4 ms·
I agree that we'll probably need to start making a lot more fresh water. I am however confused by the suggestion that any large portion should go towards dumpi
by wnoise 4y ago
I agree that we'll probably need to start making a lot more fresh water. I am however confused by the suggestion that any large portion should go towards dumping it in existing watersheds. I would have though that the simplest and most robust thing to do would be just to pipe it directly to existing customers and reservoirs. While many of the reservoirs are actually on rivers, many aren't, and even for those that are, filling way upstream seems incredibly round-about. I looked through the article and couldn't find any real explanation for why this would be reasonable.
- vermilingua 4y agoBecause humans aren’t the only consumers of fresh water, and flora and fauna don’t migrate to reservoirs. Refilling rivers is a way to better emulate increased rainfall, reducing our already outsized impact on the ecosystem.
- icegreentea2 4y agoI think OP's point was that more directly transporting water to where it's used by humans is more efficient, and will also remove/reduce that particular consumers impact on existing rivers (therefore reducing impact on ecosystems). To more directly address the OP's point - dumping water into existing resevoirs and rivers allow us to reuse existing infrastructure getting water from source to consumer (at the cost of other inefficiencies). I'm certain the real answer is case by case and if such a system were to be implemented, we would see the whole spectrum of implementation deployed.
- dzab 4y agoUltimately it would be discharged by sanitary water treatment plants back into the waterways, even if first supplied for human consumption.
- friend_and_foe 4y agoWhat's being discussed here is a bit of a far flung, post scarcity situation.