option for supplying multiple acre-feet of water rather than the few liters each individual requires.  

Cotton Fabric That Absorbs Water From Air?

We know that moisture in the air is 2% in liquid form and 98% in vapor form. This ratio improves a bit - by another 1% or so - in favor of liquid water when a mist or fog rolls around.
For some reason, humanity has continued to focus on capturing the liquid water in air while there is no research on capturing the water that exists as vapor.

Now word comes of a new polymer that does just that.

What's a polymer?

A Polymer (multiple copies of the same unit
Source - ec.europa.eu

Covalent Bond
Source - en.wikipedia.org

A polymer is a compound whose structure is characterized by copies of the same units connected by covalent chemical bonds. A polymer, thus, is a collection of a number of copies of the same unit. 
The covalent bond is the sharing of two electrons between a carbon and a hydrogen atom that each contribute one electron to the coupling.
The New Polymer PNIPAAm

PNIAAm cotton fabric
Left (closed structure at high temperatures)
Right (open structure at low temperatures)
Source - Endoven University

Researchers at Netherland's Endoven University of Technology and at Hong Kong Polytechnic University have together created a new polymer they call PNIPAAm.
When this polymer is applied to cotton fabric, like a cotton shirt, the resulting combination is much more absorbent of liquid water from the air, than is the cotton alone.
The combination can absorb as much as 340% of the cotton weight of water. Cotton alone absorbs about 18% of its weight of water.
Key area of continuing research is the temperature at which the combination starts absorbing and releasing water and building actual clothing to check how the results from the test-beds pan out.

Water - A Flavor Enhancement Tool!

Whisky gets consumed most often after water has been added in either liquid or solid (i.e. ice) form. In fact, whiskey drinkers most always have a rigid preference of how water is added to their drink.

Water 'opens up' the Aroma

Source - toonvectors.com

For aroma to be present, particles (containing the aroma) have to dislodge from the whiskey surface and reach our nose.

Some particles are naturally released, but both too much aroma and too little aroma are undesirable. When aroma is naturally intense it can anaesthetise the nose and sear the tongue. This natural intensity grows with increase in alcohol concentration.

When aroma is insignificant, it inhibits our natural curiosity to figure out the aroma generally resulting in an unsatisfactory feeling.

Water inhibits or increases different flavors of aroma. Dilution releases additional aroma

Water promotes a Chemical Reaction

Ice and water added to Whiskey
Source - go-rio.co.uk

Addition of water dilutes the whiskey.

Addition of ice dilutes and cools the whiskey.

Esters and long-chained hydrocarbons exist dissolved in whiskey. When water is added, the solubility of these compounds decreases and increased aroma results.

Ice promotes a different chemical reaction

Ethanol molecules aggregate in large bunches (called micelles) and this bunching traps aroma particles.

As temperature drops, these micelles breakup and with the breakup aroma particles get released.

Thus, cooling enhances flavors that define each whiskey.

2013 - Year of New Sourcing through Imagination, Ingenuity and Invention? Why Not?

Source - un.int

On March 21st the world celebrated World Water Day 2013.
The day's theme reflected the theme already proclaimed at the beginning of 2013: Year of Water Cooperation.
World Water Day - Over the years
World Water Day has been observed since 1993.The themes for World Water Day have been:
2013: Year of Water Cooperation
2012: Water and Food Security: The World is Thirsty Because We are Hungry
2011: Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge
2010: Clean Water for a Healthy World
2009: Trans Waters
2008: Sanitation
2007: Coping With Water Scarcity
2006: Water and Culture
2005: Water for Life 2005–2015
2004: Water and Disasters
2003: Water for Future
2002: Water for Development
2001: Water for Health
2000: Water for the 21st century
1999: Everyone Lives Downstream
1998: Groundwater – The Invisible Resource
1997: The World's Water: Is there enough?
1996: Water for Thirsty Cities
1995: Women and Water
1994: Caring for our Water Resources is Everybody's Business

Source - epa.gov

World Water Day has never emphasized New Water Sources:

- How to find them

- How to tap them

- How to deliver water from them to where it is needed by humanity or by nature

This missing empasis is especially tough to accept when we know that

(a) water exists everywhere

(b) everything contains water

in either solid, liquid or vapor form

What History tells us

Source - blog author

* Over 10,000 years ago, humans dug a well to obtain freshwater from an under-ground aquifer.

* Over 7,000 years ago, humans invented irrigation to deliver freshwater to their crops.

* About 5000 years ago, humans built a 15-foot high barrier to stop a river and create a lake from which they could extract freshwater at will.

* Nearly 2,000 years ago, humans created waterwheels to raise freshwater to elevations higher than that of lakes and flowing rivers.

* Some 150 years ago, humans invented indoor piping which was soon followed by the in-home boiler to supply domestic hot freshwater.

These inventions, of course, comprise only the very top tip of the iceberg of human ingenuity applied to obtain, transport and use freshwater from known bodies of water.

None of the above actions were accidental or done without intention or taken to satisfy intellectual curiosity. All of these actions were taken in the face of adversity. The people, they are always individuals never organizations, who made these inventions had their backs to the wall of water scarcity. They had to eradicate the real possibility of everyone they knew dying from lack of fresh water.

Searching for Water is NOT a new Task

As the dates clearly indicate, our search for freshwater is not a search new for us. Throughout our history, we have repeatedly reached the uppermost limits of the amount of freshwater readily available from water sources we know, either because our numbers grew too large or drought arrived. We have on a regular basis covered the distance, literally speaking, to find new sources of adequate freshwater supplies. There is now a large body of evidence that supports the notion that freshwater scarcity was behind human migration out of Africa 135,000 years ago. Other major human migrations, like the one 9,500 years ago in Chile were also in search of freshwater.

When freshwater supplies diminish and we must find new sources of supply, the promise of human ingenuity is a historic proven success story.

2013 - The Year of Water Exploration?