The question that inspired this blog was simple enough."What is desalination?"
"Well, it is the process of removing salt from water."
"How?"
"I'm not completely sure. Let's look it up, because we know it's really important, especially here on an island where people sometimes run out of freshwater . . ."
I remember one summer when my brothers decided to "dig to China." At about eight feet or, maybe even six feet, they hit water. I remember watching as my Dad and other men from my community dug wells. I took the Ogallala Aquifer for granted. We always had really lovely drinking water, fresh from the tap when I was growing up. ( For more on that, check out this cool article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer ).
And then I moved to an island. Our first landlord told us, gently, that people from the States often need to change their water usage habits when they move to the islands. I was not sure what that meant. After talking to a few people, I had a better idea. They offered suggestions such as "Don't flush unless it is really necessary. If you decide to garden, water with your dishwater. Shower with one foot in a bucket. Flush with the water from the bucket. Hook up your washing machine in such a way that you can save the rinse water and wash the next load in THAT water."
Occasionally I'd see signs like this in bathrooms: "If it's yellow, let it mellow" or "In this land of fun and sun,we don't flush for number one."
A couple of weeks ago I saw a less catchy sign. It read something like this: "To anyone who uses this bathroom: please be sure that the toilet is not running when you leave. Recently someone left the toilet running. It ran all night and emptied the small cistern connected to this building. Then it burned up the pump." Hmmm.
I know what a cistern is. :) I learned about cisterns REALLY fast. All island homes are built to collect rainwater. It is filtered and stored in a cistern for the people of the house to use for bathing, flushing and, if you are lucky enough to have a washer, laundry.
Unfortunately, I have experienced the sad, sad sound of a cistern running low on water. I was just innocently turning on the tap to wash my hands and the sink SPUTTERED at me. Yes, it sputtered. I thought "That's weird." Now I know that when that happens, it means that someone had better call the water truck and get ready to shell out some big bucks. Water is a dear, dear commodity here.
Thank God that somebody somewhere figured out desalination to help those of us who don't have infinite water supplies . . .
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html
One of the ways salt is removed from water is through reverse osmosis. This is a really great site about the subject. My kiddos and I are going to be doing a few of these experiments over the next few days.
http://www.ehow.com/list_6364184_osmosis-science-activities-kids.html
And we're also going to talk about why water is so important to us . . .
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html
And we'll also talk about how to use less water.
http://socyberty.com/activism/use-less-water-in-seven-easy-steps/
Maybe we'll even talk about how to find water if, heaven forbid, we ever find ourselves stranded in the wild.
http://www.survival.org.au/water.php
Water. Such a short, concise word. I had no idea one simple question would lead us so many different directions!
May you have a wonderful day, and always as much clean water to drink as you like.
~ Jenn
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