NDC-Blog

Cappelli may get away without paying water bill

2007-08-03T04:55:00.000Z

It's true. The rich are different from you and me. But I do have something in common with Lou Cappelli, a quintessential rich guy. Cappelli is shocked by his $2.47 million water bill from New Rochelle and doesn't want to pay it. And I'm shocked by my $1,600 Yonkers water bill, and I don't want to cough up the dough, either.

My moaning and groaning means nothing. In the end, I'll hold my nose and pay the bill, even though it amounts to a holdup. This is where Lou and I part company. See, he's serious. Lou's really refusing to pay. And from the look of all those sweet deals he's been squeezing out of elected officials to carpet Westchester County with strikingly bland skyscrapers, it's a better than even bet that somehow he'll get his way. That's because he's a rich guy. Rich guys don't get rich by spending their own money. It's other people's money that pays the freight in this world.
Before I get to Lou's situation, let me first explain my water bill because you're probably wondering how it is that I owe so much money. Sixteen hundred bucks - how's that possible?
Write this down: In Yonkers, anything is possible. It's Reisman's Law.

And nothing ever just "happens." To understand why stupid things occur in Yonkers, you have to climb into the Wayback Machine and find the root cause. Flip the dial to 1995. That's when the cash-strapped city fathers had the bright idea of doing away with water meter readers as a budget-cutting measure. They decided to rely instead on estimated water usage, which turned out to be a mistake because it resulted in lost revenue. Duh, no kidding! What to do? Somebody got another bright idea. The city made a deal with Con Edison, the fine people who put the grr in "grid" whenever a mighty wind blows and the lights go out. The deal was this: Con Ed agreed to have its electric-meter readers also read the municipal water meters for a fee of $1 per meter. But for some reason, Con Ed didn't do the job. Duh, no kidding! What to do?

Ding! That's correct, still another bright idea was hatched. The city reverted to the estimated usage plan. At the same time, it relied on water consumers to read their own meters, record the data on blue cards and send them into the Bureau of Water. The bureau would, in turn, analyze the numbers and then mail back accurate bills. This worked, sort of. The problem was that the city failed to send out the blue cards to everybody on a consistent basis. Duh, no kidding! What to do?

Well, around 2003, the city resumed meter reading and that meant a slow, laborious process of catching up to some 35,000 meters citywide, many of which had not been checked in nearly a decade. People who had been paying relatively low water bills semiannually (and were unaware of the botched efforts to collect the proper amounts) found themselves slapped overnight with crushing demands for overdue payments running into the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
They're still catching up. They caught up to me only a month ago. For a long time, I had been paying about $70 a year. Now the real bill is due for all that lost time - $1,600. To make sure it wasn't a mistake, I had the city come to my house yesterday and recheck the meter. It wasn't a mistake.

Here's a side note: Also yesterday, three water department employees were arraigned on charges of bilking the city out of tens of thousands of dollars in an overtime padding scheme. That's Yonkers-style irony for you. (Again, I refer you to Reisman's Law.)

Yonkers Deputy Mayor Bill Regan told me the other day that people getting these mortgage-sized water bills can choose to pay in monthly installments over the course of a year, at no interest. One way or another, the bills will be collected. There's no statute of limitations on municipal incompetence. "It's very aggravating to people. I know it is," Regan said.
He added that the city might install a remote meter-reading system in which meters can be quickly scanned from the street. Requests for proposals have been issued. Now back to Lou Cappelli. His $2.47 million bill from United Water New Rochelle isn't about water usage per se. It's the bill he owes for the cleaning and relining of a 16-inch main and the installation of a new 12-inch main - all for the purpose of helping to pump water into his 450-foot tall condominium tower called Trump Plaza, which was named after his bosom buddy, You-know-who.

Cappelli thinks this is an outrage. His senior vice president, Joe Apicella, told The Journal News last week that there's no way they'll pay that amount. He said $87,000 was enough. According to my calculator, that's about 3.5 percent of the total bill. Putting it another way, if I got off the hook for 3.5 percent in Yonkers, my bill would only be $56. The outcome of this dispute between Cappelli and United Water is yet to be determined. But you have to believe that someone's going to pay for those new pipes in New Rochelle and if it's not Lou, then it'll be everybody else.

Oh, yes. By the way. Cappelli is coming to Yonkers, where he wants to transform the city's downtown into more towers of power. So hold onto your wallets and take a second look at your water meter.

By Phil Reismann, The Journal News

Shutting down part of the Alaskan pipeline is no small matter

2007-07-11T04:47:00.000Z

Talking about oil spills, pipeline problems, gas shortages, and price hikes are great for sensationalism, but what's the real truth behind the stories in the news? The oil companies have made huge profits in the last couple of years, while America has watched a barrel of oil spiral upwards. It soared even higher on the news that part of BP's Prudhoe Bay, Alaska pipeline would be shut down because of corrosion. How much money does BP need to record as profit before they spend some it ensuring the foundation, the pipelines the oil flows through, are safe and sound?

In early August BP announced that it would be shutting down part of its Prudhoe Bay, Alaska pipeline. BP has three crude oil transmission pipelines in that area: the Western Operating Area (WOA), Eastern Operating Area (EOA), and the Lisburn crude oil pipelines. How much trouble is the United States in with this shutdown? Where does most of the gas pumped from the Alaska line go? What states are most affected? What percentage of this production is used in America's motor gasoline consumption? And what does a smart pig have to do with anything?

Why was the pipeline shutdown?

Think of an artery that runs to your heart. If everything is flowing fine, you don't need any help. But what happens when your blood gets a little thicker? The doctor will give you a blood thinner to help your blood thin and move through your artery. The same goes for pipelines, but the blood thinner is known as corrosion inhibitors. Daren Beaudo, spokesperson for BP, speaking from the North Slope of Alaska said, "the GC-2 pipeline in Alaska that was corroded had separation that may have prevented the inhibitors from working." BP injected the inhibitors in the wellhead. The potential barrier was in the gathering center which is a processing center. BP started injecting the inhibitors in the pipeline directly, after the GC-2 spill.

How big of a deal is Alaska oil in our production?

Back in the late '70s and early '80s, the United States was producing between 8.5-9 million barrels per day of crude oil. As of the end of 2005, total crude oil produced in the United States has dropped to just over 5 million barrels per day. The United States is broken down into five different regions, called PADDs: Petroleum Administration for Defense District. PADD III is the largest producer of oil, almost 3 million barrels per day, and you can easily guess that Texas and the Gulf are included in that PADD. The West coast is PADD V which consists of Alaska, California and Federal offshore drilling. PADD V produces about 1.5 million barrels per day with 864 thousand of those barrels per day from Alaska. The total Alaskan crude production of oil represents 16 percent of all the oil produced in the United States, so losing 400,000 barrels per day represents 7.8 (or rounded to 8) percent of the U.S. production of crude oil.

What's a Barrel?

Crude oil needs to be refined to make motor gasoline so that we can drive our gasoline powered vehicles. According to the California Energy Commission, "One barrel contains 42 gallons of crude oil. The total volume of products made from crude oil based origins is 48.43 gallons on average - 6.43 gallons greater than the original 42 gallons of crude oil. This represents a "processing gain" due to the additional other petroleum products such as alkylates are added to the refining process to create the final products." "Additionally, California gasoline contains approximately 5.7 percent by volume of ethanol, a non-petroleum-based additive that brings the total processing gain to 7.59 gallons (or 49.59 total gallons)."

What does this mean for motor gasoline?

It is typically thought that half the barrel of oil, 21 gallons, is motor gasoline, but in California 25 gallons of gasoline is produced out of one barrel of oil. All of Prudhoe Bay's production is 400,000 barrels/per day. As of August 12, 2006, after extensive consultations with state and federal regulators, BP will be allowed to continue drilling for oil and natural gas. The current production is 150,000, therefore, losing 250,000 barrels of crude oil. This amount equals 6,250,000 gallons of gasoline the west coast is losing every day.According to Michael Burdette, Senior Analyst at Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States uses 378 million gallons of gas per day, equaling a loss of 1.6 percent of our motor gasoline consumption per day."

Who are the players -- who is liable?

According to Beaudo, BP owns 26 percent of the Prudhoe Bay, including the oil and natural gas. Conoco-Phillips owns 36 percent, Exxon Mobil owns 36 percent and Chevron Texaco and Forrest Oil own 2 percent. BP is the field operator of the pipelines since 2000 when it was operated by ARCO. BP owns ARCO.According to Burdette, "even though the west coast receives most the gasoline, no one is liable to the state for the extra gasoline. This is a free market and the oil companies deliver at will. Profit dictates that BP et al will find the extra gasoline to sell, because no gasoline means no profit and they can't run their business that way."Burdette says that, "we won't be short that much gas. Already oil companies are scrambling to find tankers to move more gasoline from the Pacific Rim and/or the Middle East.

What is the Federal government doing?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation's (DOT) office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), "We are looking into what happened, why it happened and how it occurred. There is a civil and criminal investigation going on and therefore we cannot make any comments at all." The OPS has already ordered two corrective action orders (CAO) directing the operator to take specific actions.When a DOT employee was poised with the question of safety concerns over the construction of the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) for oil production they said, "I understand your safety concerns and you make a good point. OPS will use this hindsight for safety of pipelines in this region."

What options do we have to cure a shortage besides buying foreign oil?

There is always conservation of gasoline. The last time the price of gasoline went sky-high, 3-4 years ago, Californians decreased their oil consumption by 10 percent.According to Neil Chapman, spokesperson for BP, "we are not looking at taking oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). You are seeing the market adjust to meet demand."

What about Ethanol instead of foreign oil?

The one energy that BP has not purchased is ethanol. Ethanol, a corn derivative, is a domestic energy that can be mixed with gasoline. When poised with the fact that BP was replacing domestic made energy with foreign oil, causing the United States to be more dependent on foreign oil when they could be using ethanol Chapman responded, "it takes longer to arrange and adjust. We are looking at the short-term (2-3 months).

"In response to the question that energy (oil) companies started calling ethanol producers to supplement their gasoline shortage right after Hurricane Katrina, Chapman responded, "That was different. We could see there was a long-term effect."Currently, California uses 10 percent ethanol (approximately 5.7 percent by volume) in their gasoline mix. This allows the energy companies to receive the maximum 51 cent per gallon tax break that they will receive using ethanol. If they use more than 10 percent ethanol the energy companies will not receive more of a tax break.

Who suffers financially?

BP, as of August 11, 2006, has purchased more than 4.5 million barrels of crude on the global market to help cover the shortfall in Prudhoe Bay output. Additional crude oil and refined products will be acquired as necessary. According to John Manly, Alaskan Governor Frank Murkowski's spokesperson, "We are looking at a loss of about $3 million a day. The Governor has put a hiring freeze on some jobs. We have about a 120-day surplus, but we are not sure when Prudhoe Bay will be back up. BP will be replacing the entire pipeline: the Eastside will be replaced first and brought up to production then the Westside will be replaced.

"The Federal government will be losing money as well. 200,000 barrels per day at $70 a barrel is $14 million dollars BP will be spending on the foreign market, mainly Middle East. The federal money the government would have received from extra jobs (taxes), royalties, etc from that money would have gone towards the budget deficit.

What is a smart pig?

Smart pigs are inspection vehicles that have been in use since 1965, according to new-tchnologies.com, that checks for corrosion caused by water and carbon dioxide (CO2). There are a couple of types of pigs: I will call them the scourer and the tester. The scourer pig goes through the pipe with the force of the oil behind it, scouring the walls of the pipeline for little bubbles of water and CO2. The smart pig is the tester, the pig that detects corrosion, cracks, dents and gouges. Some smart pigs use using ultrasonic sensors, such as the ones BP uses on their pipelines in Prudhoe Bay. Some smart pigs have started using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology to exactly pinpoint the problem in the pipeline and some smart pigs can collapse, allowing them into multidiameter pipes.

According to an article by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent for Reuters, BP didn't use the smart pigs in the Prudhoe Bay for 14 years. When BP finally pigged its pipes, under government orders after a massive March oil spill, the results were shocking.In an interview Zabarenko had with Dan Lawn, a retired regulator at Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation, which monitors oil pipelines, Lawn said, "The 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline, which receives oil drilled by BP and other North Slope producers, sends a scraper through its lines every week to 10 days and runs a smart pig every year to 18 months."

According to the California Energy Commission, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Systems (TAPS) connects the North Slope oil fields with the Port of Valdez in southern Alaska. From Valdez, crude oil is primarily shipped to refineries located on the U.S. West Coast.According to BP's Beaudo, "Smart pigging varies from line to line. In our Northstar line we smartpig every two weeks because of paraffin buildup. Our normal cycle for the GC-2 was ultrasounding every 8 years. The lines up here are above ground and we would strip the 3 inch insulation jacket and ultrasound the low areas where there was the greatest possibility that water would settle. We will continue to direct inject inhibitors into the wellhead and also inject into the pipeline itself."

Will anything change?

According to DOT, OPS and Alaska's Manly, yes. Even though there isn't a set time that pipelines have to be scoured and tested by smart pigs, Manly says, "BP was making assumptions about the pipelines they shouldn't have. Going forward they will be under greater scrutiny."

Lou Ann Hammond, CEO of carlist.com, has previously worked for Chevron and brings with her extensive oil industry and automotive experience. She is a guest every Friday night on WABC's John Batchelor show, providing poignant insight on automobiles, energy and the oil business

Source: AOL

Iran Plans To Provide Transrapid Rail Facility For Piligrims

2007-05-31T09:10:00.000Z

Iran Plans To Provide Transrapid Rail Facility For Piligrims

May 29, 2007 10:11 p.m. EST

Susheela Hegde - AHN Staff Writer
Munich, Germany (AHN) - Pilgrims from the Iranian capital Tehran may reach the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad in just two hours instead of two days if a plan to build a magnetic levitation between the two cities is implemented.

Iran wants to provide the Transrapid rail facility to tens of millions of pilgrims who travel the 850-kilometer distance by bus and has asked German company Regierungsbaumeister Schlegel to take up a feasibility study, reports Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily Tuesday.

If built, it would be the longest maglev track in the world, and Iran would be the second country to have the service of Transrapid. So far only China has been running the high-speed rail between Shanghai and Hangzhou international airport.

The Transrapid can run at a speed of 450 kilometers or 270 miles per hour on magnetic cushion powered by frictionless electromagnetic system.

Regierungsbaumeister Schlegel's managing director, Harald Spaeth told the daily that Iran is providing the initial fund of $1.5 billion.

Transrapid is developed by Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.

source: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007487689

Copyright © AHN Media Corp - All rights reserved.
Redistribution, republication. syndication, rewriting or broadcast is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AHN.

Not only birds fall victim to power lines

2007-05-24T10:38:00.001Z

It is not only the poor racing pigeon that is endangered by overhead power lines.
Farmers, construction workers, children flying kites, wild birds such as swans, and many more have fallen victim to these deadly monstrosities. The danger of electrocution is obvious, but there are also obscure dangers associated with overhead power lines.

A recent report drawn up for the Department of Health by 'stakeholders' including scientists and electricity company bosses, urges ministers to consider banning the building of homes and schools close to overhead high voltage power cables to reduce significantly exposure to electromagnetic fields from the electricity grid. Some stakeholders support a California Department of Health paper which suggested electromagnetic fields are 'possibly carcinogenic' in terms of childhood leukaemia. It also cited other health effects - adult leukaemia, brain tumours, miscarriages and motor neurone disease. Gas, water and telephone lines are now installed in all new-build housing developments underground. Technological advances over the last 20 years have seen the introduction of trenchless techniques. This has resulted in mains and services being connected without the cost and inconvenience of open track excavation. I would urge our newly installed Environment Minister to set up a working group to look at the negative impact power lines have on communities.

Pigeon racers and other interested parties should lobby their MLAs and the Environment Minister to ensure that NIE, or whoever runs the electricity network here in the future, does so in a way that does not have a negative impact on our health, safety or even our hobbies.

Source: Belfast Telegraph

Integrated Wind Turbines In Bahrain Skyscraper

2007-05-14T07:49:00.000Z

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The Bahrain World Trade Center (BWTC) - a pair of linked skyscrapers - has been built with three integrated 29-metre diameter wind turbine generators. Each turbine has been installed on its own specially strengthened bridge between the two 50-storey 240 metre tall office towers situated on the Manama Waterfront, Bahrain.
Reduced Carbon EmissionsOnce operational the three turbines will generate well over 1000 MWh of electricity per year - enough to supply 11-15% of the energy requirements of the buildings. The wind turbines will also eliminate 55,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

Aerodynamic Wind Turbine DesignThe towers have been aerodynamically designed and located such that the sea breeze from the Gulf is funneled onto the turbines. Each tower acts as an aerofoil directing and accelerating the winds that hit them. The clever design - inspired by the Arabian wind towers historically used to cool buildings in The Gulf - means that wind hitting the towers at an angle of up to 45 degrees from perpendicular will be redirected straight onto the wind turbines for maximum power generation.
Norwin and RambollThe project developers turned to Danish expertise to implement their wind turbine plans - Norwin and Ramboll. Many risk factors had to be considered such as noise, load, vibrations, construction materials and so on for this ground-breaking project. The EU has previously funded studies on the integration of wind turbines into buildings however the immense technical difficulty of such an endeavour has prevented work starting on any real projects in Europe.As the first installation of its type in the world, designers and architects will be watching closely to check the levels of vibration through the buildings and if the structure can cope with the stresses caused by the fast rotation of the rotors in strong winds.
BWTC LaunchThe official launch of the Bahrain World Trade Center will be during the second quarter of 2007 with project completion due at the end of first quarter 2007. The wind turbines were installed in mid-March 2007.
More InformationTo find out more about the Bahrain World Trade Center please click here.
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source: http://www.reuk.co.uk/Integrated-Wind-Turbines-in-Bahrain-Skyscraper.htm

Physics promises wireless power

2007-04-18T08:02:00.000Z

Physics promises wireless power
By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Plugs and wires could soon become a thing of the pastThe tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today's electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past.
US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires.
The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.
Although the team has not built and tested a system, computer models and mathematics suggest it will work.
"There are so many autonomous devices such as cell phones and laptops that have emerged in the last few years," said Assistant Professor Marin Soljacic from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the researchers behind the work.
"We started thinking, 'it would be really convenient if you didn't have to recharge these things'.
"And because we're physicists we asked, 'what kind of physical phenomenon can we use to do this wireless energy transfer?'."
How wireless energy could work
The answer the team came up with was "resonance", a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied.

This would work in a room let's say but you could adapt it to work in a factory
Marin Soljacic
"When you have two resonant objects of the same frequency they tend to couple very strongly," Professor Soljacic told the BBC News website.
Resonance can be seen in musical instruments for example.
"When you play a tune on one, then another instrument with the same acoustic resonance will pick up that tune, it will visibly vibrate," he said.
Instead of using acoustic vibrations, the team's system exploits the resonance of electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, infrared and X-rays.
Typically, systems that use electromagnetic radiation, such as radio antennas, are not suitable for the efficient transfer of energy because they scatter energy in all directions, wasting large amounts of it into free space.
To overcome this problem, the team investigated a special class of "non-radiative" objects with so-called "long-lived resonances".
When energy is applied to these objects it remains bound to them, rather than escaping to space. "Tails" of energy, which can be many metres long, flicker over the surface.
"If you bring another resonant object with the same frequency close enough to these tails then it turns out that the energy can tunnel from one object to another," said Professor Soljacic.

Wireless energy transfer has been thought about for centuries
Hence, a simple copper antenna designed to have long-lived resonance could transfer energy to a laptop with its own antenna resonating at the same frequency. The computer would be truly wireless.
Any energy not diverted into a gadget or appliance is simply reabsorbed.
The systems that the team have described would be able to transfer energy over three to five metres.
"This would work in a room let's say but you could adapt it to work in a factory," he said.
"You could also scale it down to the microscopic or nanoscopic world."
Old technology
The team from MIT is not the first group to suggest wireless energy transfer.
Nineteenth-century physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla experimented with long-range wireless energy transfer, but his most ambitious attempt - the 29m high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower, in New York - failed when he ran out of money.

Wireless power for gadgets
Others have worked on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer such as lasers.
However, these require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.
A UK company called Splashpower has also designed wireless recharging pads onto which gadget lovers can directly place their phones and MP3 players to recharge them.
The pads use electromagnetic induction to charge devices, the same process used to charge electric toothbrushes.
One of the co-founders of Splashpower, James Hay, said the MIT work was "clearly at an early stage" but "interesting for the future".
"Consumers desire a simple universal solution that frees them from the hassles of plug-in chargers and adaptors," he said.
"Wireless power technology has the potential to deliver on all of these needs."
However, Mr Hay said that transferring the power was only part of the solution.
"There are a number of other aspects that need to be addressed to ensure efficient conversion of power to a form useful to input to devices."
Professor Soljacic will present the work at the American Institute of Physics Industrial Physics Forum in San Francisco on 14 November.
The work was done in collaboration with his colleagues Aristeidis Karalis and John Joannopoulos.

HOW WIRELESS POWER COULD WORK

1) Power from mains to antenna, which is made of copper
2) Antenna resonates at a frequency of 6.4MHz, emitting electromagnetic waves
3) 'Tails' of energy from antenna 'tunnel' up to 5m (16.4ft)
4) Electricity picked up by laptop's antenna, which must also be resonating at 6.4MHz. Energy used to re-charge device
5) Energy not transferred to laptop re-absorbed by source antenna. People/other objects not affected as not resonating at 6.4MHz

Source: www.news.bbc.co.uk

Longest U.S. suspension span in 40 years heads toward completion

2007-03-26T05:30:00.000Z

Construction of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge just south of Seattle, Washington, reached its final major milestone in January 2007, when the last remaining section of deck was hoisted into place.

The bridge, which will cross over the narrows to connect Tacoma and Gig Harbor, is the longest suspension span built in the United States in four decades. Designed and built by a joint venture of Bechtel and Kiewit Pacific, it is scheduled to open later this year.

The new bridge is adjacent to bridge built in the 1950s, which replaced a bridge that was destroyed in a 1940 windstorm. The collapse of the earlier bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie,” was captured on film, and the event changed the way suspension bridges were designed.

The project to build the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge began late in 2002, by which time 90,000 cars a day were crossing the existing bridge, which was designed to handle 60,000.
Major construction work on the new bridge included installing caissons for a pair of 165-meter-tall towers, building the towers, spinning cables, and assembling the deck. During the final phase, 46 deck sections—each weighing some 450 tons—were lifted and attached to suspension cables.

Manuel Rondon, project manager for the joint venture, called the completion of the deck lifts a welcome landmark in what has been a successful project.

Remaining work includes bolting and welding the sections together, preparing and paving the deck surface, and installing pedestrian railings. When complete, the deck will stretch 1,646 meters from end to end, and the main span will be 854 meters from tower to tower.
The new Tacoma Narrows Bridge will carry eastbound traffic, while the existing parallel bridge goes westbound.

Source: Bechtel.com

Transatlatlantic Tunnel

2007-02-05T10:32:00.000Z

Transatlantic tunnel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected future tunnel.It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the tunnel approaches, and more information becomes available.

The Transatlantic Tunnel is a structure proposed by one of the engineers involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel beneath the English Channel. It would be a tunnel that spans the Atlantic Ocean between New York City and England; the design calls for this tunnel to be raised above the ocean floor (making it a tube—not a tunnel); this is unlike most tunnels (which are dug out from beneath the floor of a water body), but like the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's Transbay Tube in San Francisco. The tunnel would be a 3,100 mile (5,000 km) long vacuum tube with vactrains (maglev trains) that could travel at speeds up to 5,000 mph (8,000 km/h); at this speed, the travel time between New York and London would be less than one hour. At top speed, the train would travel faster than a bullet fired from a gun. The train would be able to reach such a high speed as a result of the lack of friction and air resistance in this vacuum-sealed environment.
An alternative route that was proposed involved the train going (as a tunnel) from Newfoundland and heading north over the ice sheet of Greenland and across Iceland until it reached Scotland. This route is the cheapest but it is considered to be one of the most difficult due to the adverse weather conditions and ice sheet problems in Greenland, and such a tunnel would lose the vast speed of the mag-lev tube.
In a future time, reductions in the cost of fabrication might make a tunnel of this sort more practical than today.
The Transatlantic Tunnel was featured on Extreme Engineering, a show on the Discovery Channel.
Contents[hide]
1 Construction
2 Transatlantic tunnels in science fiction
3 See also
4 External links
//

[edit] Construction
The Transatlantic Tunnel is proposed to use a submerged floating tunnel which uses the same techniques as that of a submarine. The same idea is also being proposed for cars to use in crossing the fjords in Norway. The tunnel would be held in place by using 100,000 large tethering cables. The tunnel would be built using 54,000 prefabricated sections. The sections would consist of a layer of steel surrounding a layer of foam surrounding another layer of steel. If ever built it would be the largest and most expensive construction project in history.

Workers Riot at Site of Dubai Skyscraper

2007-01-11T09:05:00.000Z

Workers Riot at Site of Dubai SkyscraperMar 22 1:38 PM US/Eastern

By JIM KRANEAssociated Press Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Construction on a skyscraper expected to be the world's tallest was interrupted when Asian workers upset over low wages and poor treatment smashed cars and offices in a riot that an official said Wednesday caused nearly $1 million in damage.
The stoppage triggered a sympathy strike at Dubai International Airport, with thousands of laborers building a new terminal also laying down their tools, officials said.

Some 2,500 workers who are building the Burj Dubai tower and surrounding housing developments chased and beat security officers Tuesday night, smashed computers and files in offices, and destroyed about two dozen cars and construction machines, witnesses said.
The workers were angered because buses to their residential camp were delayed after their shifts, witnesses at the site said.
An Interior Ministry official who investigates labor issues, Lt. Col. Rashid Bakhit Al Jumairi, said the rioters caused almost $1 million in damage.
The workers, employed by Dubai-based construction firm Al Naboodah Laing O'Rourke, returned to the vast site Wednesday but refused to work.
Crowds of blue-garbed workers milled in the shadow of the concrete tower, now 36 stories tall, while leaders negotiated with officials from the company and the Ministry of Labor.
"Everyone is angry here. No one will work," said Khalid Farouk, 39, a laborer with Al Naboodah. Other workers said their leaders were asking for pay raises: skilled carpenters on the site earned $7.60 per day, with laborers getting $4 per day.
A reporter inquiring about the riots was ordered to leave the site by an Al Naboodah manager who refused to give his name. The firm's business development manager, Jonathan Eveleigh, declined to comment when reached by telephone.
Al Jumairi said the laborers were also asking Al Naboodah, one of the Emirates' biggest construction conglomerates, for overtime pay, better medical care and humane treatment by foremen.
"They are asking for small things," said Al Jumairi, the labor investigator. "I promised them I would sit with them until everything is settled."
Al Jumairi later said he was being diverted to negotiate with idled laborers at the airport.
Labor stoppages in Gulf countries have recently become common, with some two dozen strikes last year in the United Arab Emirates alone. Most have centered on unpaid salaries and triggered a Labor Ministry crackdown on contract-breaching companies.
The strikes and riots by Al Naboodah workers marred what otherwise appeared to be smooth construction of the Burj Dubai, which is to be a spire-shaped, stainless-steel-skinned tower expected to soar far beyond 100 stories.
Emaar, the tower's Dubai-based developer, is keeping the final height a secret until the $900 million Burj is complete by 2008.
A section of the tower is to host a 172-room luxury hotel operated by Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani.
The protesting workers are among almost 1 million migrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and elsewhere who have poured into Dubai to provide the low-wage muscle behind one of the world's great building booms. In five decades, Dubai has grown from a primitive town of 20,000 to a gridlocked metropolis of 1.5 million.
___
On the Net:
http://www.alnaboodah.com
http://www.burjdubai.com Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: www.Breitbart.com

Quieting your construction site

2007-01-05T10:58:00.000Z

Everyone knows construction sites are noisy. What is not commonly known is that thousands of construction workers in this country are destroying their hearing or are already hearing impaired because of their work. In addition to the negative impact on an individual worker's health and quality of life, hearing loss is a definite liability on the jobsite because communication is vital to jobsite safety. The good news is that construction sites can be made quieter.

Here are some potential remedies: Use a quieter process. (For example, pile driving is very loud; boring is a much quieter way to do the same work.) Consider purchasing new equipment--which is generally much quieter than old equipment--or retrofit old equipment. Isolate noisy equipment, either by placing it as far away as possible from workers and the general public or by building temporary, sound-absorbing barriers/enclosures around it. When it is not feasible to otherwise reduce noise to a safe level, provide workers with hearing protectors such as ear plugs or muffs. Additionally, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends hearing loss prevention programs for all workplaces with hazardous levels of noise. For more information, visit OSHA's Noise and Hearing Conservation and NIOSH's Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention Web pages. Additionally, NUCA members have access to the Toolbox Talk "Hearing Protection," which is available in both English and Spanish. (The pictured poster can be purchased from the online publications catalog of the Laborers' Health & Safety Fund of North America.)

Source: The NUCA Report

Trans-Pacific cable system to link USA with China

2006-12-21T08:45:00.000Z

Verizon Communications announced a deal Monday with five Asian telecom companies to develop the first high-speed trans-Pacific undersea cable network linking the U.S. and China directly. The Wall Street Journal reports that the $500 million project is the latest sign of continuing inroads by large telecom companies to tap China and other Asian markets with "faster pipelines" for these growing economies. AT&T Inc. is reportedly in negotiations with Telekom Malaysia Bhd. and Starhub Ltd. of Singapore to connect Southeast Asia and the U.S. via a cable line.

Source: US Telecom

South Africa: Growing Importance of Plastic Products

2006-11-23T14:48:00.000Z

New regulations increase the demand/IT-infrastructure is being built up
According to the prognoses of branch experts, the South African market for plastic products is going to rise by 5.0% in the coming years, roughly the same amount as the gross domestic product (GDP). Especially the strongly thriving construction sector, with estimated average growth rates of 8% until 2010, has taken over the role as the drive behind expansion. The installation of water pipe lines and cables will make sure of a strong demand for PVC. The quickest growth is taking place on the market for PP, which is replacing several traditional plastics at present.

For the time being, the per capita consumption of polymers amounts to only 39 kg/year, which is rather low in the international comparison (USA: approx. 100 kg/year). Growing competition for the providers of technical polymers is arising from the Far East, particularly from the People’s Republic of China, which is increasingly delivering end products to South Africa.

Growing Plastic Pipe Sales
Due to numerous infrastructural and building projects, the market is going to grow stronger than the GDP in the next few years. The construction of low cost houses is also driving the sales of plastic pipes over the top. It is mainly the small-diameter pipe for the transportation of water, which is required in these correlations. The most common of the utilised materials are high-density polyethylene and PVC. Experts acquainted with the market for polymer pipe lines reckon with approx. 1.5 billion Rand annually. About 15,000 t of polyethylene and approx. 5,000 t of PVC are used for pipes every year. According to the statements of association representatives, however, a surplus of plastic pipes is significant for the South African market, in spite of a growth above the average. Together, the three largest producers, DPI-Plastics, the Greek Petzetakis-Africa and Marley Pipe-Systems, hold a market share of approx. 65%.

By far the largest buyer of plastic pipes is the civil engineering branch, which is involved in all infrastructural projects. This division alone asks for round 70% of the products, we can assume that it will be the great drive behind expansion for the sector in future. The mining industries occupy the second rank with a demand of approx. 20%. Here, the plastic pipes are mainly used for transporting water and waste matter. The mining industries are gaining profit from the situation on the world markets. In South Africa and the neighbouring countries that receive products from there, numerous expanding projects are in process or will commence in the coming years. Lines of business like building construction, agricultural irrigation and telecommunication share the remaining 10% of the outlet. Within the bounds of telecommunication, the second provider of a ground-based network, having obtained a licence at the close of 2005, may well cause a stimulation of business activity.

If the required pipes are large, pure plastic pipe is rarely installed; more common is the utilisation of steel pipes with a plastic coating. An important great project providing good sales chances on the market for plastics and fittings is the so-called Vaal River Eastern Subsystem Augmentation Project (Vresap): the pipeline construction leading from the Vaal Dam to two storage lakes near Secunda, 120 km away, is estimated to cost approximately 2.5 billion Rand. It is mainly intended for securing the water supply of the power provider Eskom and the chemical enterprise Sasol. With a diameter of 1.9 m, the pipeline will most likely be completed in 2007. The provider Rand Water, responsible for the water supply of the province Gauteng, is planning on investments amounting to 2.5 billion Rand for other infrastructural projects until 2010. They include the repair and purchase of pipelines as well as the modernisation of already existing pumping stations. The largest water supplier in South Africa substantiated these measures announced in September 2005 with the immensely rising water demand, mainly caused by the mining industry, a growing urbanisation of Gauteng as a centre of population, and the increased aridity of the region in recent years.

In future, the part played by water conditioning will also be magnified, due to the sparse resources. Presently, round 16 million South Africans (36% of the total population) have no access to clean potable water. The South African Water Research Commission (WRC) is investing a remarkable part of its research funds in the development of desalination systems. Especially the cities situated in costal regions could profit from seawater desalination plants as an alternative. But previously, the enormous costs have blocked their realisation. In the opinion of the experts, a large plant could meanwhile produce one cubic meter of water for 3.70 Rand, only a few years ago, these costs were three or even four times higher. There is legitimate hope that this technology will have reached an economical degree, which would make its application in South Africa possible within the next few years.

The infrastructure for transportation and the petrochemical sector are also currently being expanded or modernised. At present, a feasibility study is in process for the extension of the 700 km long Durban-Johannesburg-Pipeline (DJP), erected in 1965, which also belongs to the planned projects. Petronet, a subsidiary company of the state-owned transportation enterprise Transnet and responsible for oil and gas transportation, have estimated that the project will cost about 2.5 billion Rand. The DJP is planned as a multi-product pipeline for conveying refinery products like petrol, diesel and kerosene from the two refineries in Durban to the province Gauteng and should be ready for service in 2010.

Cable ducts for Telecommunication in Steadily Growing Demand
South Africa’s need for IT technology is certain to be gigantic in the run-up of the Football World Championship in 2010. Particularly IT hard and software as well as transmission technique and equipment for a modern telecommunication infrastructure are called for. In view of this background, the business with plastic cable ducts will also rise immensely. Triggers for the growing demand will be investment projects from completely contrasting branches.

Sentech, for instance, the South African television broadcaster and the public service institution South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), are obliged to invest massively in their transmission network. Billions will have to be spent on building up the digital broadband transmission technique, for instance High-Definition-Television (HDTV). At the start of 2006, the Parliament had to admit that the currently available systems are hardly sufficient to serve all television screens of the expected 3.6 billion viewers around the world. Sentech stated that blackouts would be inevitable with the current technology, which was established in 1970.

The South African airport company ACSA is planning to invest roughly 150 million R in the own IT infrastructure. Of the costs for the construction of the Gautrain express train between Johannesburg and Pretoria (up to 20 billion R), immense amounts will also flow into information technology, i.e. the signal technique. Many hotels will provide special service for their guests, like multimedia-entertainment-systems and cable-free internet access to the rooms. And the games themselves will also demand a great deal of IT-technique just to assure smooth running. This only involves parts of the media centre equipment.

Many general tasks, which were carried out manually in former days, depend increasingly on the IT-technique. These are checkpoints at the entries to the stadium, VIP lodges and the media areas as well as the catering organisation, to mention only a few. Ticketing will also be mainly converted to IT-technique. Every stadium will be equipped with fibre-optical cables. Experts believe that large parts of the investments in IT equipment for the Football World Championship will be made in the years 2007 and 2008.

Large amounts of money will also be used for the ground-based telephone network in coming years. The state-own Telecom is still dominant at present, but competition arises from a second provider by name of SNO (Second National Operator) in South Africa. SNO, mainly conducted by the Indian Tata group, received the licence in December 2005. Rising expenditure for net expansion and modernisation can definitely be expected. Tata reckon with initial costs between 8 and 9 billion.

Source: Platicker.de

Examination and experiences with the fish-test according to the German Sewer Charge Law (AbwAG) (author's transl)

2006-11-17T08:13:00.000Z

Different domestic and industrial waste waters were tested by the fishtest with orfes (breeding form of Leuciscus idus melanotus) to determine their toxicity. There was no reaction of the test fishes in receiving waters. Domestic sewages from secondary treatment proved also nontoxic in 50% of the tested waste waters. Other sewages yielded very low toxicity concentrations (highest concentration: LD50 = 660 l/m3). The fishtest of industrial effluents resulted maximal LD50 concentrations of 62.5 l/m3. A comparison to the chemical analysis reveal no correlation between results of the fishtest and the pollution of sewage samples. Observations and experiences with the methods of the orfetest are critically discussed especially according to routine examinations.
PMID: 7415662 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Becker-Birck J., Havemeister G.

Panama Canal expansion approved by wide margin

2006-10-27T11:29:00.000Z

World News
Panama Canal expansion approved by wide margin
Panama City, Oct 23: Panama approved an expansion of the country's historic canal by almost 80 percent, according to preliminary results released Monday, but the closely watched referendum was marred by some isolated skirmishes and a dismally low turnout.With 94 percent of votes counted, the "yes" camp was leading by about 78 percent - in line with polls earlier in the week - the country's electoral tribunal said. About 22 percent of voters chose not to back a proposal to expand the canal.Only 57 percent of Panama's 2.1 million registered voters turned out Sunday to decide on a proposal that will almost double the transport capacity of the 80-km thoroughfare - the only central passage for ships between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.Panamaian President Martin Torrijos, whose government had strongly backed the proposal, hailed Sunday as an "extraordinary day", calling the result a "grand example of civic-mindedness".With international trade on the upswing, the election had been closely watched around the world amid growing demand to increase canal's capacity. More than 14,000 ships passed through the canal in 2005.But the election was tarnished by some isolated skirmishes between supporters and detractors of the expansion, particularly in the San Miguelito district of Panama City. The fighting was sparked by supporters at some polling stations handing out instructions on how to vote, with pro-expansion slogans written on the back.Election officials quickly intervened and confiscated the questionable polling material.The Panama Canal is one of the most ambitious engineering projects in history, and the new proposal would mark the first major expansion in its 92-year existence.The proposal will see a new set of locks added to the existing two, allowing two-way traffic through the canal, accommodating larger ships and almost doubling the tonnage that can be carried through.The construction is projected to cost around $5.25 billion and would be scheduled for completion by 2015.The government of President Martin Torrijos favoured the proposal, but critics have questioned the impact a larger canal will have on the poor, who number more than 40 percent of the country's 3.1 million population. They say most of the financial benefit of an expansion would not filter down to that level.The Panama Canal was opened in 1914 by the US, after 10 years of construction that cost thousands of people their lives.Final official results of Sunday's vote were expected on Wednesday.
--- IANS

source: http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=39740

Impressions of Oegl Symposium in Austria

2006-10-17T12:11:00.000Z

From October 17 - 18th the 14th Symposium Grabenlos takes place in Semering/ Austria. As part of this event the nodig-construction team offers an Internet Café providing a free email service to the visitors.
As we are well-known for our actual information, you will already get some impressions of the first day.

Slideshow

Impressions of the Hands-On Days

2006-09-28T13:10:00.000Z

From September 18 - 29 the fifth Tracto-Technik Hands-On days took place in Lennestadt/Germany.. As part of this event the nodig-construction team did an Internet Café providing a free email service to the visitors from all over the world. Here are some impressions.

Watch the slideshow

House Sewer Piping with Trenchless Technology

2006-09-18T05:36:00.000Z

I am not a high tech guy. Ask anyone who knows me. I like technology. I respect modern whiz-bang innovation but, personally, I’m very slow to adopt anything newer than about 1965. In many ways I’m slower to adopt anything newer than the 18th century. I was listening to Linda Ronstadt interviewed on the radio the other day and she said that she really liked 19th century songs and that after about 1910 they just lose her. I’m like that. One reason is that Old is time tested; crushed, run over and aged some more. If it still works, well then you’ve got something. So when I say that there is a new technology that’s worth looking at (here it comes) I do it with some impunity. So here’s what’s new. Ready. Sewer pipes. Bet I surprised you.
Sewers in our old housing stock are about as advanced as the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. No moving parts and almost nothing you couldn’t make with a bunch of Hittites and a mud oven.
The sewer pipes that run from our houses out to the street have largely been made, during the last century of clay, simple terra cotta. In fact they look just like the tiles on our roofs except that they’re tubular rather than hemi-cylindrical. These pipes, buried between the house and street are usually fitted “bell and spigot” lengths, packed at the joints with mortar.

Bell and spigot fittings are ones where one end swells to be able to accept the insertion of the small end of another. This is what most cast-iron piping has looked like over the last century as well, although cast-iron bell and spigot was packed with a fibrous material called oakum as a backing and then filled with molten lead (leading to the slow death of many a plumber. Thank goodness we stopped doing that).

The part of your waste water system that we’re talking about here is distinct from the DWV (Drain, Waste and Vent) piping inside your house (including the basement or crawlspace). It’s the part that’s outside the house and runs from the house (usually along the side) out to the street. The rules for these have long differed from the inside part and it is here that we experience the most serious problems. Some of these come from the primitive manner of construction but there are an attendant array of nasty failings that can descend upon thy pipes as well. They include root intrusion, breakage and dislocation as well as the usual blockages.
Plants like to be watered and roots follow the water just as surely as Woodward and Bernstein follow the money. Roots have a wonderful methodology for destroying clay pipe. They enter at cracks or loose joints as tiny tendrils looking for a drink (lots of nutrients there too) and slowly grow bigger and bigger, thus cracking and splitting the pipes.

They can also fill the interior of a pipe so densely that the flow of solids becomes nearly impossible. For nearly a hundred years, we’ve been using metal “snakes” with bladed heads to help cut these out but the roots keep coming back.

Cracks in the piping can come from soil movement or pressure applied to piping near the surface. A truck backing up over your driveway can do this so try to keep the big trucks off your property. Locally, we have quite a bit of soils migration and hillside creep (not me).
Both of these things can crack, dislocate and separate old clay (as well as newer cast iron) pipes. Therefore, I give special attention to these “sewer laterals” when looking at steep lots, wet lots or ones that show other evidence of soils movement or settlement. If the foundation is cracked and settled, I assume, generally, that the shallowly buried sewer can’t be very different, especially if it’s clay.

Now, other materials have been used in the last 50 years or so (although clay is still used to some degree to my head-shaking amazement) and these others are far preferable but the failings I’ve noted can still occur, especially when soils movement is prevalent.
The difficulty with this array of possible defects is that they’re so hard to diagnose, or, at least, have been for most of my life as a result of the inaccessibility of the buried pipe. In the past, we could only respond to clogs or obvious leaks (Eeeeeeewww) by calling someone to either snake out the pipe or dig it up. This might mean the replacement of a concrete pathway, sidewalk or driveway.

A backhoe might be digging a swath through the narcissus and overall, these repairs were ungainly, expensive and destructive, but Technology is here to save the day (and a whole lotta money). We’re really lucky because we have two technologies here and they work together beautifully. The first is diagnostic and the second is surgical.

There is no way that one can avoid comparing a sewer video camera with a colonoscopy (for o’ so many reasons) but that’s basically what it is. The system has, just as in the O.R., a camera mounted on the end of a long snake-like semi-rigid cable and a TV at the other end. There are also some cool features with some of these like the ability to “right” the image, since they tend to put you upside down as you’re watching. A flush of the toilet cleans the lens (Eeeeewwww) and you can then see all the cracks, bellies (where the water sits) and offsets (where the pipes don’t meet straight in line).

You can also easily see the roots and other clogs prior to taking any action. Information is power and this thing leaves you without any question, so it is a very powerful tool.
Most operators will give you a video copy of the inspection as a part of the inspection and you can expect to pay anywhere from $50-$250 for the service. But if you consider the cost of digging up a pipe, just to examine it, it’s an incredible bargain. The devices also come with a locator system that allows a break in a pipe to be pinpointed with great accuracy (depth too).
Be sure to pop that video in at your next dinner party just before the appetizers (Eeeeewwww).
The surgical technology that marries with the previous one so nicely is also nothing less than astounding and I mean that in a very fundamental sense since it changes the way we not only look at these system but removes a great body of distress that was formerly common to any work on these systems.

It is a system that replaces buried pipe without trenching. Holes do need to be made where the pipe replacement begins and ends but no other digging is usually needed (though sometimes, thing don’t work out so well, right).

A cable is run through the old broken piping from one hole to the other and a powerful winch is set down inside one hole. A heat-fused, continuous length of polyethylene piping is then pulled from one end to the other.

It is not pulled through the piping, rather it replaces the former by “bursting” or splitting the old pipe out of the way, as the new one is pulled along. A bullet-shaped device with a cutting fin is pulled by the cable and the new pipe is fused to the back end.
This means that a 4” pipe can be replaced with a 4” pipe and since the new pipe has no tiny breaks, roots can’t start to grow at all. Furthermore the very thing we hate about plastic, the fact that it doesn’t biodegrade, is precisely what we can love about it in this situation. This is what plastics are good for. Lastly, the piping is flexible and can stretch and bend as the earth moves and in my never humble opinion, I would guess that these laterals will outlast almost all the houses they’re installed at.

This technology makes the work so much faster and easier than the old trenched jobs that the cost of a replacement has dropped by at least 100 percent since they’ve come along. If you were formerly looking at replacing a driveway to repair the sewer, you could be saving 300-500 percent.
In real dollars I used to see (this is 1980’s dollars) $5,000-$15,000 on lots of these jobs and now we’re usually looking at $1,000-$4,000, so it’s time to stop paying the rooter guy to come every six month for ever (say it like a teenaged girl. I am soooo sure).
Now here’s the part you need to pay attention to and I apologize for putting it at the end but I felt it was important to lay the groundwork, as it were, in advance.

By Matt Cantor, The Berkeley Daily Planet

Tanggula Mountain Pass - world's highest rail track

2006-09-13T08:19:00.000Z

The first train from Chinese Capital Beijing started its journey of 4060 km for Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous region. The train, carrying some 800 passengers started at 09:30 pm from Beijing West Station and will arrive at Lhasa at 8.58 pm. With its highest point, the Tanggula Mountain pass, at 5072 meters above sea level, the railway has replaced Peru's Lima-Huancayo line, which boasts a topnotch of 4800 meters, to make a new record of the world's highest rail track.

Source: AEM AdviserChina, Edition August 2006

USA: Sometimes untreated sewage discharged into rivers

2006-08-29T08:34:00.000Z

In 772 cities representing 40 million people across the country, the same pipe system that handles rain and snow runoff also handles sewage. (One other study said the number was closer to 1,100 cities — see page 31 of this study.) When there is too much rain, the system overflows and cities sometimes discharge untreated or partially treated sewage into rivers and other waterways. Is your city one of the 772? Check the EPA map.
You can also check a list of the cities. Note, both the map and the list are from 1998. EPA urges you to check to see if the information is still current.
Here is a 2000 report to Congress on the issue, including photographs. What's New:
Now, the L.A. Times says (reg. req.):
The Bush administration proposed Monday to allow sewage treatment plants to release partially treated sewage into waterways when utilities are inundated with wastewater during heavy rainstorms or snowmelts. The change would be the latest in a series of apparent rollbacks of environmental regulations by the administration, a record Democrats hope to capitalize on during the presidential election next year.
What you may not know is that up to half of all wastewater treatment facilities in the country release some raw or partially treated sewage into waterways from time to time. The Times says, "Wastewater agencies said the proposal would merely authorize treatment plants to continue doing what many of them have done for years."
The Times says:
"Blending has always been an accepted practice," said Adam Krantz, a spokesman for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. The agency estimates that 20 percent to 50 percent of treatment facilities sometimes blend treated and partially treated water and then release it into waterways, enabling them to handle large amounts of wastewater.
Here is an example of a city that dumped billions (yes billions) of gallons of raw sewage into rivers and other waters. Baton Rouge, a couple of years ago, agreed to a court settlement to stop dumping.
Get Local:
Find out how may times your city or county has "bypassed" treatment in the last three years. Don't just look at one year, because if you have an abnormally wet or dry season it will not be a solid picture of the situation. This is also a nice entry point into the story of sewer rates going up that I mentioned last week. Cities have simply not kept up with updating sewer facilities and now they are paying a heavy price.
This is now both a "pocketbook" and an "environmental safety" issue — two red-hot buttons for your public.
Go here to see how much states estimate it would cost to have "one overflow per system every five years." The numbers are staggering — in Alabama, for example, it would cost almost $2.5 billion. Illinois and New York — more than $3 billion each, and Texas says it would need $12 billion to just limit overflows to one every five years in each system.
Resources:
· Environmental Group - Natural Resources Defense Council· Environmental News Network· EPA Clean Water Act· History of Clean Water Act from EPA· Water Environment Federation · Nice collection of recent water sewer stories from the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. (Some of the stories require registration, but at least you will know where to go to look for the articles.)· EPA's Wastewater Management page· Drill down to your EPA region for enforcement information · Research on wet weather overflows from EPA — several years of data and a nice collection of documents.

Source: http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.2/aid.53528/column.htm

World Water Week from August 20 -26, 2006

2006-08-21T14:16:00.000Z

The World Water Week in Stockholm is the leading annual global meeting place for capacity-building, partnership-building and follow-up on the implementation of international processes and programmes in water and development.

It includes topical plenary sessions and panel debates, scientific workshops, independently organised seminars and side events, exhibitions and festive prize ceremonies honouring excellence in the water field. Stockholm is the meeting place for experts from businesses, governments, the water management and science sectors, inter-governmental organisations, NGOs, research and training institutions and United Nations agencies.

Visit www.worldwaterweek.org to learn more about the World Water Week!

Water shortage 'a global problem'

2006-08-16T13:53:00.000Z

Rich countries face increasing water shortages, a report by conservation organisation WWF warns.

A combination of climate change and poor resource management is leading to water shortages in even the most developed countries, it says.

It urges water conservation on a global scale and asks rich states to set an example by repairing ageing water infrastructure and tackling pollution.

The report was released in Geneva just ahead of World Water Week.

The WWF says economic wealth does not automatically mean plenty of water.

Its report reveals that some of the world's wealthiest cities - such as Houston or Sydney - are using more water than can be replenished.

In London leaks from ageing water mains are wasting 300 Olympic swimming pools' worth of water every single day, the WWF says.

Meanwhile southern Europe is becoming drier as a result of climate change and further north Alpine glaciers - a significant source of water - are shrinking

Knock-on effect
What is more, the report argues, wealthy countries continue to use up the water of the developing world.

The production of clothing, fruit, vegetables and even jewellery all need water. And the demand for cheap produce often encourages wasteful use of scarce water resources.

The WWF is also calling on wealthy countries to encourage more international co-operation over water because this is the one element no-one can do without.

And while money may be no protection against climate change, it can at least be invested in preserving the existing fresh water supplies.

Source: BBC News, Geneva

10 Reasons Why Public Utilities Should be Regulated

2006-08-08T12:37:00.000Z

Need a good reason to lobby for water regulation in your city or country? The Asian Development Bank has asked regulators, utility operators, and policy reform experts, and here are 10 good reasons they gave.

A regulator will act as a proxy competitor, forcing the utility to operate efficiently
A regulator can motivate a utility to act on consumer complaints
A regulator can be blamed, instead of politicians, if tariffs are raised
A regulator can prevent monopoly abuse
A regulator can act as a referee between a frustrated public and defensive utility
A regulator motivates utilities to conduct themselves professionally and upgrading their skills in order to present sound reasoning and defend their operations to the regulator
A regulator can ensure utility sustainability
A regulator creates employment
A regulator can ensure that utilities make good on their promises, such as better service levels
A regulator can set realistic limits to ambitious goals of utilities, while at the same time expand the public’s sustainability horizon further than 3 months at a time

More info on 'ADB's 'Water for All' vision for the Asia and Pacific region and water related topics is to be found here.

Hyderabad in India: Optic fiber lines but no sewerage lines!

2006-07-25T08:47:00.000Z

K. V. S. Madhav

Proposal to lay lines in the area in limbo for two years

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Momentum for plan following sanction of Rs. 40 crores for the purpose by Chief Minister
Ambitious Rs. 150-crore project to lay sewer lines over an extent of 500 km hits roadblock
Only parts of L.B. Nagar, Uppal, Qutbullapur, Gaddiannaram and Kukatpally have underground sewers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HYDERABAD: The area has a maze of optic fibre lines, but no sewerage lines! Strange as it may sound, the hub of IT and ITES services of the State, Hi Tec City and its surroundings, once a sleepy village and now the upmarket destination of the rich, has no underground sewer lines.

A proposal to lay sewerage lines in the area was in a limbo for two full years with the players involved - Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, Seri Lingampally Municipality and Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board - looking the other way given the huge funds required to ground the sewerage network.

With Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy sanctioning Rs. 40 crores for the purpose, the plan appears to have finally gained momentum. "We will be according it top priority and work will begin shortly," an official of HMWSSB said.

Isolated case

However, the Hi Tec City is one of those lucky cases. A modern sewerage network has eluded the entire city and the surrounding municipalities. The existing length of some 2,200 km of sewer lines is archaic and crumbling at many places, while the rapid growth witnessed over the past few years in the city agglomeration mandates another 1,600 km of sewer lines, evidently a Herculean and money-consuming task.

An ambitious Rs. 150-crore project to lay sewer lines in an extent of 500 km has hit the roadblock with technical problems, not to forget official callousness. After almost a year, only 50 km of sewer length was laid even as the city roads reeled under the impact of the digging works. With the monsoon arriving the spectacle of overflowing drains only looms large.

Among the surrounding municipalities, only parts of L.B. Nagar, Uppal, Qutbullapur, Gaddiannaram and Kukatpally have underground sewers and everywhere else it is septic tanks, including the Hi Tec City region. "Constructing sewer lines is a big challenge," feels an official.

The endeavour requires huge funds and integrated planning, given the vast area to be covered and it remains to be seen how the Government proposes to raise funds. The Chief Minister's directions on Tuesday asking HMWSSB to come out with a master plan for water and sewerage sectors of the municipalities and updating of the existing one for the core city area raise hopes. But will the surrounding municipalities be as lucky as the technology hub, Hi Tec City?

Andhra Pradesh / The Hindu

Diamond ring flushed and found

2006-07-20T06:21:00.000Z

Owner asked the city of Fresno to help find gem lost at theater.
By Matt Leedy / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Thursday, July 6, 2006, 12:01 PM)

Two Fresno city sewer workers peered down a manhole, saw the glint of a diamond ring and knew they had beaten nearly impossible odds.

The gold ring, with its half-carat diamond, had been flushed down a movie theater toilet five days earlier. It took Steven Gibson and Leonard Safford less than 20 minutes Monday to find it in the sewer system's 1,400-mile maze.

"All I saw was a bunch of quarters and Leonard said, 'Wait a minute, what's that?'" Gibson said.

"It truly was a million-to-one shot," said James T. Wilson, a sewer maintenance manager.

On June 28, Christina Christianson's engagement ring whooshed down a toilet when her reach was a split second slower than an automatic flush.

Christianson, then in a bathroom at Regal Manchester Stadium 16 movie theater in central Fresno, thought her ring was lost forever.

"I felt all the blood in my body rush to my toes," Christianson said.

She panicked. She screamed. She scared every other woman in the bathroom.

"A lady in the stall next to me said, 'Oh my God, are you OK?'" Christianson said.

The 33-year-old had just moved her wedding and engagement rings to her pinky finger. Christianson's arm recently had been broken and her hand and fingers were a little swollen, making it uncomfortable for her to wear the rings on her ring finger.

When both rings slipped off her finger, Christianson was quick enough to only grab her wedding ring.

The theater's security staff closed the bathroom, hoping that would keep the ring from getting flushed any further down the sewer line. A plumber removed the toilet and took a look, but found nothing.

Steven Gibson, a public utilities worker with the city of Fresno, shows the tool used Wednesday to flush out a sewer line and find the ring lost by Christina Christianson. The tool is dropped down a manhole and stretched along the sewer line, where a blast of water moves sediment back through the line.
Kurt Hegre / The Fresno Bee
Christianson had almost given up hope and broke the news to her fiancé, a construction worker on a job in Redwood City. The two have been engaged for eight years and she wears both rings, even though they haven't set a date.

On Monday, she e-mailed the city asking for help.

"We saw the e-mail and thought, 'Boy, this is a challenge,'" said Robert Garcia, a management analyst in the city's sewer-maintenance division. "But we decided right away we'd give it our best shot."

If the ring was stuck in the theater's sewer system, city workers wouldn't be able to find it because they can't fish through private property. And if the ring had made its way into a wide city sewer line it would have been flushed miles away.

Gibson and Safford decided to search an 8-inch sewer line about 120 feet from the theater.

Two hours after reading the e-mail, they hit pay dirt.

On Wednesday, after Warner Co. Jewelers cleaned and polished the ring for free, it was returned to Christianson's right hand.

She shook excitedly while putting it back on.

"It's beautiful," Christianson said, looking at the ring's marquee-cut diamond and its band lined with smaller diamonds. "I can't believe you guys actually found it. I'm so amazed. I'm impressed. I'm speechless."

She's not sure when she'll get married, but she was certain of one thing:

"I'm going to go get it sized and fitted right now."

The reporter can be reached at mleedy@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6208. Christina Christianson shows off the ring she accidentally lost last week at a Fresno movie theater.
Kurt Hegre / The Fresno Bee

World’s oldest sewer system found in Van

2006-07-19T09:43:00.000Z

The find revealed a far more advanced understanding of architecture and plumbing that had hitherto been known.
August 23— What is believed to be the world’s oldest first toilet and sewer system, dating to prehistoric times, has been unearthed in the eastern Turkish province of Van.
The sewerage system was found by archaeologists working on excavations at the site of a Urartian castle in Gurpinar region of eastern Turkey.
According to Professor Dr. Oktay Belli, the director of Istanbul University’s Eurasian Archaeology Institute, the find was of particular significance. The discovery of a toilet in the western part of Cavustepe Castle built by Urartian King Sarduri II in 764 BC pushed back the dating for such systems, he said in an interview with the Anatolian news agency.
“We revealed that Urartian architects had formed a sewer system before building the castle. The toilet and sewer system in the castle is similar to today’s toilets,” the professor said.
The Urartu Kingdom gave great importance to architecture,” Belli said. “Their architects used the most developed techniques of the prehistoric period. They had built their castles in strategic areas after carrying out ground studies. We believe that Urartu Kingdom was the first civilisation to use toilet and sewer systems.”
The Urartu Kingdom was formed in eastern Anatolia at the beginning of the first millennium BC after the fall of the Hittite empire and survived for three centuries.

Source: http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/283730.asp?cp1=1

Urban legends: Alligators in the sewers

2006-07-14T07:08:00.000Z

Before alligators were protected by law, you could buy baby ones in Florida and Georgia for a few dollars as a souvenir. Many were sold without any regard to how difficult a pet an alligator would make. In New York City alone, hundreds of these small 'gators were flushed down toilets or set free to eventually end up in the city's sewer system. The Baby Gators adapted to this environment quickly by feeding on rats and other sewer dwellers. Generations later these alligators became albino and went blind from the lack of light. Also they grew very large with no competition from other predators. Occasionally sewer workers and bums will disappear when the rat supply dwindles.

www.warphead.com (Elise)

Sero surveillance of leptospirosis among sewer workers

2006-07-14T07:03:00.000Z

Department of Microbiology, B. J. Medical College, Pune.

Leptospirosis is an important occupational disease affecting people coming in contact with animals and their discharges. The occurrence of infection in ones workplaces is linked to the environment to which the worker is exposed and the adaptability of the organism in that working environment. Rodents usually abound in underground sewers and are carriers of leptospira. The urine of rodents and other animals present in that area is likely to contaminate these sewers. Leptospira are excreted in the urine of infected animals. Thus sewer workers are at a potential risk of leptospirosis. The prevalence of leptospirosis in these workers could thus indirectly predict the presence of the disease in animals in a particular geographical niche. Total seventy-eight sewer workers from 5 different municipal wards in Pune were examined to find out the evidence of past infection with leptospira using microagglutination test (MAT). The prevalence rate was found to be 16.6%. The serovars to which antibodies were detected include autumnalis (38.4%), pyrogenes (23.0%), canicola (15.3%) and pomona (15.3%). Evidence of leptospiral infection was found to be maximum in sewer workers in the areas of the city that were infested with rodents and stray animals.

Source: www.pubmed.gov

Mega Cities and Mega Slums in the 21st Century

2006-07-11T09:55:00.000Z

Mega Cities and Mega Slums in the 21st Century
by the Editors of WaterAid
web address:www.wateraid.org.uk

The Problem --1
A PERMANENT DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT
Behind today's urban sanitary crisis in the developing world are twin phenomena -- rapid population growth and rapid urbanization -- occurring simultaneously in countries which are poor. Rapid population growth is, ironically, the result of improvements in public health and disease control. Rapid urbanization is the outcome of deteriorating livelihoods on the land and the magnet of urban jobs and economic opportunity -- a magnet drawing in all classes of people but especially the poor. Together, these phenomena have ignited an urban demographic explosion. Since it takes time for people to adapt their intimate behavior to the constrictions of urban life, typical rural newcomers to the slums and shantytowns of the Third World initially tend to maintain their prevailing high birth rates. This accelerates urban population growth, 61 percent of which is among existing inhabitants.

The growth of urban populations
The number of people living in the urban developing world is growing at a much faster rate than in the urban industrialized world.

The pace of urban expansion in the developing world sharply distinguishes the process from its historical precursor in Europe. It took London from 1800 to 1910 to multiply its population by seven, from 1.1 million to 7.3 million; this growth rate has been achieved by some African cities within a generation; many Asian cities have increased fourfold in the same period. In 1950, there were just two cities in the world with a population of more than eight million : London and New York. By 1990, there were six such cities in industrialized countries, a number not expected to change before the end of the century. In the Third World there were 14 such cities, and by 2000 there will be 23. The largest are already huge: Mexico City has over 20 million people.

Such a rate of growth would stretch urban planners, architects, engineers and civic administrators to the very limit even if resources were plentiful. But in many countries, particularly in Africa and South Asia, resources are very few. They are often constrained by the same forces -- low agricultural prices, debt, economic recession, flood or drought disasters -- driving people off the land. Towns and cities are finding it very difficult to cope.

Many of the newcomers fetch up in settlements where municipal investment in services -- roads, water supplies, drainage -- is negligible or non-existent. The proportion of "urban poor" in many cities is between 30 and 60 percent, and in some is spectacular: in Addis Ababa, 79 percent; in Luanda, 70 percent; in Calcutta, 67 percent. And the population growth rate in slums is higher than in virtually any other environment in the world; it may be -- as in Bangladesh -- four times the rate of a country's population as a whole. By 2000, the numbers of those living in what are variously described as favelas, barrios, bastis and bidonvilles will be well over one billion worldwide.

The mega-cities
By 2000, 23 cities in the world contain over 10 million people, and 18 of these mega-cities are in the developing world.

The transition of humankind from rural to city dwellers represents a major, and permanent, demographic shift. By 2010, the total rural population in the world will -- according to the United Nations -- reach its peak at 3.1 billion and thereafter begin to decline. By 2030, global urban populations will be twice the size of rural populations, and cities will have grown by 160 percent over the period. The huge numbers of people living in towns and cities, and the increasing proportion living in slums, will present the 21st century with its most important environmental health challenge.

The Problem -- 2
URBAN PRESSURE ON WATER AND SANITATION
Some cities in the developing world are already facing critical environmental degradation. This is the result of overload on water sources, improper waste disposal, contamination of rivers and streams, the reckless extraction of water from depleted aquifers, and a long list of service management deficiencies. Water boards and public utilities fight a losing battle to provide a functioning service in the face of increasing demand; as the quantity of available water dwindles and the quality declines, disruptions -- even sabotage -- of existing systems become more acute. A vicious circle develops in which the service is so poor that it cannot recover its costs from users; and the income generated so low that the service cannot be improved.

Outright shortage of water is the first of many problems. History tells of ancient and not-so-ancient cities which drank up their surrounding water and perished -- Babylon and Persepolis in the Middle East, Fatehpur Sikri in Northern India. It is not too fanciful to imagine that, in the 21st century, water shortage could cause similar damage. In China, at least 50 cities face acute shortages as the water table drops by one to two meters a year. Having over-drawn traditional surface and underground sources, cities such as Amman, Delhi, Santiago and Mexico City are pumping water from increasing distances and up increasing heights (see box below). In both Jakarta and Bangkok, excessive pumping of groundwater has led to intrusion of seawater into the aquifers and to land subsidence.

CITIES RUNNING DRY
China: Between 1983 and 1990, the number of cities in China that were short of water rose from 100 to 300; those with a serious water problem, from 40 to 100. In the year 2000, Beijing Municipality suffers a daily water shortfall of 500,000 cubic meters.

MEXICO: Mexico City, having over-pumped the Mexico Valley aquifer, is now forced to pump its water supply a distance of 180 kilometers and up 1,000 meters from the Cutzamala River at much higher cost. The city faces the prospect of exhausting its supply in the year 2000.

INDONESIA: Jakarta has so depleted its underground aquifers that seawater has seeped 15 kilometers inland making the supply saline. Investments in pipelines to bring water from other sources are eventually expected to top $1 billion.

IWSA, Managing the Global Environment; National Report from Beijing Municipal Waterworks Company, 1993. McIntyre, Peter; Protecting the Well, Noordwijk Conference, The Netherlands, March 1994.

According to a review of schemes financed by the World Bank, every time a new engineering scheme replenishes a typical urban supply from further away, the unit cost of raw water doubles. Water from the sky is free; but the mounting cost of transporting it long distances to a household tap and preserving its quality is turning it to liquid gold. Water is a commodity like any other, and its price is soaring. But in developing countries there is a marked reluctance to come to terms with water costs. Urban consumers in most industrialized countries pay all the recurrent costs for their water supplies and sewerage connections. In developing countries, however, those provided with services pay far less: only on average 35 percent of the costs, according to the World Bank. The proportion of investment generated internally by utilities and water boards is also dropping, and their financial situation is therefore consistently worsening.

During the 1980s, the United Nations International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, 80 percent more townspeople are reported to have gained access to an adequate supply of water and 50 percent more to a system of waste disposal. But because of the huge rise in urban populations, the number of those without water remained the same, and the number of those without sanitation rose by 70 million. The task of responding to the backlog of demand and to the expanding settlements of new urban dwellers becomes more difficult every year, especially as the extra strain on many existing systems leaves them in constant need of repair.

Other dynamics are at work. Where incomes and standards of living rise, per capita water consumption similarly shoots up (see box above). This places more pressure both on the water supply and on the system delivering it. Increased usage also generates a larger volume of waste. The growing outflush of dirty water has major environmental implications; but drainage and water treatment are frequently ignored by urban development planners, as is solid waste disposal. In Latin America, no more than 2 percent of human waste is treated -- it is simply washed into waterways. Increased pollution exacerbates the pressure on supplies, and raises their cost. Shanghai has been forced to spend $330 million moving its water intakes 40 kilometers further away. In Lima, Peru, upstream pollution has increased treatment costs by 30 percent.

Developing country populations lacking water and sanitation
Although the number of people with access to safe water and sanitation grew between 1980 and 1990, population growth erased any substantial gain, especially in urban areas. Between 1990 and 2000, an extra 900 million people were born in places without water and sanitation.

THE PROFLIGATE URBAN CONSUMER
A relatively small proportion of domestic water is used on the essential purposes needed for life and health. Daily per capita consumption on essentials in a typical modern household with a piped supply providing 150 -- 200 liters per head is as follows:

Drinking and cooking = 3-6 liters,

Washing and personal hygiene = 15-20 liters, (excluding use of flush toilets, baths and showers).

Cleaning the house = 3-10 liters.

Total = 21-36 liters. (Bhutia, R, Cestti, R. and Winpenny, J.; World Bank, 1993; in Managing Water as an Economic Resource, ODI, 1994.)

In Britain, 83 liters a head daily are used on toilets, baths, showers, washing machines and dishwashers. Garden use, car washing, dripping taps and leakage consume 49 liters per head. (Water Companies Association, 1993.)

Many cities which refuse to see water as a precious resource squander their supplies. In Manila, 58 percent of the water expensively channeled into city pipes is unaccounted for: it just disappears. The record in Cairo, Jakarta, Lima, and Mexico City is not much better; in Latin America generally, 40 percent of the urban water supply vanishes unaccounted and unpaid for by customers.

Explanations include cracked and leaking pipes; the unreliability of the service, which causes people to tamper with it; lack of functioning water meters; and managerial inefficiency and corruption in the public bodies responsible. These may be demoralized by lack of resources and an unhelpful climate of bureaucracy and inappropriate regulation, rendering their Augean task of keeping the city clean and healthy all but impossible.

The Problem -- 3
THE IMPACT ON POOR URBAN DWELLERS
The impact of water shortage, pollution, wastefulness and mismanagement falls most heavily on the poor. However inadequate the main's services, those in Third World cities with household connections typically receive a supply sufficient for healthy living and one that is heavily subsidized. But in the slums and shantytowns there are frequently no services at all.

People in many cities buy their water from vendors. These are private service suppliers: licensees of standpipes owned by businessmen, as in Nairobi, Kenya, or traditional water carriers. Between 20 percent and 30 percent of Third World urban dwellers are thought to be dependent on the water-by-the-bucketful they provide. According to one study carried out in 16 cities, the cost of water from a vendor is between four and 100 times more expensive than the cost of water from a piped supply. In Lima, for example, a poor family pays a vendor $3 per cubic meter, 20 times the amount paid by a middle-class family with a household connection.

Not only can the cost of water be a major household item for a poor and struggling family -- 20 percent of a slum dweller's income in Port-au-Prince, for example -- but its costs do not end there. It is very likely to be unsafe and fuel will be needed to boil it. After the 1991 cholera outbreak in Peru, residents were advised to boil their drinking water. The cost of doing so would, according to one estimate, amount to 29 percent of the income of a family in a squatter compound. The cost of a sanitary latrine -- one that confines human waste so that it does not pollute either surface or groundwater -- is often too high for a single household to manage; and proper sanitation, however desirable, is not essential to human life in the same way as drinking water, so slum families may regard it as an unaffordable luxury.

Domestic water shortages in slums, especially in tropical cities, and unsafe drinking water, carry serious public health risks. The historical record is graphic: typhoid and cholera epidemics plagued 19th century European cities, and are today reappearing in Latin America and elsewhere. In 1852, the average age of death in the boom town of Dudley in England was 17 years, a state of affairs attributed to a complete absence of piped water in the town and the presence of human excrement in all "back streets, courts and other eligible places." Sanitary reform was the major influence in raising life expectancy in 19th century Britain, which rose by four to five years nationally in the 50 years preceding 1890 and by more among the "laboring classes." In French cities, life expectancy rose from 32 to 45 between 1850 and 1900.

Better public health undoubtedly requires sound public health engineering. The problem today is that public health engineering solutions based on 19th century precepts of centralized systems built and maintained by subsidized public agencies are inappropriate to the extraordinary pace and character of the contemporary urbanization process in the developing world.

The Problem -- 4
THE URBAN POOR HAVE BEEN NEGLECTED
In the Third World, the situation of the urban poor has been obscured by the bias that attributes poverty to rural areas and describes cities as well off because the well off live in them. Data from urban areas -- where virtually all of the middle and upper classes of most Third World countries permanently reside -- show that city dwellers are healthier and have better services than villagers. This distorts reality. It is applicable only to those inhabitants -- the one-half to two-thirds -- not living in the slums. Some governments leave conditions in the slums out of all their calculations. Certain countries report that 100 percent of their urban residents have access to safe water; yet cursory inspection of the poorer quarters of their capital cities reveals that this is palpably untrue.

There are few accurate statistics about life chances and health risks in Third World slums (see box over). But those that do exist show that the urban poor can be much worse off than the rural poor. Thus the infant mortality rate (IMR) in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is higher than that in the countryside: 142 per 1,000 live births compared to the national rate of 90 or the rural rate of 93. Many of the deaths are associated with diarrhoeal disease and infections stemming from poor hygiene. In Manila, diarrhea among the urban poor is twice as common as in the rest of the city. In Port au Prince, mortality among slum infants is three times that among rural infants.

The lack of information from most cities about the state of those living in the most squalid environments is strange because the health advantages of water and sanitation tend to dominate arguments for service extension. A health rationale was the underpinning for the UN Water and Sanitation Decade, and the case put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO) seems compelling: the annual saving of two million child deaths from diarrhoeal infection; the saving of 200 million bouts of diarrhea and 300 million intestinal parasite infections; the eradication of guinea worm and river blindness; reductions in malaria, trachoma and schistosomiasis.

Ill-health in the slums
Data from cities often obscures the state of ill-health and high death rates in the poorest urban areas, which may be worse that in any other environment in the country -- as in Bangladesh.

In fact, in recent years, UNICEF and others have put more emphasis on pills, powders and injections to prevent and cure this caseload of disease than on the need for clean water and sanitation. This is partly because the direct impact on disease and death rates of water and sanitation services has been hard to prove -- although their relationship with health is unquestionable (see chart below). Unhygienic human behavior may get in the way of maximizing benefit. And the health argument for services is rarely put by the intended users but only by those delivering services on their behalf. Most people living in Third World villages and slums know little of the germ theory of disease. They usually want water and sanitation services not to control infection but because of more fundamental needs: simply put, they must drink and defecate daily. Women, who always have to shoulder the task of fetching domestic water where there is no household tap and are its main users, feel the need most acutely.

The health risks of inadequate services in congested, dirt-strewn and poverty-stricken urban areas are far more acute than in the countryside -- in fact, the perception of water-borne health risk is an urban perception. But the health argument has mainly been used to support the extension of services to poor rural people. The urban poor have largely been forgotten. And in the space and fresh air of the countryside, except in places prone to guinea-worm or specific water-related infection, the health argument is both less applicable and less persuasive. Because many rural populations have greeted health arguments with disinterest or skepticism, the assumption has developed that poor people do not want services and must be cajoled into receiving them. In urban slums this is far from the case: else how could water vendors and stand-pipe licensees successfully charge such high prices?

THE EFFECTS OF IMPROVED WATER AND SANITATION ON DIARRHOEAL DISEASE

WHO has examined the extent to which water and sanitation services reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal infections. The benefits of sanitation were found to be greatest where there is a real demand, as in high-density urban areas.

Condition percentage reduction
Improved water quality 16
Improved water availability 25
Both the above 37
Improved excreta disposal 22
WHO Bulletin, vol 63, no 4, 1985.

The rural bias against anti-poverty programs in the developing world means that too little is known about slum dwellers generally. Not only are there few studies on death and disease rates in the slums; unproven assumptions are also often made that they have easy access to amenities such as schools and health care. Slum and squatter populations are often left out of urban planning altogether -- because they are occupying land illegally; because they are too poor to pay for conventional housing; or in the vain hope that if they are ignored they might conveniently go away.

The Victorians watched the proliferation of their own industrial slums with horror: they believed that such a great concentration of the poor, without roots in the land or society, must threaten to overwhelm the propertied minority. This horror has been paralleled by reactions to the modern influx into Third World cities. The newcomers are treated as transients from rural areas who have strayed temporarily into town. They are described as "marginal" -- belonging properly neither to the urban economy, nor to the place where they live. Their housing is "temporary" -- made out of waste materials and erected on vacant land. This land is often low-lying, precipitous or hazardous in some way and its undesirability as a habitat is the reason its residents are allowed to stay -- for a while. This imposed culture of impermanence is an excuse not to provide slum dwellers with services. Arguments that amenities in slum areas would attract ever more rural indigents have long justified deplorable neglect of slum populations. Extreme measures -- bulldozers and mass evictions -- have frequently been used against them.

Urban development has been designed largely for the better-off. Most slum and squatter settlements fall outside the realm of urban infrastructural projects: roads, electricity, drainage and water supply are usually extended only to newly planned or "improved" areas which exclude the poor by definition. Where services are provided, security of tenure at manageable rents may not be guaranteed. Land prices rise and the slum-dwellers are forced out, only to make new "impermanent" settlements elsewhere.
The high costs of most urban services have led critics to accuse cities of featherbedding feckless humanity and devouring more than their fair share of national resources. But these services and resources are not being put at the disposal of the urban poor, against whom both urban and rural biases in development policy manage to conspire.

The Problem -- 5
NEEDED: A NEW SANITARY REVOLUTION
The celebratory accounts of the 19th century sanitary revolution in Britain and elsewhere tend to gloss over the many obstacles and delays, and its dependence on the fruits of industrial progress and civic wealth. But its success over time left a legacy of assumptions about right solutions which, today, are inhibiting alternatives from emerging in very different environments. The sanitary reformers so elevated the role of engineering that issues of public health and disease control were removed from the province of individual action into the realm of public administration. This triumph characterized the subsequent history of water supply, sewerage and drainage not only in the industrialized countries but all over the world. The slogan of the Water Decade -- "Water and Sanitation for All" -- echoes the idea of a social right, justified on grounds of health and equity, to be provided principally at the public expense.

Investments needed for urban water supply and sanitation in developing countries
The scale of investments needed to provide underserved populations with water and sanitation are variously estimated, depending on the cost of technology to be used and other variables. This 1991 World Bank estimate is based on the cost per person of $120 for water supply and $150 for sewerage (1985 dollars).
For the mega-city challenge of the developing world, particularly for their slum populations, the supremacy of public engineering works and the removal of responsible action from individuals and households is simply not going to work. In the social and economic context of most poor countries, this approach is suited only to city centers, industrial areas, and suburbs where urban life is moneyed and well ordered. And even providing and maintaining highly engineered systems to these parts of town often extends the capacities of municipal utilities beyond their managerial limits. A World Bank review of 120 projects in the developing world found the water authorities performing well in only four countries. Examples of incompetence were legion. In Accra, Ghana, only 130 connections had been made to a system designed for 2,000. In Caracas, Venezuela, and in Mexico City, 30 percent of connections were unregistered.

Many of the problems faced by these bodies stem from the fact that water supply, drainage and sewerage has been vested in the hands of a public bureaucracy which is neither motivated nor empowered to function cost-effectively. Customers are inadequately billed and inadequately charged. Technology is usually imported and difficult and expensive to maintain. Both those from abroad who promote high-technology engineering schemes, and those who "purchase" them with foreign "aid" or subsidized loans, belong to establishments schooled to think in certain ways and dependent for personal or business reasons on large and remunerative contracts. In spite of widespread international recognition that poor countries' sanitary needs cannot be met in this way -- financially, technologically, or managerially -- 80 percent of investments in the sector are still allocated to high-cost systems.

From the perspective of the expanding urban slums, the provision of water supplies and sanitation by this type of technology and institution is not "Water and Sanitation for All" but "Water and Sanitation for an Elite Minority." If their technological and management regimes remain unaltered, the prospect that most existing municipal utilities can advance the urban water and sanitation frontier either conceptually or physically is dim. The same activist and argumentative vision which transformed sanitary fortunes in the past now needs to be harnessed to the demands of the Third World mega-city for the 21st century. The case for reform rests not only on the desirability of a healthy urban environment for city populations, but on the sustainability of supplies, and on human need and dignity. The reforms needed would benefit not only urban but rural populations, whose needs remain acute and should not in their turn be allowed to languish.

In the 19th century, serious effort to design appropriate systems, pass regulations, implement them, and find the resources locally and nationally for public health and sanitary care, only occurred in the wake of cholera. Will we again have to wait until cholera epidemics in Latin America and elsewhere strike terror into cities and continents? In many rapidly urbanizing countries where life-threatening diarrhoeal disease is still endemic and erupts in periodic outbreaks, the urban sanitary crisis is a crisis simply waiting to happen.

The question is: Can the crisis be avoided, and if so, how?

Hawai: sewage spill fouled some of most famous beaches

2006-06-29T09:20:00.000Z

City rushes to get pipes in canal
By Robbie Dingeman, Advertiser Staff Writer

Sewage piping that will run on the bottom of the Ala Wai stands ready at a staging area near Iolani School, across the canal from Waikiki. Later, a sewage tunnel will run across the canal.

At the Ala Wai community garden, Leslie Nakagawa points out a notice warning of the "impact" of the sewer pipeline without specifying how some plots might be removed to meet the project's needs.

The city has started work on an emergency bypass sewage line that would travel through a tunnel under the Ala Wai Canal, then into a pipe lying on the bottom of the canal.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he is pushing to build the bypass as quickly as possible — targeting completion for the end of this calendar year — to prevent another spill like the record one that began March 24. "We want to make sure it never happens again," he said.

When the 42-inch sewer main ruptured in Waikiki, the city pumped 48 million gallons of raw sewage into the Ala Wai Canal rather than allow it to back up into nearby homes and businesses. The spill fouled some of the state's most famous beaches, kept swimmers and paddlers out of the water and made national news.

Preparations for the bypass are under way, with large sections of pipe delivered along the Ala Wai and orange paint pointing out the path of construction while the city awaits state help before the project gets into full swing.

The first phase of construction will run a temporary sewer line from the mauka bank of the Ala Wai Canal to join it to another sewer line near the diamondhead entrance to Ala Moana Park. That section of pipe will run along the canal bottom, said City Environmental Services Director Eric Takamura.

He said people in Waikiki will see seven pumps lined up along the Ala Wai to divert sewage flows from the existing pump station to the new bypass pipe during construction of the bypass. While that will resemble the pumps that sent raw sewage into the canal, they will be working to keep sewage out of the canal, Takamura said.

Then the second phase will begin, using a microtunneling process to carve out a tunnel that will run for about 1,000 feet under the canal from the Beach Walk pumping station, along Kai'olu Street — site of the break — to the mauka side of the canal.

The $20 million bypass line will be used as a backup in the event of another major sewer line break in Waikiki. It can also be used during the construction of the permanent fix — a new sewer line that will cost an estimated $30 million. The temporary pipe will remain in place for at least five years until the old line is rehabilitated to serve as the backup.

Once the work begins, some disruptions are inevitable.

Traffic will be affected intermittently on Kai'olu Street and at the entrance to Ala Moana Park.

Near the neighborhood park along the mauka side of the canal, crews already tore out a park bench. A nearby bike path is being detoured, and a portion of a softball field will be closed for a construction staging area.

Leslie Nakagawa, who tends one of the community garden plots near where the construction will occur, said she hadn't heard specifically that the construction would uproot some of the existing plots.

Nakagawa grows tomatoes, bok choy, basil and even grapes alongside the Ala Wai. She pointed to a notice on the garden bulletin board that warned only of the project's "impact" without saying five plots will be moved.

"That's going to make the people on that side upset," she said.

Hannemann thanked Waikiki residents and visitors in advance for coping with the construction through the busy resort community.

City officials have hired a consultant to run a project hot line, establish a Web site and do community outreach during the project.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Mike Peters said he thinks most people in the community believe the project is needed. "It has to be done," he said.

Peters, a hotel employee and substitute teacher, said the community will accept months and years of sewer construction as long as it doesn't become delayed and troubled, when "the mood may change."

The city is still awaiting word from the Environmental Protection Agency on what actions federal officials may take against the city over the record-breaking dumping of raw sewage.

Rick Egged of the Waikiki Improvement Association said news of the spill "had a negative impact," but visitors seem to be surging back without a lingering setback.

Egged sees more community awareness of the need for this sewer project, even among those who helped stop similar plans in years past. "I don't think you'll hear much opposition," he said.

Hannemann said yesterday that he asked Gov. Linda Lingle to clear the way for expedited state approvals for some key permits. "This is an utmost priority of my administration," the mayor said.

He said Lingle responded to the request with pertinent follow-up questions that the city is answering in seeking approvals from three state departments to start the work soon.

Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter executive director Jeff Mikulina supports the city's recent efforts to move quickly on starting both the temporary and permanent fixes. The environmental group was among several citizen groups that sued the city to improve the sewer system.

"We offered the city to send a letter to the governor in support of their request to waive environmental impact requirements," Mikulina said. "The environmental impact of doing nothing could be much worse than what they're planning."

Mikulina said the Sierra Club also offered to help work with community groups to assuage concerns. And he said the city is working on fixing the problem and upgrading the sewage system.

He did note that the City Council this week approved the latest payments to a Mainland law firm hired by the city to fight the Sierra Club's earlier lawsuit citing environmental concerns, bringing total legal payments to the private firm to $2.5 million.

"It's surprising that they would have such a high-priced defense against the citizens' groups," he said.

The Lagos pipeline disaster

2006-05-18T07:48:00.000Z

Last Friday, the nation was forced to relive the ugly recrudescence of petroleum pipeline disaster in Ilado, a Lagos suburb in which more than 200 people met their sudden deaths in the criminal enterprise of scooping fuel from a vandalized pipeline. With the charred bodies of the victims interred in mass graves, the dimension of the festering criminality certainly haunts in the circumstance that past disasters have not proven to be sufficient deterrent to those engaged in the heinous trade.The nation now has sad record in such incidents. On October 17, 1998, an incident in Jesse, Delta State claimed over 1000 lives. Two years later, in 2000, there was the Osisioma in Abia State incident in which about 100 lives were lost. On June 19, 2003, Isuikwuato community also in Abia State was the scene of another incident in which no fewer than 150 lives were lost. In September 2004, the Atlas Cove in Lagos recorded its own leaving no fewer than 20 roasted in the ensuing fire from damaged pipelines. Apart from the valuable lives lost, the costs to the environment are certainly incalculable. The latest incident, though sad, betrays a familiar pattern- an admixture of criminality, negligence and crass indifference on the part of those charged with the business of securing the pipelines and ensuring their integrity. Added of course is the failure in the very basic sense, of the community, in which such brazen criminality is allowed to fester.Again, the nation is back to the old argument about the underlying causes of the problem. Poverty and alienation are easily identified as major causes. So also is the failure of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to maintain its aging pipelines as well as the failure of the security agencies to apprehend the vandals.
Certainly, it is indisputable that the vast network of pipelines, criss-crossing rural communities provide a major source of temptation for vandals and economic saboteurs; and since the adjoining communities- often poor and without basic infrastructure, do not see themselves as stakeholders in the business of securing them, they lend themselves to becoming accomplices in the nefarious trade. Even the security agencies, have been fingered in a number of incidents of vandalisation- and these coupled with the legendary incompetence of the security agencies. As it is, the securing of our vast pipelines calls for new thinking. The PPMC and the Federal Government should urgently undertake the task of replacing old pipelines as a first step in dealing with the pipeline integrity issue. Moveover, the pipeline corridor needs to be secured if they must be policed effectively. As we suggested in a previous editorial, it has become important that the local communities in the pipelines right-of-way be recruited to police them- that way, they will provide needed security as well as intelligence to security agencies on the activities of vandals. Finally, the time has come for the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to jointly fashion out a comprehensive framework for dealing with the threats to the pipelines. More than anything, it is the failure of the two agencies that lies at the root of the latest unfortunate incident.

Source: Nigeria Daily Sun

Waste side story

2006-04-05T06:37:00.000Z

It’s only April, the beginning of summer, yet Kunjamma Ravindran’s water-related ordeal has already begun. In her second floor apartment in Sheikh Sarai Phase II, water supply has fallen to a trickle. “In the past, the taps ran twice a day for two hours at a stretch. For the past two months, we have been getting water only once in the evening. The timing is not fixed and the supply lasts for barely 40 minutes to an hour,” she says.

Sometimes, she has to fill water in buckets on the ground floor and haul them up the stairs. Further compounding her woes is the poor quality of supply. “It is often muddy. We have to purchase cartons of bottled water for drinking and cooking,” she says. Her monthly bill for drinking water alone amounts to Rs 800. The very thought of what will happen in peak summer sends shivers down her spine.

Like Ravindran, lakhs of Delhiites welcome the summer season with apprehension. As the mercury soars, the supply of water in their taps falls and finally peters out. Next begins the daily queuing up with buckets before Delhi Jal Board tankers, or paying exorbitant amounts of money to private tanker owners for supply.

No aggregate shortage
If you live in one of Delhi’s colonies where shortages happen every year, it will shock you to learn that there is no aggregate shortage of water. It is not as if with increasing population, Delhi’s water requirements have risen so high that supply can’t match it. According to Kokil Gupta, who works in the Water Resources Policy and Management Division of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), “It is more a case of mismanagement of available resources both at the supplier and users’ ends.”

According to Central Public Health and Environment Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) norms of 275 lpcd (litres per capita per day) prescribed in Masterplan Delhi 2001, Delhi’s water requirement for 2003-04 was 900 mgd (million gallons per day). The total output from Delhi’s water treatment plants was 670 mgd. In addition, ground water accounts for 11 per cent more.
According Gupta, the 275 lpcd norm being used for calculating Delhi’s water requirements is way too high. In European countries the norm employed is 150-200 lpcd. If you go by those norms, she says, Delhi has no aggregate shortage.
Why then the dry taps

The primary reason, according to experts, is leakage from the network. According to Sunil Ghorawat, managing director, Everything About Water, a knowledge and solutions provider on water related problems, “Transmission losses in Delhi are as high as 40-50 per cent whereas the global average is around 15 per cent.” That means almost half the water being pumped by the Delhi Jal Board is going waste. Hence, the shortage. Besides the leakage, there is inequitable distribution.

What’s the way out
Two initiatives are underway to tackle the problem. One, a treatment plant has come up at Sonia Vihar. When it is operational, south Delhi’s water woes would be taken care of to a large extent. Though the plant is up and ready, it hasn’t started operating for the simple reason that no water is available.

The Uttar Pradesh Government will not supply water to Delhi. Its pre-condition: Uttar Pradesh must get 4,000 cusecs from Tehri Dam before it supplies water to Delhi. Until this impasse is sorted out, south Delhi residents will have to grin and bear their problems.

The second initiative is aimed at tackling transmission losses. The Delhi Jal Board is undertaking pilot projects wherein, using trenchless technologies, you enter the pipe system at one end and coat its interiors to prevent leakage.

Says Ghorawat of EA Water: “It’s at the trial stage presently. The government should invite global tenders and get the job completed in a time-bound manner. In Delhi even if you control 30 per cent leakage, the city’s water problems will be taken care of.” So much for the larger picture about which ordinary citizens can do very little.

Rainwater harvesting
If your colony is experiencing water shortage, (if it hasn’t already, it will in future) persuade your resident welfare association (RWA) to fund a rainwater harvesting project for the society. Incidentally, the Delhi Jal Board gives a grant of Rs 50,000, or 50 per cent of project cost, whichever is lower, to encourage societies to undertake rainwater harvesting.

To begin with, your society will have to approach a body, such as TERI or Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which help RWAs undertake rainwater harvesting. Personnel from these bodies will visit your colony to do a preliminary study. Next, they will design the project. The design must be approved by the Central Ground Water Board.

If you want a grant from the Delhi Jal Board, then after construction you will have to submit a completion certificate. A word of caution here: entrust the construction work only to a contractor who has been trained and certified by the Central Ground Water Board. The whole project shouldn’t take more than three months.

As for the cost, it depends on the size of the catchment area and the number of recharge structures that need to be built. According to Ghorawat, for a one acre development the cost should not exceed Rs 1 lakh.

Waste water recycling
To some extent, Delhiites are aware of rainwater harvesting and more and more group housing societies are undertaking it. By contrast, awareness about waste water recycling is close to nil. According Ghorawat, whose company EA Water has installed recycling plants at several residential projects around the country, “Even small residential societies can instal a sewage treatment plant for recycling water.” For 200 flats, he says, the sewage treatment plant would cost Rs 10-15 lakh. The life cycle cost (spread over 20 years) comes to a nominal Rs 250 per household per year.

The treated water can be used for horticulture. Alternatively, since over the next 15-20 years India too will become a water-stressed country, group housing societies presently under construction should install dual distribution networks: one set of pipes and tanks for potable water and the other for water to be used for inferior purposes, like washing, flushing and gardening. Installing the plant and the related civil work takes about two months.

Household level initiatives
Finally, what measures can you take within your own household to deal with water shortages?
• Don’t use hoses for washing cars. Instead wipe with cloth rinsed in water.
• Use dual flush cabinets in the toilet. Also, don’t keep tap running while brushing. l Sensor taps also help save water, but they’re expensive.
• Replace old galvanised iron pipes if they have corroded and are leaking.
• Use the right kind of purifier. RO purifiers require 10 litres of water to produce 1 litre of pure water. Go for UV purifiers unless you absolutely need an RO purifier. To find out if you really need one, get your water tested by a neutral agency like Sriram Lab or Ficci Lab. Don’t get it tested by the vendor who has a vested interest in selling an RO purifier to you.

The answer to Delhi’s water woes lies in better management and conservation of available resources. As an Israeli Prime Minister during his visit to India once said: “We use water as you use eyedrops.” The next time you are wasting water, remember those words.

by Sanjay Kr. Singh, Express Estates

World Water Day 2006

2006-03-22T13:19:00.000Z

In 2006, the theme for World Water Day on March 22nd is "Water and Culture". The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as the UN's focal point for the promotion of cultural diversity, is the UN agency responsible for coordinating events for World Water Day 2006 around the world.

Water is not only one of the most essential elements of living, but also a spiritual symbol in prayers, customs and rituals for people from all over the world with different cultural, religious and spiritual backgrounds.

On World Water Day 2005, the United Nations invited spiritual and indigenous leaders, children and the elderly to participate in a colorful and lively ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York. Participants presented their individual ways of worshipping and appreciating water through prayers, songs, dance and poetry, illustrating that water is something which unifies people and beliefs from all over the globe. This diverse yet shared understanding and appreciation of water underscores the importance of global cooperation on water-issues.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) contained in Chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21. States were invited to devote the Day, as appropriate in the national context, to concrete activities such as the promotion of public awareness through the publication and diffusion of documentaries and the organization of conferences, round tables, seminars and expositions related to the conservation and development of water resources and the implementation of the recommendations of Agenda 21.

For more information go to:

World Water Day website
The United Nation's Water for Life website

Out of Space, Onto the Ground

2006-02-06T09:12:00.000Z

DirecTV Works To Marry Satellite And Wireless Nets

DirecTV Inc. is developing technology that would allow it to combine a wireless network on Earth with communications via satellite to offer customers high-speed Internet and telephone services.

The company, owned primarily by global media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., could even bring rival EchoStar Communications Corp. along for the ride, in a joint venture.

One of the biggest challenges in combining broadcasting from a satellite with the over-the-air transmission of wireless signals near the ground is the interference that can result.

PATENTED APPROACH
A WiMax antenna attached to a satellite dish, for instance, must separate out which bits of information to pluck out of the air. On Dec. 13, DirecTV won a U.S. patent for technology that would reduce interference in a combined satellite-terrestrial network.

“The present invention discloses a system and method for reducing interference between terrestrially based and space-based communications systems,” DirecTV wrote in the patent.

The patent was issued a few weeks before News Corp. chairman Murdoch told analysts that DirecTV may soon announce plans to spend about $1 billion for a new broadband network. News Corp. controls DirecTV.
Murdoch said that WiMax, a wireless communications technology that can transmit data at the rate of 40 Megabits per second, is one alternative for creating that network. That speed is 10 times faster than that found in the fastest Internet services marketed by cable and telephone companies — and about twice the throughput of AT&T’s much-touted Project Lightspeed (see “The $20 Billion Question,” page 23).

“We have a lot of people on this full-time at the moment. And you’ll be hearing from us, I would think, within probably two months with [a] very clear plan [on] what will happen. And it’s not as expensive as you might think,” Murdoch said at a Citigroup conference on Jan. 9.

London-based WiNetworks told Multichannel News in September that it was working closely with the two satellite services to develop WiMax products. “We have a solution that has been designed over a period of three years, in very close collaboration with EchoStar and DirecTV,’’ Benjamin Finzi, president of Wi’s Americas operations, said. DirecTV and EchoStar could team up on a joint venture to use WiMax or other technology to market high-speed Internet and phone service.

Financial Web site TheStreet.com reported Jan. 30 that the two satellite services were working together to create a wireless communications network on the ground, which would allow them to better compete with cable operators’ successful “triple-play” bundle of television programming, Internet access and telephone service. An EchoStar executive told Multichannel News Thursday that his company would be willing to work with its satellite rival, DirecTV, if it would help it compete with cable and telephone providers.

“The new leadership of DirecTV is more willing to consider [joint] initiatives,” the EchoStar executive said.
EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen in November also said he would be willing to team up with DirecTV or other competitors to improve efficiencies.

“If there’s any of our competitors out there in some form that we can work with that benefit us and also benefit them, without changing the dynamics, then obviously we’re interested in that,” Ergen said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

DirecTV declined to comment last week on any of its broadband plans.

“We’re exploring a number of opportunities in that area,” communications director Robert Mercer said.

TheStreet.com reported that DirecTV has set aside $1 billion to create a broadband wireless project. But money alone won’t make the land-based network happen. That’s because the use of America’s wireless spectrum has become highly competitive, as new text, video, photo and voice services gain adherents, according to Adlane Fellah, principal analyst for Maravedis Inc., a Toronto-based analyst firm that specializes in WiMax market research.

If WiMax is the chosen technology, DirecTV, EchoStar or both will have to apply for or acquire licenses in one of three bands of spectrum that adhere to the 802.16 technical standard established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Radio waves that oscillate at a frequency of 2.5 billion, 3.5 billion or 5.8 billion cycles per second. Outside of the standard’s three bands, there is a stew of different slices of spectrum —ranging from the old multichannel multipoint distribution service band, starting at 2.1 Gigahertz, to the wireless-communications service spectrum at 2.3 GHz, already earmarked for wireless data services — that could be used.

But that would require EchoStar and DirecTV to find vendors offering one-off, proprietary gear that doesn’t conform to the 802.16 standard, Fellah said.

Even sticking with the standard, finding spectrum to span the nation will be tough. For example, there are about 380 licensees claiming spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, Fellah said. With few exceptions, these owners have licenses only in certain cities. “So you have a lot of license holders, and yet only a few have a national footprint,” Fellah said.
One exception is Sprint Nextel Corp., which has locked up 2.5 GHz footprint in 80% of the United States — the result of the merger of Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc., both of which owned licenses in that band.
But Sprint Nextel is developing its own WiMax network, so it would be unlikely share its frequency with a potential competitor, Fellah noted.

Given that most spectrum is already claimed, it would be difficult for a new player to get going, Fellah noted. “The only way for the satellite providers to do this is to lease spectrum, because there are no auctions at this point — it has already been auctioned,” Fellah said.

MVDDS DISCOUNTED
EchoStar does have a partial ownership stake in another license band called multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS), but it is doubtful it could be used for a two-way data service. This service uses the same spectrum as transmission to and from satellites, but bounces the signals between Earth-bound points, such as towers or receivers mounted on buildings.

But while the FCC allows MVDDs licensees to develop high-speed Internet services, they are restricted to offering only downstream connections from the network to the user. If EchoStar and DirecTV chose the MVDDS route, they would have to find a separate link from the user back to the network, such as a phone line.

The DBS players also would have to locate sites for the WiMax base stations, either through existing tower owners or co-location agreements with utilities or other wireless-network providers. On top of that, WiMax technology is young. Finding reliable equipment may take some time.

“We’re still a year and a half away from commercial-equipment development, let alone the mobile version, which I would say is two years,” Fellah said.

source: Multichannel News

Giant jellyfish in Japan

2006-01-25T15:23:00.000Z

Giant jellyfish, more than six feet in diameter and sometimes weighing 400 pounds, have been wreaking havoc on fishing nets off the cost of Japan. Some scientists think that the rising population of the jellyfish, called Echizen kurage, could be attributed to global warming.

From Reuters: "It's a terrible problem. They're like aliens," Noriyuki Kani of the fisheries federation in Toyama, northwest of Tokyo, told Reuters ahead of the conference.There are no official figures on the size of the problem, but Kani says the financial losses are obvious. "If your nets are full of jellyfish, of course there is no space for fish," he said. Cutting up and disposing of the giants can turn a three-hour fishing trip into a 10-hour marathon, while valuable fish are poisoned or crushed under the weight of the unwanted catch...Despite their size, the invertebrates aren't toxic enough to cause serious harm to humans, but fishermen often wear goggles and protective clothing to avoid stings when dealing with them.

More...

Original source: CNN, 16/01/06

Pond scum shows promise against Alzheimer's

2006-01-11T10:52:00.000Z

Swiss researchers have isolated a compound from blue-green algae that could become a drug candidate against Alzheimer's disease and other brain afflictions.

But the scientists warn it could be years and plenty of money before any potential application appears on the drug market.

It is believed to be the first time that a potent agent against Alzheimer's has been extracted from a type of cyanobacteria commonly known as 'pond scum.'The new compound, nostocarboline, was isolated by scientists at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, as well as Zurich and Lausanne universities from a type of blue-green algae known as Nostoc.Laboratory tests showed that it was to be a potent inhibitor of cholinesterase - a brain chemical that has been associated with the progression of Alzheimer's.Cholinesterase breaks down another chemical, acetylcholine, which is used by the brain to help process and store information.While there is no known cure, cholinesterase inhibitors have shown promise for delaying or preventing the symptoms of mild to moderate forms of the disease.The researchers led by Karl Gademann and Friedrich Jüttner said the compound's effects are comparable to galanthamine, a cholinesterase inhibitor already approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's.Finding substances in bacteria to fight diseases is not uncommon. They are already widely used in medicines such as antibiotics.For this discovery, the scientists extracted and tested hundreds of substances. Gademann's lab specialises in identifying bioactive compounds from natural sources.Cyanobacteria and other marine natural products are considered a prime source for drug candidates against human diseases, including cancer and bacterial infections. But so far very little is known about their chemistry.

The researchers warn that despite the promise shown by the new substance, there's no way it will be appearing in pharmacies anytime soon according to Gademann."This is basic research," he told swissinfo. "We are at the very beginning of any potential development."He warns that it could take years before a drug candidate is even tested on humans. To get that far, he adds that a pharmaceutical company would have to be involved to move the research further on."We would still have to test the compound on mice, then on primates before considering human trials," said Gademann. "And even then, we can't be sure what the side-effects might be."Another issue that has to be tackled is dosage. The scientists say they have to find out whether too little or too much of the substance prevents or triggers Alzheimer's.They feel though that it shows enough promise to have had it patented. In fact, nostocarboline could be used as a herbicide say the researchers.The Nostoc algae produce the compound to protect themselves against insects and small crabs that eat them, as well other algae. It could be used against the proliferation of some types of marine algae, with the added advantage of being cheap and easy to produce.

Source: swissinfo.org

House connections in Afghanistan

2005-12-16T08:54:00.000Z

The editorial office of nodig-construction has detected a lasting solution for the restoration of house connections.
In the article of the technical journal “bbr” 12/05 “Restoration and extension of urban drinking water supply systems in Afghanistan” we learnt the following:

The residents in Afghanistan’s cities take care of their house connections themselves. Thereto they lay open a duct, punch a hole into it, attach a wooden self made adapter to a garden hose and try to seal it up somehow. After all, the objective is to get at least 10 % of the drinking water into their houses. If that solution was also used for the sewage system, just with a larger garden hose that leads into the sewage line or to the local sewage dump, it could be considered as a fairly economical concept for house connections.

Why don’t we do it this way?

Help cutting red tape in the European Union

2005-09-30T13:11:00.000Z

Do unnecessary EU rules and red tape hinder your business?

The European Commission has started a public online consultation to ask businesses how they feel the business environment in the EU can be improved and the administrative burden reduced. Your views are important.

The result of the online consultation will be compiled and examined in the Commission’s “Red Tape Observatory” and will also be examined by the responsible Commission services.

Start cutting red tape. Give your opinion here

Do we need alternatives to oil?

2005-09-27T14:48:00.000Z

"It's better to cry wolf now than to wait until the oil has run out." That's how Guardian columnist George Monbiot regards this subject.

Click here to read his comment...

How much oil do we really have?

2005-07-18T13:16:00.000Z

As oil prices remain volatile the markets do their best to forecast future prices. Unfortunately this is not an easy task. While it may appear extraordinary to outsiders one of the main problems in the oil market is the reliability of basic statistics. The oil industry calls the problem 'data transparency'.

As an example this week is a 'revision' to oil demand growth in the United States in 2004.
Previously the growth in oil demand was thought to be 2.4%, about 484,000 barrels per day. In fact it was 697,000 barrels per day or 3.5%. That is in fact 46% more than was previously stated - a huge revision.

"Oil market data is generally a black art like using a set of chicken bones," says Paul Horsnell of Barclays Capital. "If Columbus had thought he'd hit India when in fact he was in the Caribbean, that's about the level of oil market data." "The revisions to US demand growth are small in percentage terms, they are generally 99% accurate. But the change is huge in barrel terms, and this is from the USA who have the best oil data in the world."

The barrel difference was in fact 213,000 per day. Added up that is 77.75 million extra barrels per year, about one day of global production.
"Oil data is like paint thrown across a canvas, you get the broad outline of the situation. But even then it's not just a Jackson Pollack painting, the paint actually moves of it's own accord after it has been applied," says Mr Horsnell.
Phantom reserves. One of the major problems surrounding oil data is in reserves.

CLAIMED OPEC OIL RESERVES
Kuwait: 92bn (64bn)
UAE : 92bn (34bn)
Iran : 93bn (64bn)
Iraq: 100bn (48bn)
Saudi Arabia: 258bn (170bn) Claimed oil reserves, bn barrels 1990s/1970s

These are the basins of crude oil that lie underground. They are either held by governments or the 'oil majors' like BP, ExxonMobil or Shell, or a combination of both. Many countries simply do not allow outsiders to audit the size of these fields. This is especially true of the major Middle East oil producers of OPEC and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Some believe that reserves stated by OPEC countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are not accurate.
"There are a lot of questions to answer over OPEC reserves," says Bruce Evers of Investec Bank. "The quality of overall oil market data is poor, but with OPEC there remains considerable debate over the reliability of their reserve estimates."

One of the main reasons is that in the 1980s OPEC decided to switch to a quota production system based on the size of reserves. The larger the reserves a country said it had the more it could pump. The more it could pump the more money it could make.

As a result in 1985 Kuwait revised its reserve estimates by 50% overnight. It was soon followed by United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Iraq. In 1988 Saudi Arabia became the last to join the revised reserve estimates party, adding a whopping 88bn barrels.

"Something needs to be done," says Mr Evers. "OPEC have never fully explained the reasons behind these changes, they have never issued any guidelines. The market needs to know." Although previous estimates may have been conservative, what troubles some analysts is that twenty years later, these reserve estimates are unchanged, in fact some have increased.
Whilst it is obviously possible to add reserves by new field discoveries it can seem a perplexing situation to market makers. Kuwait for example still claim exactly the same reserve level as they had in 1985 despite pumping millions of barrels every day since then.
Nor are company estimates any better, with Shell forced to make four revisions downwards of its official reserves since 2002, losing around 4.8bn barrels and damaging its share price.

Even current figures for OPEC production are unclear.
OPEC say they are producing exactly 28 million barrels a day (mbpd).
This includes their latest 500,000 barrels per day increase announced at their last quarterly meeting by Kuwaiti oil minister Al-Sabbah.
But OPEC have also admitted that their members break their own quotas to take advantage of high prices.
So is it really 28mbpd?
The International Energy Agency says OPEC pumped 29.3 mbpd in May 2005.
The IEA say this is actually a fall from April 2005 of 55,000bpd.
Who is correct? "There is no official OPEC output data," says Mr Horsnell. "they just kind of pass on the data they are given by their member countries. It is really not that easy for OPEC, you can't blame them, it is down to their members."
Forecasting demand
"I don't rate IEA data either," says Mr Evers. "they have horrendously underestimated demand in the past, it is one of the reasons we are where we are now. They are little more than a data collection agency, and the data they are given is already tarnished."
It is no easier to forecast the future demand for oil, and analysts are growing increasingly sceptical of oil company attempts to do so.
Energy Files director Dr Michael Smith said "it is no longer appropriate to accept glib demand forecasts from oil companies, financial institutions and governments¿suggestions that oil consumption will grow to up to 120 million barrels per day by 2020 and that automobile and airline traffic will increase at extraordinary rates are futile and damaging."

But Paul Horsnell says that gaps between data-sets can in fact show up areas of the oil market that need careful study. "Take Russian production as an example," he says. "There are all kinds of rosy forecasts and then there are people like me who think it's all rather bad news. But there are many reasons about why it is impossible to measure oil, it's a liquid for a start.

"There are huge margins of error with oil data and it has to be treated as such. It's the nature of the product. Thinking you can measure it to the eighth decimal point, well, it's just a waste of time."
As oil prices continue to soar, the lack of accurate data could make it harder for the oil market to predict its future direction.

(Source: BBC News)

Mole people: living in New York's subway tunnels

2005-06-30T08:37:00.000Z

As you speed through the dark subway tunnels, try to look beyond the reflections and into the caverns which sometimes stretch out from the tunnel. See anything? We’re not talking about alligators flushed down the toilet, but real people who live underground in the nooks and crannies of the subway system. These are the Mole People, made famous by journalist Jennifer Toth, who in 1993 wrote a book describing their plight. The mole people, who by some estimates number 5,000, are considered by New York’s homeless population the most dangerous and unstable of its numbers. They have chosen to live in the countless uncharted crannies of the city’s underground tunnel networks, especially those labyrinths which emanate from Riverside Park, Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, and Port Authority. Hooking up to wires for electricity has been easy, and the city’s discards provide all the material comforts they need: beds, rugs, lamps, paintings, even pets. Only running water is lacking, and so the mole people are encrusted in dirt and grime, blackened and blending in with the darkness. Sometimes, a mole person is killed by a train, or touches the electric third rail---that’s when their head, feet, and hands explode. Police sweeps through the small encampments try to force the subway dwellers into accepting social services, but many resist: At least in their tunnel spaces, they can set up a relatively permanent home, and even avoid much of the crime that homeless people on the outside suffer. To the mole people, the tunnels underneath New York aren’t much, but they are home.

Why Trenchless Technology?

2005-06-21T09:49:00.000Z

Why use trenchless technology instead of open trench methods? This photo says it all, doesn't it?

First pictures from Paris!

2005-06-15T09:38:00.000Z

As already announced on the website, Profundis hosts an Internet Café as part of the exhibition Ville Sans Tranchée and the EFUC conference in Paris.

Here are the first impressions from France.

International Decade for Action 'Water for Life'

2005-06-07T13:22:00.000Z

Water is essential for life. But over a billion people don’t have safe water and over two billion don’t have somewhere safe and clean to go to the toilet. As a result a child dies every fifteen seconds from water related diseases. People’s livelihoods, education and dignity are also affected.

To increase public awareness the United Nations declared 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life'.

Find out more about the the UN World Water Assesment programme and the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life'

Welcome to the new NODIG Blog.

2005-06-02T13:24:00.000Z

The times are changing - and so is our website. That's why we have added the new NODIG Blog to our website.

The NODIG blog will keep you informed about topics and news regarding this website, the trenchless business and the way of the world in general. And because a blog lives from the feedback, you are warmly invited to comment on our entries.

We are looking forward to loads of comments!

Yours
Mrs. Nodigger