Greywater system update

The greywater system is up and running. The water goes to the first tank and once the water crosses a point , the pump kicks in and pumps up the water to the filter cum tank . We had a very water intensive day today with a few loads of washing and kids in the bath but from what it appears we might have more water than what we need !! Next stage is to connect the water to the drip system .
Visually the water seems ok , no turbidity , a bit of soap coming through , a few days more till the biological filter or schmutzdecke kicks in.

The removal of contaminants in slow sand filters occurs mainly in the colmation layer or schmutzdecke - a biologically active layer consisting of algae, bacteria, diatoms and zooplankton. A ripening period of 6 - 8 weeks is required for this layer to form, during which time filter performance is sub-optimal.

From here
The amount of water makes me think that maybe we are underutilising the greywater system and should have integrated it with the flush water . But maybe I will just earn some 'brownie points' by offering to water my neighbours patch .

Would you give up on meat ?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Shun meat, says UN climate chief

It's very rare when the UN tries to influence what we eat but it seems we hav come to a juncture where even the UN which has takes a back seat on the worst possible tragedies also wakes up and feels it is important to make a statement .
A kilogram of meat ,from a cow or similar animal, requires approximately 8 kgs of feed , a kg of chicken requires about 3 kgs . Quite naturally this vegetable fees has to grow somewhere , so it either is grown in arable land or forest land that is cleared to make room for growing it . Every acre of forestland cleared amounts to a significant amount of carbon that was sequestered being released into the atmosphere . Also the gut of the livestock produces a high volume of methane , a greenhouse gas worse than carbon dioxide , so when they said that sheep farting in Australia caused the ozone hole , there was a lot of truth in it .
Besides there is a significant amount of hormones and other chemicals being pumped into the animals to produce more and produce fast and to remain disease free in cramped conditions that are conducive to disease .
And if anyone had any misconceptions that animals reared for slaughter have a great life , check up a local abattoir to see for yourself .

I eat meat and I would not tell anyone not to eat meat but for one's health , for the health of the planet and for the sake of the poor animals , it is best to consume lesser meat .

Soap nut

My plans to reuse as much water as possible for secondary uses has always had an achilles heel when it came for water from the laundry and from the dishes . We have been using "Ecover" products for cleaning but somehow I never felt safe enough till yesterday . We did our first batch of laundry with the Soapnut or Reetha as it is known back home in India. The shell nut of the Sapindus Mukorossi has a natural surfactant which like in synthetic soap breaks down the grease that hold the dirt and cleans the laundry . My mother used Reetha as a natural shampoo . Now I learnt that it is an effective natural substitute for detergent leaving no harmful residue , just pop in a couple in a cloth bag with the laundry . I am told a kilogram of the stuff gives upto 400 washes and locally it costs about 120-140 shekels a kg . That is not too bad even economically , much cheaper than the Ecover detergent that costs nearly a shekel and half per wash . The laundry came out the way it should ; clean , soft with a very gentle clean smell , nothing like the olfactory attack that comes from a normal detergent . Friends of ours have been using it for cloth diapers for their kids and are happy with the results . Apparently one can brew soap out of it that can be used for all cleaning purposes .
Here are other things you can do with it .

Sewage - an exercise in futility

Every time you use the toilet you flush down from 10-15 liters of clean potable water which probably traveled many miles through a myriad network of holding tanks , pipes and what-not . And the act of flushing gets rid of the waste and all is forgotten to most of us . We all know that it goes down the sewage system but beyond that we don't care. I say we must because every pipe has two ends , flushing away your refuse just transfers it to the other end . So at the other end we create another system of settling tanks , aeration systems where this refuse is brought to a state where it is deemed harmless to be released into the waterways . The price is that the whole process is very energy and resource intensive . And it doesn't always work . Over time as the amount of sewage increases there is a need for more and more facilities or else as it happens all over the world , raw sewage is dumped into the waterways creating a serious health hazard . To illustrate

Take Delhi, as a typical instance. Yamuna is Delhi's main sewage drain. Yamuna enters Delhi at
Wazirabad - where the city draws its water supply - and after this an estimated 1,800 million
litres per day (mld) of untreated sewage flows through 18 drains into the river. In the last four
decades, the total sewage output has increased rapidly. Untreated sewage has grown even
faster. In 1999, the Central Pollution Control Board estimated that Delhi produces over 2,547
mld of sewage of which only 885 mld is collected through the sewage network for treatment
and the bulk - over 75 per cent flows into stormwater drains and then into the river. By late
2000, treated sewage had increased to 1,333 mld as had the quantity of sewage - still over 50
per cent of the city sewage was dumped into the river. By 2005, Delhi plans to triple its present
sewage treatment capacity at a cost of Rs 750 crore. But this will still be less than what is
needed. Paradoxical chase It is an ironic situation. Even if Delhi builds all the sewage treatment
plants, it will still not have the sewage to treat. Why? The city's sewage drains are choked and
silted. The government admits that the present capacity of the sewage treatment plants is not
being utilised and when it builds new treatment facilities, sewage never reaches these plants.
From Down to Earth

So we create a gargantuan system to get clean water , shit in it and then make an even larger system so that we get the shit out of it so that we can get clean water again . Sounds a bit crazy to me .

"Anyone starting out from scratch to plan a civilization would hardly have designed such a monster as our collective sewage system. Its existence gives additional point to the sometimes asked question, Is there any evidence of intelligent life on the planet Earth?"
G. R. Stewart

Wouldn't it be better to create a system where human refuse is handled at the source with minimal use of water , especially potable water when a really small fraction of the developing world has access to clean , potable water ? Wouldn't it be better to reuse the nutrients , give back the soil the nutrients that would otherwise be chemically synthesized ? I am talking Humanure but that is another story .

Water saving

Watering with a sprinkler, drip etc has a serious disadvantage , a lot of water gets lost by evaporation . So I always thought of using Olla for irrigation . The idea is that the earthen pot is dug into the earth next to the roots of the plant and water seeps out slowly right next to the roots . And then I had this inspiration what if I replace it with a plastic bottle with tiny little holes . Sadly even the tiniest holes makes the water gush out and in less than 10 minutes all the water is gone . Then it was suggested by the good people at Gardenstew that I should put some cotton yarn in these holes that will act as a wick and regulate the water . So I did exactly that and the system seems to work .Here is a little graphic to explain the idea . Needless to say I used Inkscape for the graphic.



Apparently this idea always existed and wasn't as original as I thought .
Silicon can also be used in conjunction with the cotton yarn to reduce the water oozing out of the holes .

To shower or have a bath

Today I figured that my two sons having a bath together used about 90 litres of water . A quick search on the internet put the average shower consumption for a gravity shower at 35 litres . It of course assumes an efficient shower head with water discharge of about 7l/min for a five minute shower. I was under the impression that baths take a lot more water but if two people take a bath together it is almost equal to a shower . The best part is that if you are using organic soaps you can even reuse the water . For collecting shower water you either need to have a separate system for your waste water or you have to stand in a bucket to have a shower . Now if all of us were to use the same water ..........

Waste 2

Composting organic waste has a number of advantages

• The amount of garbage is thrown out reduces considerably . On an average my garbage sack is half to one-thirds of wht it used to be .
• Lesser garbage means that the garbage trucks carry lesser garbage halfway across the country to a garbage dump . It could eventually reduce the number of pickups which can be a considerable saving in energy transporting and managing .
• Most organic garbage does not fully decompose in a garbage dump as there is too much of it competing for too little fresh air . Garbage in plastic bags is known to remain in its original state packed in nylon bags in a high methane surrounding for years on end. Even after the organic stuff breaks down there is no way of putting it to useful use as it is full of inorganic stuff of unknown antecedants . So organic matter in the garbage is effectively lost .
• Even if garbage is separated and taken to a composting facility it involves a lot of energy expended in separating and moving it .
• Organic matter goes back to where it belongs , into the soil to rise again like a phoenix as organic matter again .

Waste 1

Many years ago in my Urban Design days in SPA Delhi , I heard one of the most fascinating lectures on waste management . I don't remember the name of the person but he sure did kindle something deep down about urban waste . It has been on a low backburner all of this time till some time back , nothing drastic bjt a more concerted effort to deal with the waste we create .
The easiest part of it all is the organic waste from the kitchen and garden . All little scraps and pieces and waste go to my compost pile in the no man's land between the houses . Initially I was worried about the neighbors getting worried but one year down the line it doesn't seem to bother anyone and I have a constant supply of organic compost . Even gave some to our neighbor who showed some interest but then it was too much of a bother for him to separate the organic waste and walk 10 m up to the pile. So I continue with my solo crusade . To dispel some misconceptions

1. Compost does not smell if you take proper care to turn it once in a while and strike a good balance between greens and browns.
2. It does not attract rodents and the likes if one takes care to separate non-veg and dairy waste.

Besides

1. we have cut down our waste to a third .
2. we get nice black compost to grow our vegetables in .
3. the garbage collectors say a silent thank you every time they cross our house ( they should if they don't )

Mexico rebuffs Monsanto

From a recent article here

MEXICO CITY - Mexico this week barred Monsanto Co. and other biotechnology companies from planting genetically engineered corn, rekindling fierce debate in that country over the technology.
Environmentalists said the government's decision will help prevent biotech corn from contaminating native varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn and still a storehouse of genetically valuable native species.

But as expected

This is temporary, because there is so much pressure from the multinationals," said Gustavo Ampugnani of Greenpeace Mexico

We were surprised by this decision," said Eduardo Perez Pico, director of technological development at Monsanto's Mexico subsidiary, which had applied to start experimental fields in the northern states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Tamaulipas.

"These are not centers of origin or biodiversity of corn," Perez Pico said, referring to the areas where corn ancestor plants or primitive varieties grow naturally.

Under current law, such areas are off-limits to biotech planting, in part to protect the genetic traits of those ancestor varieties in case their traits are needed for hybridization efforts in the future.

To put things in perspective

Farmers in Mexico first bred corn some 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. The country is home to at least 59 species of maize, from the protein-rich variety used to make tortilla chips to a softer grain mashed for use in tamales.

Introduction of genetically modified (GM ) corn can wipe off this biodiversity and make the farmers dependant on GM seeds and pesticide like Roundup . From the article , the debate is far from over , this ruling just points out to a bigger fight . Multinationals in the business of GM food are in for a long haul with opinions being changed and data being conditioned

A study in the Sierra de Juarez region in the southern state of Oaxaca found evidence of transgenic corn contamination in 2000 from corn that was apparently imported for food use. The study was published and then retracted by the science journal Nature.

Another study by Mexican and U.S. researchers in 2004 found no trace of genetically altered corn in crops in the same area four years later.

Read about Monsanto in a previous post here .