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INTRODUCTION TO WATER SHORTAGE AND WATER SAVING INSTALLATIONS

Green Flow Company

MAY 30, 2016 PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Rong Qu

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Table of contents

BACKGROUND 3

WATER ON EARTH 3

PEOPLE IN WATER STRESSED AREAS 4

WASTE OF WATER AROUND THE WORLD 5

WASTE OF WATER IN OUR CAMPUS 6

INSTALLATION OF WATER SAVING SYSTEMS 8

RECOMMENDATION 9

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Background

As we all know, water is one of the most valuable resources in the world. Without water, humans could only survive no longer than five days and all species on the earth are in danger of extinction. However, recent studies have shown that water scarcity is becoming one of the biggest challenges in 21st century.

According to Brandt in 2015, there are more than 750 million people that don’t have enough

drinking water in the world. (Brandt, Y, 2015) This is almost 10 percent of the global population! According to United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2014, 200 billion gallons of water are wasted from taking shower in the United States each year. This amount of water can save at least 5 million people in the world. The huge amount of water people wasted on shower drives us to find out how people could save water from taking shower.

Water on Earth Water is a very limited and valuable resource. It seems that there is plenty of water on the earth, however humans can use only 0.007% of it. (Thompson, S. A., 17). Most of water resources are oceans or ice, which are hard to use directly. The sea water is salty and bitter which make it hard to drink and irrigate. Although many scientists are studying the method of using ice, the current technical conditions still cannot satisfy large-scale use. The water resources that people could use are river, freshwater, lake and shallow groundwater. The biggest part of freshwater is underground water, which would require a lot of techniques and money to mine. The amount of water that can be directly used by humans every year is 9,000 cubic kilometers, which is only 29% of standard amount to support the global population.

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Many people in the world are facing the water scarcity issue. (Rijsberman, F. R., 3) The freshwater resources that can feed and sustain all life are quite imbalanced at the regional distribution. America is relatively well off, but China and India, with over a third of the world’s population, have less than 10% of global water. Many countries in the Middle East even don’t have one small river or any drinkable water resource. According to Rijsberman in 2006, the 40% of people from 80 countries in the world do not have enough freshwater and about 300 million people are severely water-stressed. Unlike America, many small countries in Africa or Asia have to share rivers or lakes with each other. If upstream countries increase the water consumption, downstream countries would not have enough water and may suffer from drought. The disagreements on the water distribution are main reason of political disputes or even armed conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. The same study has shown that this water-shortage condition is getting worse year by year. From 1900-1975, the agricultural water consumption increased by seven times and industrial water consumption increased by 20 times. In recent decades, water consumption continues to grow at 4-8% per year. If water consumption continues to increase at this speed, 4 billion people will not have enough water by 2025.

People in water stressed areas Water scarcity will lead to the lack of water resource, which decrease living standards and worsen water-related health problems (Pereira, L. S., Cordery, I., & Iacovides, I., 29). In the areas with water shortage, people are living low-standard lives. Drinking clean water and taking a shower are just wishes to these people. For most of people in water-shortage areas, the only chance to drink fresh and unpolluted water is raining. In some countries in Central Africa, many people even never take a real shower during their whole life.

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Besides, it is hard for a water-shortage country to develop basic industries without water. These people are living totally pre-industrial life because they do not have food, textile or furniture industries to meet people’s basic needs. These low standard industrial countries have been ruled out from the international trade, causing them poorer and more laggard.

Hunger and diseases are most common problems. (Pereira, L. S., Cordery, I., & Iacovides, I., 34) Water plays a dominant role in irrigation and breeding aquatics. Famine always comes after drought. Currently, one billion people are starving and nearly 3 million people starve to death every year. Every six seconds, a child is starved to death because of lack of water resource. Also, if people drink polluted water for a long time, many infectious diseases will emerge and

easily escalate into pandemics, causing people to suffer from illness.

Waste of water around the world

Waste of water and water pollution are extremely severe in countries with an abundance of water. Families, agriculture, and industries all have bad habits of wasting water. (Solomon, S., 2011)

Many people do not have habits of saving water in daily life, making millions of gallons of water used inefficiently while brushing their teeth, washing clothes, and taking a shower.

Improper agricultural irrigation is the largest part of water waste. The current method of agricultural irrigation is very inefficient, making about the half of water leak and evaporate. One cubic meter of irrigation water comes from rivers and lakes, only 0.45 cubic meters of them can stay in the field. From the 20th century to now, the industrial water consumption increased by 20 times, causing the conflict between living and developing to become more serious.

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Water pollution is also a significant reason. It wastes so much clean water which could support millions of people. (Cosgrove, W. J., & Rijsberman, F. R. ,24) According to Cosgrove and Rijsberman in 2014, agricultural pollution has been a leading source of many environmental problems such as water pollution in the world. (P.24) The overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides can pollute many rivers. The low control of livestock waste in grazing areas is also a huge problem.

Along with the development of the economy, industrial pollution becomes more severe in many aspects. (Cosgrove, W. J., & Rijsberman, F. R. ,2014) In some countries with low emission standards, chemical plants discard waste products into rivers for their convenience, leading to severe water contamination. Every year, a large number of industrial countries dump millions of tons of waste into the sea, such as water sludge,

industrial waste, and even radioactive waste. In addition, oil spill is a main cause of marine pollution and the formation of oil slicks can impact marine life to poison humans through the food chain.

Waste of water in our campus Water scarcity and water wasting has become a great challenge in the world. It also causes serious problems in our campus. The amount of water available to a country has a direct correlation to living standards. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2014, a person consumes an average amount of 200 gallons water each day. Most people in the U.S. probably use a large amount of water every day, far more than most of the world has access to. Also, as mentioned before, almost 10 percent people already do not have enough drinking water in the world. In other words, this means one day, all the people in the world may face water shortage problem if we do not think about how to save water.

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We conducted two separate interviews with Lindemood, current manager of Shreve Hall and Yiwen, who is currently living in Shreve Hall. We also sent out a survey around campus and collected more than 70 results. The results show that showering on campus wastes a lot of water, and students agree there needs to be a change.

Our group conducted a survey on college students’ showering habits, collecting a total of 70 results from different residential halls, which included 30 males and 40 females. On average students shower six to seven times each week. In addition to this, the results showed that 70% students have to wait for an available shower at least one time each week. Besides, our survey indicates that students on average spend more than 15 min on shower every time, which is almost 40-gallon water!

Once we learned this, we had a short interview with Yiwen, a resident of Shreve Hall, to discuss his feelings of waiting for an available shower. He complained that some students spend almost 30 minutes in the shower, which not only wastes a lot of water, but is also a huge inconvenience to other students. He also agreed that because of the global water shortage, it is necessary for our university to develop a water saving system that reduces the amount of water wasted.

The large amount of water usage in the dorms is costly. We had an interview with Lindemood, current manager of Shreve Hall in 2016 to discuss the water usage in the dorms here at Purdue. Due to lack of water saving consciousness and products, Shreve Hall consumes total of 840,000 gallons water each month. This amount of water usage leads to a cost of about $4,000 every month. This is just for one residential hall! This large amount of water usage has driven colleges

to install water-saving products around our campus. In the recently opened Study Hall in Shreve Hall, the bathroom contains the latest water saving products to help students already increase their water-saving consciousness in a way and reduce water expenses as well.

At the end of the interview with Lindemood, he mentioned that Purdue will continue working on finding the best way to help our school reduce the amount of wasted water.

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Installation of water saving systems

The water shortage and the waste of water has become a serious problem around the world and our campus. The installation of the Shower Manager System could have positive effects on the conservation of water and energy, as well as on Purdue campus.

The shower timer system will help make students more conscious of how long they’ve been in the shower. Many students in our survey indicated that they waste time in the shower. According to a report on Smith college done in 2011, a shower timer is useful in helping reduce the amount of water used (Mailloux, 23). By installing shower timer in our dorm, students more likely to spend less time on showering, which can help campus to reduce the amount of water used and also decrease water expense. This system could allow for a large amount of water conservation.

According to The Environmental Magazine in 2008, Duke University is one of many schools that have taken necessary steps to reduce consumption and save water. They used the most water in the county and decided to implement 5,000 low flow shower heads across their campus. The university was able to reduce their water consumption by 26% making their university much more environmentally friendly. Our Shower Manager System could produce similar, if not better, results and bring Purdue into the ranks of colleges that are actively conserving water.

An article written by the staff from Best Colleges Online in 2011, a website keeping up with newest trends among colleges across the nation, indicates that similar action was taken by Oberlin College, a school located in Ohio. They used 30 efficient shower heads replaced older, inefficient ones in one of their dorms. The college spent about $900 on the project, but saved $866 within the first year. Currently, large amount of expenses within the dorms at Purdue are water expenses. That amount is spent on almost 800,000 gallons of water currently being used. With the Shower Manager Systems reducing the gallons used per month to nearly 280,000 gallons, the costs

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will also reduce immensely. Costs could reduce by nearly 2,666 dollars. With the saved water and energy, more can go into the school as well. According to an undated article published by Home Water Works, the average water flow on showering is about 2.1 gallons per minute, using an average of 17.2 gallons of water every 8.2 minutes. The Shower Manager website indicates that after a certain

amount of selected time, the Shower Manager will cut the water flow by ⅔, ultimately saving an average of 11.5 gallons of water every 8.2 minutes. With the number of showers and shower times found by our survey, we can expect large savings for Purdue. Purdue would save an immense amount of water by using this system. As previously stated, Shreve Hall alone consumes almost 800,000 gallons of water per month. If the Shower Manager is implemented, Shreve hall could save up to half amount of water per month.

Decreasing the water flow would cause a reduction in costs across campus as well. The same article written by The Environmental Magazine in 2008 indicates that another university was able to better their environment with the energy they saved. The University of California in Santa Barbara installed shower heads that had reduced water flow across campus. With their reclaimed water, 94% their campus grounds are greener. According to an undated site published by the Purdue’s Office of University Sustainability, the school already implements a similar energy saving program. Food waste from dining courts generate 795,937 kilowatts of energy for electricity, saving the university $20,475 in a year. The water that is saved by using the Shower Manager System could be reused in whatever way the University sees fit, whether it be through fountains, sprinklers, etc.

Recommendation There is a global shortage of water that impacts the global standard of living and the prosperity of humanity that you can contribute to combatting by using the shower manager system. Water is a vital resource for the survival and prosperity of humans, and now you can help to save water at a relatively low cost. The system is easy to use and will help students to realize how much time they might waste in the shower. Many people around the world struggle to find clean water because of the global water shortage. This impacts their well-being and their quality of life. Meanwhile, in the U.S.

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we waste a lot of water. The Shower Sanager System helps to conserve water, and would also serve to save money and create awareness of water shortage here. We recommend that the Shower Manager System could then be implemented in all of the dorm showers across campus. According to an undated website published by Purdue University Residences, there are 7 dorms and 2 additional villages available for students who need campus housing. By putting these in all of the dorms, expenses across campus due to water will decrease massively. Our product is economically feasible, environmentally friendly, and relatively easy to implement. It has great potential to help lower the water usage at Purdue. It is easy to implement across the campus. In the future, this system will be useful in more than just the dorms, as it can help in saving water in the showers at the Corec as well as in campus apartments. With savings of more than 50% this change is as economically attractive as it is environmentally friendly. The University has an opportunity to make itself an example to other schools and to help make a difference in the world.

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Reference

Brandt, Y. (2015). Water is right, water is life. Unicef Org. Retrieved from:

http://blogs.unicef.org/2015/03/23/water-is-a-right-water-is-life/

Going with the flow. (2008, February 29). The Environment Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.emagazine.com/archive/4105

Housing choices. (n.d,). Retrieved from http://www.housing.purdue.edu/Housing/Residences/

Mailloux, E. (2011, May 1). Improving water conservation in smith college housing through environmental education. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.smith.edu/env/documents/Mailloux_Water_11.pdf

Pereira, L. S., Cordery, I., & Iacovides, I. (2009). Coping with water scarcity: addressing the challenges. Springer Science & Business Media.

Mooney, C. (2015). Your shower is devouring energy, water. The Durango Herald. Retrieved from:

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20150325/NEWS06/150329723/-1/News06/Your- shower-is-devouring-energy-water-

Shower timer brings a new kind of relief. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.showermanager.com/conservation-store/shower-timer-home.shtml

Sustainable dining at Purdue. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/initiatives/food/dining.html

The Shower Manager (n.d.). Retrieved from:

http://www.showermanager.com/conservation-store/shower-timer-home.shtml

Thompson, S. A. (1998). Water use, management, and planning in the United States. Academic Press.

Rijsberman, F. R. (2006). Water scarcity: Fact or fiction? Agricultural water management, 80(1), 5-22. Retrieved from:

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377405002854

Solomon, S. (2011). Water: The epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization. Harper Perennial.

Cosgrove, W. J., & Rijsberman, F. R. (2014). World water vision: making water everybody's business. Routledge.

20 innovative ways colleges are saving money. (2011, August 9). Retrieved from: http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/08/09/20-innovative-ways-colleges-are-saving-money

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2014). How much water does the average person use? Retrieved from: http://publicaccess.supportportal.com/link/portal/23002/23012/Article/17722/How-much-water-does-the-average-person-use.

Two interview with Yiwen Bao and Lindemood; and one survey conduct from 70 students.