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Just as
Globalisation will be replaced by Localisation then big will
tend to small. Our information and media services will tend
to the distributed power of a billion nodes on the Internet
that no one body can organise or control. Our Electricity
Power Stations will simply be switched off when nobody uses
them any more, ie, when everybody takes their power from small
local Wind Farms, Combined Heat Power units or
Photovoltaics. Just as this is true it will slowly become so
that the need to pump water to our homes through
high-maintenance legacy distribution hardware will become a
thing of the past.
Water literally
falls from the sky. It rains, it is free but we just let it
wash away down our drains. We waste it like we waste the
thermal energy in the ground and the sunlight that falls
upon our heads. If we can capture the sun energy as warmth
and electricity why can't we capture the rain? And so we can.
The average house is quite able to capture, store and clean
a large proportion of the rain that falls upon it. More than
that - we can easily capture most of our waste water and
recycle it for its heat and its normal water-usage - such as
watering the garden.
Some of the
measures we can take are quite cheap and simple. Practically
any house in the industrialised/developed world with
guttering around the roof can capture water from the
downpipes and divert them into one (or more) water butts
(barrels) for usage later. Rain water is great. If you live
in a hard water area and have despaired of ever getting your
car clean without white streaks and blobs then do not worry.
Sell your car! Well, if you can't do that yet then at least
rinse it down with a couple of buckets of rain water from
the water butts. Heh presto - no streaks!
Of course we
recommend you mainly use it for watering the Garden in
summer. If you live in countries often struck by drought in
summer then you may find yourself forbidden by law from
using a hose-pipe to water you garden. In fact you really
shouldn't use drinking water to pour onto your land at all.
It is a terrible waste in a world where thousands die for
want of a sip of disease-free water. Worse still please
don't water your lawn - better your vegetable patch. If
Climate Change really does happen then our weather could
become very strange. We could yet experience appalling
droughts and sweltering temperatures. The idea of pouring
clean drinking water down the drain will be as bad as using
a tungsten filament light bulb.
So what are the
alternatives? There are a range of technologies now
available under the title of "rain harvesting". They come as
three major types. On capture rain water in large tanks and
cleanses it to make it potable. Others will take just the
rain water and connect it to your mains supply to flush
toilets of be used with washing machines. The third type of
system is a slightly more sophisticated version of our
simple water butt example. This uses very large water tanks
buried in the garden and a water pump to allow you to suck
the water out and spray it over your vegetable patch.
Whatever
technology you choose it will improve your survivability and
independence in an uncertain future. |
