White Paper on Green Buildings: Water problems aren’t going to evaporate

From ClimateGrouch:

We’re getting ready to present our seventh annual White Paper on green buildings; this one focuses on “water performance.” Look for it at Greenbuild, in Phoenix (and while you’re there, visit our "Experimental Patient Room 3.0" on the 3rd floor of the PHX Convention Center).

We cover a lot of good stuff: how Building Teams are using new high-efficiency plumbing products in their projects, both indoors and out; what the numerous green buildings programs (LEED, Green Globes, CHPS, Green Guide for Health Care, and some you may not be that familiar with, like Environments for Living and the IAPMO Green Plumbing and Mechanical Code Supplement) have to say about water, and we discuss the "water-energy nexus," the energy toll of supplying and treating water.

There’s stuff on the EPA’s WaterSense program (which is doing remarkably well in terms of public and professional acceptance), "purple pipes" (not an early indication of a chest cold) and some of the "unintended consequences" of being more water efficient, including the dreaded "drain line transport" problem, which you don’t want to read about during lunch.

We also have the results of our survey of 748 BD+C subscribers, providing the most authoritative, up-to-date review of where architects, engineers, contractors, building owners, and developers stand on water issues and the extent to which they are implementing "water performance" in their projects (eat your heart out, McGraw-Hill). Just for the heck of it, we also did a survey of 185 home builders and others linked to the residential market, to see how the two groups compared on the issues.

As always in our White Papers, we have a detailed "Action Plan," which offers concrete steps (with fly ash to gain Materials & Resource credits) that Building Teams, government agencies, building owners and developers, and the public can take to address water-related issues.

Now to some serious matters.

Regrettably, we were not able to discuss a number of truly important water-related concerns; to name just one, the presence of pharmaceutical waste in our water supplies. A 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Survey of 139 streams in 30 states found human and veterinary drugs, hormones, and other substances in 80% of the streams. How these waste drugs are distorting the genetic makeup of fish and other wildlife in and around the nation’s waterways is a subject that is almost too creepy to think about.

Nor, we regret, did we cover water in the Third World, where more than a billion people lack access to the minimal water standard set by the World Health Organization: 20 liters (about five gallons) of water per person a day, within a half-mile or so of their homes.

We didn’t get into the fact that the hundreds of millions of women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have to carry as much as 20 kg (44 pounds) of water each day, often trekking long distances in the heat to do so. Of course, many of these women are really just girls, and they’re probably carrying the equivalent of half their weight. So, try this: If you’re a 160-pound male, rig up 80 pounds of water (about 10 gallon jugs) on your back and carry that load a half mile or so. See if that keeps you in shape.

Nor did we mention that children who live in parts of the world with unconscionably below-standard water and sanitation service die at 20 times the rate of those who live in countries with merely adequate water and sewer services.

We left out any discussion of water-borne diseases like onchocerciasis (river blindness), which afflicts 18 million in Africa (and can be treated with a couple of pills a year); or schistosomiasis, in which parasitic worms bore under the victim’s skin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say this dreadful condition can be treated with a few pills. Why, then, are 200 million people in Africa, Asia, and South America still suffering from it?

Seven years ago, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (in its General Comment No. 15) explicitly recognized access to clean water as a fundamental human right and established the WHO standard (20 liters a day per person within one kilometer) as the baseline. But with the impact of climate change and world population growth, 2.7 billion could face severe water shortages by 2025. How can we in good conscience allow this to happen?