Monthly Archives: January 2014

January 4, 2014 · 1:27 pm

And the International Desalination Association Award Goes to …

Image: IDA

Image: IDA

OK, it may not be as glamorous or as self-important as the Academy Awards, aka The Oscars, but the International Desalination Association (IDA) exists and it gives out awards. That’s two new things I learned today.

IDA is a non-profit international NGO* that strives to educate people about desalination and water reuse. Its 2013 Channabasappa Memorial Scholarship has been awarded to Leila Karimi, a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Energy and the Environment, Chemical Engineering Department, New Mexico State University. Her focus, according to the award announcement, is on “the selective removal of ions in an electrodialysis reversal process as one of the inland desalination technologies that is appropriate for brackish groundwater.” Good for her, especially because Australian researchers recently concluded  that there’s a whole lot more brackish, or somewhat salty, groundwater in the world than previously thought.

*(NGO, or non-governmental organization; the abbreviation is used more commonly than the spelled-out version in the development world, e.g., the world of the United Nations and various other regional and international aid organizations.)

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Filed under Awards and Honors, Desalination, Groundwater, NGOs, Oceans, Technology, Water Resources

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January 3, 2014 · 11:26 am

New and Improved Blog: Easier to ‘Follow’ by Email, Crisper Design, Other Updates

Having only worked in Web publishing since the mid 1990s, it took me a minute to figure out some of the finer points of WordPress blogging and make some improvements to this still-new blog (established December 2013). OK, when I say “a minute,” I mean a few weeks. It’s possible that holiday festivities — shopping, eating, loafing — intervened. Also, for years I used Typepad to blog at various jobs, so WordPress is still new to me. And, though I like the platform, I’d rather not pay for some of its finest “finer points,” so I’m making do with the free stuff for now.

In the Improvements for January 2014 Department, I selected a preferable design (theme). And, thanks to a question from a family member, I realized I hadn’t even added a widget allowing readers to type in their email addresses and receive posts by email. It’s there now, a ways down the right-hand column on each page, just above “about me.” Previously, only those signed up with WordPress could “follow” the blog. I added a number of my water-themed photographs from trips to Indonesia, China, Thailand, and Switzerland so that each page viewed will load a new image. And I built upon my Water Facts and Water Resources lists, with plans to try to make them more visual in the future. Finally, I added a link to my Twitter feed, @atthewaterline, to the About the Blog page, so that people can follow developments that way.

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Filed under Blog Changes and Updates

January 3, 2014 · 10:30 am

Chile May Make Miners Use Desalinated Water

Chuquicamata_copper_mine_chile (1)

Chuquicamata copper mine, by Owen Cliffe

With communities in Chile’s Atacama Desert — one of the world’s driest — competing with copper mines for dwindling water supplies, some of the country’s lawmakers have submitted a bill that would force mining companies to use desalinated Pacific Ocean water, according to reports in Bloomberg and Mining.com.

A statement from Chile’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the National Congress, calls for mining companies that use 150 liters (40 gallons) of water per second to begin using desalinated water in order to preserve freshwater for other uses.  Some mining companies already use desalinated water, others don’t. There is no word yet on when the upper house, the Senate, will address the legislation.

One third of the world’s copper supplies comes from Chile, and one third of the Chilean government’s revenue comes from copper exports — making mining one of the country’s most important industries as well as one of its biggest users of water. According to a report in BNamericas, the industry’s need for water is expected to increase by 38 % by 2021.

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Filed under Desalination, Industry, Law, Oceans, South America, Water Shortage

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