A salty story

There was an item on the radio last night looking at the desalination plants that China is building on its east coast. Its fast-growing cities are hungry for water, springs are drying up - so what to do? The answer, for China, is to throw technology at the problem.
There was an interview with the manager of a desalination plant, still only one-fifth built. As such plants go it is, apparently, fairly green. It uses the waste heat from electricity production (mark however that it is electricity from coal, the most polluting and greenhouse-intensive fuel source) in the desalination process. And rather than throwing away intensely salty water as a byproduct, it dries it out and sells the salt for industrial use.
So at least good points there. But they also interviewed an environmentalist. (I suspect that criticising such a policy is a brave thing to do in China). He talked about the energy consumption of such plants, which is likely to be an issue - I cannot imagine that with huge expansion it can all  come from CHP), and the cost of pumping the water. That, I suppose, depends how far it has to go, since all water has to be pumped unless you live on top of a spring.
And he said the answer is to learn to use water more wisely. Wise nods. But I am sure that our per capita consumption is way higher than China's. Of course installing massive desalination plants is a bad idea. But if we want to condemn it, we need to think more seriously about how we are dealing with water in this country. It's time to get a water butt.

Water water everywhere

Here's an idea that is worth promoting. Landscape architect AREA has come up with a proposal called London Tap, a network of freely available drinking water around the capital. The idea is that it would remove the need for carrying/ buying all those expensive and non eco-friendly plastic bottles of water.
Free drinking water is not of course a new idea. Parks traditionally have drinking fountains, and there were free supplies of water within the Olympic Park as visitors had to pass through airport-type security and ditch their own supplies. Similarly airports are increasingly supplying water stations on the airside of security although some of them are laughably difficult to use - which probably delights the retailers.
AREA has come up with an idea that looks elegant although a little short on detail, and suggests an appropriate first location would be in the new Meridian Square outside Stratford station.
It is hoping that Boris will take up the idea - and it is certainly appealing. Maybe a water fountain by every Boris bike stand?

Water out of thin air

I love this project devised by the ever-resourceful Architecture + Vision. The practice, which specialises in interesting looking forms that do amazing things in hostile environments, has come up with 'WarkaWater' which it will exhibit at the Venice Biennale.

Looking like a giant bottle shaped basket, a couple of storeys high, and made from bamboo or reeds, it is intended to harvest water from the air, and specifically from fog. The architects designed it for northern Ethiopia, where fetching water is a huge and onerous part of daily life for women and children. Instead the WarkaWater (named after a local sheltering tree) can be built on the edge of a village, using local skills, and can gather and store water. A prototype has already been built in Ethiopia, and another in Venice. The one for the Biennale will be the third.