It’s World Water Day, celebrated annually on March 22. The day is about focusing world attention on the importance of clean water and how we can collectively protect and preserve water quality, and as importantly, quantity.
The American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at California’s Stanford University (AMENDS) is a student-led initiative that enables young change agents from across the Middle East, North Africa, and United States to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and, through Ted-style talks, broadcast their experiences and learn from each other. This is a story about a platform for […]
Dubai developers reach a new zenith in outrageous investment with just-announced plans to build a tropical rainforest on the desert outskirts of the city. The forest will exist within a climate-controlled dome as a key feature of a new luxury housing development. But the real news within this news is that local environmentalists are complaining, finally.
Italian architect Arturo Vittori and his colleague Andreas Vogler designed a low-tech machine, based on passive design, that can produce between 50 and 100 liters of clean drinking water daily, without electrical equipment and independent of land-based water sources. This inexpensive, easily assembled tower was designed specifically for rural communities in Ethiopia that lack access to safe […]
Drop-A-Brick is a clever PR campaign to cut water waste in severely parched California, a state with dwindling aquifers that is experiencing its worst drought in 500 years. It’s a project that can be implemented everywhere there is indoor plumbing, and the concept is sound – displace some tank water and over time, save buckets of the […]
A new student campaign at a British university is urging people everywhere to “take the piss out of water shortages” by peeing in the shower. You heard right. The practice is pitched as a time-saving tool with a significant environmental payoff – each time you indulge in this guilty pleasure you stand to save up […]
Is it better to plunk dirty dinner plates into the automatic washer, or go retro and wash them by hand? The spouse thinks it wiser (and greener) to clean messes as they occur. I like how the dishwasher lets me defer. He says his way saves water. I know mine saves time. We’ve argued this for […]
Personal grooming can be murderous! That’s the takeaway message of a two-century-old crime and modern women are taking note, inciting others to join their cause on Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr.
A new golf course is being built in the shadow of the Egyptian pyramids, the plans for its fairways and greens were recently unveiled by Thomson Perrett & Lobb, an architectural firm specializing in course design.
Watch your step, kibbutzniks and spa-mavens! Diminishing water levels in the Dead Sea are causing changes to surrounding groundwater flows. Freshwater moves through the aquifer, dissolving subterranean salt deposits and creating underground voids, which cause surface collapse. Dramatic and unpredictable, sinkholes appear at the alarming rate of nearly one a day.
On Sunday, September 15, a fleet of traditional and modern Mesopotamian boats will sail down the Tigris River on an historic voyage of celebration and learning.
Mexican farmers have been fighting drought with Solid Rain for more than a decade, but the powdered water designed by chemical engineer Sergio Jésus Rico Velasco only hit the American market last year. A highly absorbent substance with a potassium base, Solid Rain stores one liter of water in just 10 grams!
Earlier this year I decided to visit a strange looking waste management site in Um Al Quwain – one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates. From satellite imagery it looked like raw sewage was being dumped in the desert, just a couple of kilometres from Um Al Quwain’s precious mangrove estuary.
It gets hot in Israel, so two local entrepreneurs have invented a water-saving device called the Q-Fog to keeps cyclists cool. Pump a lever on the handlebars and presto – instant air con!
Israel NewTech has launched a interactive map of green Israeli innovations as part of a new Industry, Trade & Labor Ministry campaign that aims to showcase the country’s international influence in the clean tech and energy sectors. We have been frustrated with the slow pace at which Israel has incorporated some of its own homegrown […]
Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (EUT) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed a fabric that traps water molecules present in fog. This clever new technology could have applications in dry coastal zones throughout Africa and the Middle East, where lack of water is increasingly both a humanitarian and security concern. To make the […]
Water produced as a byproduct of natural gas extraction is one of the oil and gas industry’s biggest waste streams, according to the Environment News Service (ENS), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are collaborating with scientists from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals to do something about it. A process called Humidification […]
A host of private companies in Dubai and other emirates that have joined a voluntary initiative to reduce their energy and water consumption have experienced enormous success, demonstrating that it’s not impossible to do so. Last week the Emirates Wildlife Society – World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF) recognized five firms in particular for exceeding energy […]
The United Arab Emirates could save approximately 30 per cent of its daily water use if multi-residential buildings implement greywater recycling programs, according to a recent report compiled by researchers from the University of Sharjah. Currently the average Emirati consumes roughly 550 liters of clean water every day, 30% of which is flushed down the […]
In a bid to highlight our water use and waste, photographer Peter Holmes has created a series of memorable portraits of water use in different countries. “Statistics about water consumption are difficult to comprehend and are un-relatable to everyday life – this project attempts to make water consumption visible in a meaningful way.” Well, that’s […]
October 16, 2012 is World Food Day as designated by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This years theme is agricultural cooperatives, and the winner of the World Food Prize for 2012 is Dr. Daniel Hillel of Israel. He was honored for his work in micro-irrigation and innovative irrigation methods for […]
Four Turkish students collaborated to design Washit – a combined shower and washing machine that makes those 15 minute showers almost guiltless. Responding to the combined woes of water scarcity and excess water use in the bathroom, Ahmet Burak Aktas, Adem Onalan, Salih Berk Ilhan and Burak Soylemez created a shower box that collects, cleans, and […]
Faced with water shortage in Amman, Laurie digs up some alternative solutions for generating more water. No water in my house last week in Amman, Jordan and I’m mildly freaked: I’d just taken delivery on some giant bottles for our water cooler, and I was up to speed on laundry. But no water means no cleaning. […]
The relationship between Qatar and the UK keeps getting cozier – at least in the realm of architecture. First The Shard, which is owned almost completely by Qatar, was recently unveiled in London, and now the country’s first experimental eco-villa will be designed by a UK-based firm. Curtailed by the recession in their home country, […]
Tomato sprouts growing with AC water: waste not want not! Another hot summer is now upon us and most people in the Middle East that have them are running their air conditioning units at full blast. Many people may not realize that their AC units are also producing large amounts of “run off” water that […]
