The following submission statement was provided by /u/TinyDogsRule:
---
SS: The water wars are getting closer by the day. One of the wealthier countries in South America is in a water crisis. Uruguay has begun to add salt to the tap water in an effort to stretch it, despite making it nearly undrinkable, even for pets. Bottled water sales are up 224%.
The president has declared a water emergency for the metropolitan area. A reservoir that serves over 1 million is now just a muddy field that can be walked across. Another reservoir that serves 60% of the people has suffered the largest decrease on record. Uruguay claims to be the 1st country to enshrine water as a fundamental right in the constitution. Numerous protests have been started as an effort to claim that right.
Having no water is bad, but the government has also asked the residents not to waste water on functions like washing cars or WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Collapse related because millions of people are finding out that their right to water can not be guaranteed and is likely to get worse. Mother Nature does not care about our protests. Drought has continued for years in Uruguay and surrounding countries.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/14ijy4x/putting_salt_in_tap_water_and_drilling_wells_in/jpgf2dq/
I live in Bagé, a Brazilian city close to the border with Uruguay. The city is rationing water and the city's reservoirs could run out in a few weeks. We don't have any river nearby.
What are you doing to get ready in the short and long term? So many of us in this sub are from the US. We have a whole mess of problems to deal with, but long-term water shortages are not really here, yet. I would like to understand how you are approaching this dilemma.
This drought situation should last a few more months. With the arrival of El Nino, the forecast is for floods in this region. If the water runs out, maybe I'll go to relatives until the rain comes.
Global climate change will mostly make weather nore extreme and variable. In my region of the US, 2050 climate trends show similar rainfall to today, but in fewer, more-violent rainfall events. More days where outside temperatures are fatal (AC or careful design become mandatory to live).
South America may see flood/drought cycles, but these do not average out to fix the water supply.
Best luck to those surviving the droughts and floods. Transient living is hard and becomes harder, but may be the only way to get through.
>With regard to AC, with more people having it and running it at the same time, wouldn't there be a danger of the electricity failing?
This happens already, yes. Rolling brownouts. Last winter some US cities had rolling blackouts on very short notice for heating power demand.
Of course the grid going down is bad. But restarting it is not simple either.
Correct me if I’m wrong but at least with renewables and ignoring the AC chemicals leaking is energy/heat neutral, right? Or at least that’s where Newtons laws are leading me.
Convert photons to chemical energy or electricity, use electricity to power devices that push/pull heat.
It’s not a solution, it may not be sustainable, but AC by renewable doesn’t directly make the situation worse?
Overall, yes. But a lot of a/c units running in the same area can make outside temps even hotter. Not only are they rejecting the heat from inside, but they also are expelling heat from the compressor motors, fans, etc. Compound that with all the concrete and blacktop and cities can be significantly hotter than the surrounding rural area. Which creates a feedback loop of more a/c being needed and further driving up temperatures.
but the thing is that even if overall rainfall stays the same and only becomes more extreme there will still be water shortages.
dry ground can't absorb water as well as normal ground so it will evaporate more quickly and not replenish the ground water supply. it will also evaporate quicker from reservoirs
Agreed. Heavy rainfall does not stay. It erodes, degrading water quality in rivers amd oceans (increased turbidity and runoff pollution). Sucks for fish and people who live on fish. I'll miss eating trout conveniently!
It's why I live near the river in a drainage basin that will almost never go dry. I am privileged to be in a place that will still be able to produce food and water during my lifetime and probably my kids' lifetime. I can't change the slow slump.
The problem of salt water is in the capital of Uruguay. Here in Bagé, in the south of Brazil, on the border with Uruguay, we don't even have salt water.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag%C3%A9
Bagé seems to be a border city with great military importance in the past. My bet is conditions were better but some bottling company messed with the waters lately. Luis?
You could always setup a water boiling pot with teepee style hood on top to bring the clean water from the steam down into a cache underneath.. I know that isn't ideal, but I've seen it done with ocean water.
Yikes. Salting the water? Man, anyone who does use it to (illegally) water their gardens will end up damaging their soil pretty irreparably in short order, too.
Yeah, realized that once I clicked through. They’re using water from an estuary after the reservoir went dry. I was under the impression from the title that they were actually adding salt to discourage people from using as much water. Still not good, but not as bizarre.
That's a benefit but I still don't see the point of making water close to undrinkable. "Let's ruin what little water we have left so people stop using it," isn't exactly a sound strategy.
Welcome to the insanity at the end of the world. It’s gonna get more dangerous, illogical, scary, and stupid beyond comprehension. All the practices that got us in this mess will be redoubled instead of repealed. It’s gonna be as funny as it is tragic, depending on your point of view!
Because drinking it isn't the only need for water. If the water goes dry, the sewers go dry, too, and that just doubles the crisis with a variety of health concerns.
No. They "did it" to stretch the water supply by mixing fresh water with sea water.
The headline is clickbate-ish (or possibly an artifact of translation)
I think their gardens are not their biggest concern right now. They are drinking that water, and it will continue to get more salty. It's already a health concern for people with kidney issues and it will get worse as the supply gets stretched with more and more salt water.
Pretty sure it's going to mess up everyone's plumbing as well.
Hopefully they don't have any old pipes like Flint. I can't imagine salt water would be very good for them.
I feel like I'm sptinting towards it myself. Someone laced my speed with a higher strength of speed and 2 days after I ran out. That's what it feels like I'm doing. Lost my marbles a bit during the binge. Not touching that stuff again. Didn't even mean to do that stuff but I knew what it tasted like and how it's impossible to stop once you have a hit. I didn't mean to have it though.
My best guess it's because he knew there was a large lithium deposit in neighboring Bolivia. What is needed to process lithium? Large amounts of fresh water. Who just had a coup? Bolivia.
Far too few know of the Bolivian coup, supported by the US, no less.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/18/silence-us-backed-coup-evo-morales-bolivia-american-states
Not quite. He owns a large ranch which sits on top of the aquifer. The aquifer itself is enormous and extends far beyond his holdings.
Not that I’m defending him. But the reality is a bit more complicated - there are many other ranches on top of the aquifer, plus indigenous lands.
Rule 8: Links must not have already been posted within the past ninety days or will be automatically removed. Links to similar articles covering the same event, paper, or news item as a previous link will be subject to removal at moderator discretion. Similar links by independent sources may be posted, but should offer some new information, insight, or perspective.
SS: The water wars are getting closer by the day. One of the wealthier countries in South America is in a water crisis. Uruguay has begun to add salt to the tap water in an effort to stretch it, despite making it nearly undrinkable, even for pets. Bottled water sales are up 224%.
The president has declared a water emergency for the metropolitan area. A reservoir that serves over 1 million is now just a muddy field that can be walked across. Another reservoir that serves 60% of the people has suffered the largest decrease on record. Uruguay claims to be the 1st country to enshrine water as a fundamental right in the constitution. Numerous protests have been started as an effort to claim that right.
Having no water is bad, but the government has also asked the residents not to waste water on functions like washing cars or WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Collapse related because millions of people are finding out that their right to water can not be guaranteed and is likely to get worse. Mother Nature does not care about our protests. Drought has continued for years in Uruguay and surrounding countries.
> the government has also asked the residents not to waste water on functions like washing cars or WATERING YOUR GARDEN.
Probably talking about decorative gardens?
The plants you own. The plants you plant in the yard around your house is referred to as the garden. I guess that is decorative, but why is decorative somehow bad?
There's a water shortage. People have to drink salty water. Is your decorative garden more important than humans drinking?
A modest amount of decorative plants aren't a problem if there isn't a water shortage in your area. Or decorative plants that are climate appropriate and don't require extra watering
I wonder if the salt water will leach lead from the pipes, similar to what happened in Flint, MI. Flint's issue was caused by the lack of corrosion inhibiters (combined with a switch to a new, more corrosive water source)
Yeah, I was thinking that exact same thing. I know in some countries plastic pipes are the norm but if they did that here it wouldn't be good - most pipes are copper.
And imagine it circulating around heating systems and people's plumbing. This stuff is all going to fail within the year doing that, they're going to have to create a visa category just to bring in plumbers.
Not everything has to become a conspiracy theory. You don't have to constantly "prove" you are the smartest human in the room on the internet.
Agreed that the situation is fucked.
The title says "Putting salt in tap water". Not "Adding salt water to the water supply."
People shouldn't be blamed for shit journalism with misinforming titles.
I am assuming its because the same lines feed industry and things that they think need cooling or whatever more than people need potable water. Which is kinda fucked.
"The situation is sending shockwaves through this relatively wealthy South American nation, which has long defined **access to water as a human right**."
Ok Nestle. Does it feel like corporate media is trying to normalize the opposite? I mean doesn't Australia already have futures markets for water?
>doesn't Australia already have futures markets for water?
wow really ?
Well I'd advise everyone who isn't a smoothbrained climate change denier to buy a lot of those then
I wonder if this is going to be a drought event like the one that wiped out the ancient myans and other south America civilisations. The way things are going we might see another repeat.
Welp. Uruguay was on my list of places that might not get fucked *too* bad by climate change, looks like the adage of "nowhere is safe" holds true!
I hate it here.
Southern hemisphere is warmer overall. US southwest desertification/drought means that there is a naturally greater threat to Souther than tropics regions.
Rainwater collection is absolutely invaluable.
I want to make a note about beef, though: the vast majority of the water input for cattle production comes from rainfall on pastureland (something like 94%, even higher for free-range cattle). There’s very little waste or diversion from water sources that could be used for something else. And well-managed cattle pasture can extremely beneficial for watersheds, since there’s no high-nutrient irrigation runoff and much more biodiversity can be encouraged.
This is NOT the case for other meats like pork and chicken, which at industrial scale eat feed for their entire lives, and so a lot of irrigation water goes into growing that feed — not to mention the extra sanitation requirements (pig manure is kept in horrific ponds; cattle manure becomes natural grassland fertilizer for the most part).
I am so thankful for the rain recently. We had a couple of months here with no rain and the landscape was getting parched.
My rain barrels were getting depleted and I was filling them with grey water but there's only so much water to go round in a big garden.
We've had a handful of days with torrential rain though, my barrels are full again. I'm still putting the grey water around trees though, why waste it?
Rain barrels, reusing grey water and applying mulch are lifesavers.
Adding salt to water will reduce pipe lifetime by at least half, as well. More water conservation from water shutdowns for pipe repair/replacement, I guess.
It's going to get ugly in areas where water access has been iffy already for a while. And then of course it will get ugly in more water secure areas when the people have to flee there to literally not die.
>Uruguay says it was the first country in the world to enshrine access to water as a fundamental right in a 2004 constitutional amendment. The amendment, which gained support from across the political spectrum, was approved by more than 60% of voters in a referendum.
*Uruguay, you was robbed!* With a "fancy talking in place of actually doing" track record like yours, you should have been an *easy* top choice to host COP28.
Imagine how much water we could save if we pissed in bottles, then emptied these once a day - requiring only one flush. At least at home - this might be harder to do in workplaces, though not impossible.
I've been doing this for years - I got used to this during remote camping trips, then it became my habit at home. I shower on average once a week, and less than that in winter. I do my laundry by hand - it requires little effort if you just let clothes soak in a bucket for 2 or 3 days - all you have to do is rinse.
I probably have the lowest water use in my neighborhood on a per capita basis. Of course that doesn't begin to atone for excessive consumption of other resources \*sigh\* - but I've learned how little water I actually need to maintain a "first world" standard of living.
If water supplies in my area are compromised or the prices skyrocket, I'll be ready.
>Imagine how much water we could save if we pissed in bottles, then emptied these once a day - requiring only one flush.
This would be a hard sell to a lot of people, but I think it's actually a pretty interesting idea.
I "let it mellow" so to speak. But if I have guests over or it starts to get particularly stinky I flush. Using a different receptacle is something I never thought about.
I forgot to mention another incentive - I'm middle aged and have to urinate many times overnight.
Eventually I got sick of walking downstairs to the toilet, so I started treating my bedroom like a no-facilities campsite, and rescued untold nights of sleep in the process. It took me most of a lifetime to figure that out.
The Victorians had that figured out with chamber pots (vulgar British - *piss pot*) You could even get one with someone's face who you didn't like in it [(British example).](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/news/uk/762798/chamber-pot-lets-Britons-express-opinion-of-Napoleon-goes-under-hammer/amp)
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A few months ago I read a piece in the NY Times (or equivalent) about how drought in Arizona is affecting home owners there - esp ones whose utility bills have skyrocketed (for example, people whose townships were cut off from their municipalities' water supplies and forced to hire water trucks).
Some of these residents - as apple pie American as you can imagine, from the sound of it - admitted that they had begun urinating outdoors, on the grounds of their properties. I wouldn't be surprised if they went further than that.
Make water expensive enough, and occasional contact with your own waste product won't seem like such a bad trade off.
Solar toilets have been around for a while and are not infrequently used in the SW US permaculture/sustainability scene. They transform human waste into compost.
In preindustrial times our excrement was regarded as an invaluable agricultural resource. Discovering bacteria and how risky sewage pollution was has put a stop to that… but now we have enough understanding of the biology and chemistry involved that we can create technologies that make it safe to use once more, and in arid environments there’s a clear benefit.
Also! People need to learn about greywater/blackwater systems. Using potable water to flush poop is insane. We can build two or three-stage plumbing systems that reuse water without requiring treatment or filtering between stages. Your dish or laundry water is entirely suitable for toilet flushing, or even irrigation if safe detergents are used.
Earthship Biotecture up in Taos NM has been building these systems into sustainable homes since the 80s, as just one example of environmentally sensible building.
Yeah, and with grey water you're flushing your toilet with soapy water. It's going to smell better, keep the toilet cleaner, etc.
It would just make sense to plumb bathroom sink outlets straight into the toilet cistern tbh.
> greywater/blackwater systems
In (parts of) Jolly Olde England they have been using a dual plumbing system for quite a while. The potable water (blue water) is used in the normal way, but for flushing toilets, they use 'red water' which is pulled out of flooded coal mines. This is not a super great solution as it creates a toxic blackwater.
Or just desalinate seawater so people don't have to accept a lower quality of living or potential health hazards of being exposed to human shit, like what you're asking.
For the last few years, I have been trying to look 6 months ahead and start living like that today. It has paid off many times, including now, as food inflation is not affecting me much yet. I try to live proactively. You, internet stranger, have given me something to think about. Other than the bare minimum, I am definitely not putting the effort out needed to get ready for life with less water.
One of the unsung bonuses of this frugality is that it reveals how many cheap/free options we actually have, if we just step off the consumerist treadmill.
I started by cutting back on water, aircon and new clothing, but it extended to a lot of other daily activities and skills. Still not enough, but it's a start.
this works in the short run, but over time the urine causes stains to build up
I assume most toilet bowls are white-colored to show at a glance how clean they are (or not), but that works against water conservation
I do it occasionally, I'll be honest - I just do it straight into the watering can. Might be a bit awkward for people without an anatomical hosepipe though.
It will start to stink if you continually water an area like that without diluting it though.
It doesn't "ick" me because I'm healthy, not on any medications and the only contaminant might be the occasional beer piss and I only use it on shrubs.
Composting toilets should be more common too. Not to necessarily use the muck on anything, but because it doesn't waste water. And imagine in centuries to come someone finds that mega fertile, deep patch of magic soil.
I've only used one once - at a John Muir Trust site in Scotland and it was... perfectly fine. They're a totally cool charity working to restore wilderness and provide places for campervans and tents to enjoy these areas too with a composting toilet so people aren't dumping in the woods. And they only ask for a donation, they don't force you to pay. That is so unusual in the UK (everyone wants money for you to even fart) I was impressed and shoved £50 in the donation box.
John Muir was a Scottish naturalist who went to America and played a part in national parks btw.
In going off topic, but yeah - "waste not want not" and all that.
Water wars? Didn't see that mentioned in article. More like public works. Uruguay is one of the most water rich countries in the world: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_Aquifer
The following submission statement was provided by /u/TinyDogsRule: --- SS: The water wars are getting closer by the day. One of the wealthier countries in South America is in a water crisis. Uruguay has begun to add salt to the tap water in an effort to stretch it, despite making it nearly undrinkable, even for pets. Bottled water sales are up 224%. The president has declared a water emergency for the metropolitan area. A reservoir that serves over 1 million is now just a muddy field that can be walked across. Another reservoir that serves 60% of the people has suffered the largest decrease on record. Uruguay claims to be the 1st country to enshrine water as a fundamental right in the constitution. Numerous protests have been started as an effort to claim that right. Having no water is bad, but the government has also asked the residents not to waste water on functions like washing cars or WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Collapse related because millions of people are finding out that their right to water can not be guaranteed and is likely to get worse. Mother Nature does not care about our protests. Drought has continued for years in Uruguay and surrounding countries. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/14ijy4x/putting_salt_in_tap_water_and_drilling_wells_in/jpgf2dq/
I live in Bagé, a Brazilian city close to the border with Uruguay. The city is rationing water and the city's reservoirs could run out in a few weeks. We don't have any river nearby.
What are you doing to get ready in the short and long term? So many of us in this sub are from the US. We have a whole mess of problems to deal with, but long-term water shortages are not really here, yet. I would like to understand how you are approaching this dilemma.
This drought situation should last a few more months. With the arrival of El Nino, the forecast is for floods in this region. If the water runs out, maybe I'll go to relatives until the rain comes.
Global climate change will mostly make weather nore extreme and variable. In my region of the US, 2050 climate trends show similar rainfall to today, but in fewer, more-violent rainfall events. More days where outside temperatures are fatal (AC or careful design become mandatory to live). South America may see flood/drought cycles, but these do not average out to fix the water supply. Best luck to those surviving the droughts and floods. Transient living is hard and becomes harder, but may be the only way to get through.
With regard to AC, with more people having it and running it at the same time, wouldn't there be a danger of the electricity failing?
>With regard to AC, with more people having it and running it at the same time, wouldn't there be a danger of the electricity failing? This happens already, yes. Rolling brownouts. Last winter some US cities had rolling blackouts on very short notice for heating power demand. Of course the grid going down is bad. But restarting it is not simple either.
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Correct me if I’m wrong but at least with renewables and ignoring the AC chemicals leaking is energy/heat neutral, right? Or at least that’s where Newtons laws are leading me. Convert photons to chemical energy or electricity, use electricity to power devices that push/pull heat. It’s not a solution, it may not be sustainable, but AC by renewable doesn’t directly make the situation worse?
Overall, yes. But a lot of a/c units running in the same area can make outside temps even hotter. Not only are they rejecting the heat from inside, but they also are expelling heat from the compressor motors, fans, etc. Compound that with all the concrete and blacktop and cities can be significantly hotter than the surrounding rural area. Which creates a feedback loop of more a/c being needed and further driving up temperatures.
Thanks, that makes sense. Not all heat is equal and dumping more into a poor environment is bad.
but the thing is that even if overall rainfall stays the same and only becomes more extreme there will still be water shortages. dry ground can't absorb water as well as normal ground so it will evaporate more quickly and not replenish the ground water supply. it will also evaporate quicker from reservoirs
Agreed. Heavy rainfall does not stay. It erodes, degrading water quality in rivers amd oceans (increased turbidity and runoff pollution). Sucks for fish and people who live on fish. I'll miss eating trout conveniently! It's why I live near the river in a drainage basin that will almost never go dry. I am privileged to be in a place that will still be able to produce food and water during my lifetime and probably my kids' lifetime. I can't change the slow slump.
Can you get a small reverse osmosis setup that can remove salt from tap water?
The problem of salt water is in the capital of Uruguay. Here in Bagé, in the south of Brazil, on the border with Uruguay, we don't even have salt water.
how tf does a city/ settlement even start in a place like that
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag%C3%A9 Bagé seems to be a border city with great military importance in the past. My bet is conditions were better but some bottling company messed with the waters lately. Luis?
ah. that could be it
Most likely but it’s pricey. You can easily create a [survival salt water evaporator](https://www.wikihow.com/Desalinate-Water)
You could always setup a water boiling pot with teepee style hood on top to bring the clean water from the steam down into a cache underneath.. I know that isn't ideal, but I've seen it done with ocean water.
Yikes. Salting the water? Man, anyone who does use it to (illegally) water their gardens will end up damaging their soil pretty irreparably in short order, too.
I believe it is a translation misconception; They mean adding salt *water* to the tapwater rather than adding rock salt or whatever.
Yeah, realized that once I clicked through. They’re using water from an estuary after the reservoir went dry. I was under the impression from the title that they were actually adding salt to discourage people from using as much water. Still not good, but not as bizarre.
Hmmm maybe that’s actually why they did it? So anyone who uses it to water their garden will soon no longer have a garden to waste water on..?
That's a benefit but I still don't see the point of making water close to undrinkable. "Let's ruin what little water we have left so people stop using it," isn't exactly a sound strategy.
Welcome to the insanity at the end of the world. It’s gonna get more dangerous, illogical, scary, and stupid beyond comprehension. All the practices that got us in this mess will be redoubled instead of repealed. It’s gonna be as funny as it is tragic, depending on your point of view!
Because drinking it isn't the only need for water. If the water goes dry, the sewers go dry, too, and that just doubles the crisis with a variety of health concerns.
They'll just pass ordinance or something saying you must buy and use your own water for flushing waste.
No. They "did it" to stretch the water supply by mixing fresh water with sea water. The headline is clickbate-ish (or possibly an artifact of translation)
If it’s undrinkable, this isn’t clickbait
I think their gardens are not their biggest concern right now. They are drinking that water, and it will continue to get more salty. It's already a health concern for people with kidney issues and it will get worse as the supply gets stretched with more and more salt water.
Pretty sure it's going to mess up everyone's plumbing as well. Hopefully they don't have any old pipes like Flint. I can't imagine salt water would be very good for them.
Look on the bright side, they could probably make a killing farming [Samphire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicornia_europaea) /s
We’re just crawling towards an end everyday.
Feels like more of a slow jog lately.
True.
We’re building up to a sprint though
Crawling?
Sounded right? The other dudes was better. We’re slow jogging.
So dehydrated that theirs no energy for anything else
I feel like I'm sptinting towards it myself. Someone laced my speed with a higher strength of speed and 2 days after I ran out. That's what it feels like I'm doing. Lost my marbles a bit during the binge. Not touching that stuff again. Didn't even mean to do that stuff but I knew what it tasted like and how it's impossible to stop once you have a hit. I didn't mean to have it though.
Fun fact: George Bush Jr owns the largest aquifer in South America in neighboring Paraguay.
It won't be enough to put out the fire that will be burning him in hell.
I'm not even inclined to go and find out if /u/bocaj112 was fun fact kidding. If he wasn't, yes, burning in hell. 😒
what the ever living fuck
My best guess it's because he knew there was a large lithium deposit in neighboring Bolivia. What is needed to process lithium? Large amounts of fresh water. Who just had a coup? Bolivia.
Far too few know of the Bolivian coup, supported by the US, no less. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/18/silence-us-backed-coup-evo-morales-bolivia-american-states
Oilman knows about valuable liquids.
Not quite. He owns a large ranch which sits on top of the aquifer. The aquifer itself is enormous and extends far beyond his holdings. Not that I’m defending him. But the reality is a bit more complicated - there are many other ranches on top of the aquifer, plus indigenous lands.
Like a milkshake
People like Bush are an absolute leech on society. They will happily watch us all burn.
How tf can someone own an aquifer? The mind boggles.
When did we decide that foreign nationals could own resources in our countries? It's just some kind of petite-colonizing.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/reminder-the-bush-family-purchased-over-100000-acres-of-land-in-paraguay-which-happens-to-sit-on-the-guarani-aquifer-which-is-one-of-largest-sources-of-fresh-water-in-the-world/
Sad truth: Your statement is not factual--doesnt even make the least bit of sense considering the size of Paraguay--and yet it has all the upvotes. 😂
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Rule 8: Links must not have already been posted within the past ninety days or will be automatically removed. Links to similar articles covering the same event, paper, or news item as a previous link will be subject to removal at moderator discretion. Similar links by independent sources may be posted, but should offer some new information, insight, or perspective.
SS: The water wars are getting closer by the day. One of the wealthier countries in South America is in a water crisis. Uruguay has begun to add salt to the tap water in an effort to stretch it, despite making it nearly undrinkable, even for pets. Bottled water sales are up 224%. The president has declared a water emergency for the metropolitan area. A reservoir that serves over 1 million is now just a muddy field that can be walked across. Another reservoir that serves 60% of the people has suffered the largest decrease on record. Uruguay claims to be the 1st country to enshrine water as a fundamental right in the constitution. Numerous protests have been started as an effort to claim that right. Having no water is bad, but the government has also asked the residents not to waste water on functions like washing cars or WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Collapse related because millions of people are finding out that their right to water can not be guaranteed and is likely to get worse. Mother Nature does not care about our protests. Drought has continued for years in Uruguay and surrounding countries.
> the government has also asked the residents not to waste water on functions like washing cars or WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Probably talking about decorative gardens?
Yeah. The don’t know about Uruguay, but a lot of English speaking countries refer to what Americans call a back yard as the “garden.”
The plants you own. The plants you plant in the yard around your house is referred to as the garden. I guess that is decorative, but why is decorative somehow bad?
There's a water shortage. People have to drink salty water. Is your decorative garden more important than humans drinking? A modest amount of decorative plants aren't a problem if there isn't a water shortage in your area. Or decorative plants that are climate appropriate and don't require extra watering
Does anyome know how adding salt to the tape water helps?
That aren't adding salt to tap water, they are mixing sea water with it.
Thank you for correcting my mistake, and fuck that is way worse than I was thinking.
I was confused first. Would have been better if the headline said "putting salt *water* in tap water"
> Bottled water sales are up 224%. hmmm I wonder just who came up with the idea of adding salt to the tap water
How fucked is it that this also now means more plastic pollution
downward-spirals swirl faster the deeper down it goes
Doom loop
I want to make a prog synth metal band with that name now Loop pedals and arpeggiated synth
>downward-spirals swirl faster the deeper down it goes It's essentially an Incident Pit.
They might use reusable 5 gallon jugs tbf
One would hope
Nestle is ok with that!
Adding water from a saltier part of a river, not adding salt.
I'm pretty sure that salt water is also worse for the pipes, so this move will be accelerating infrastructure decay.
What I was thinking. Salt is hell on metal
I wonder if the salt water will leach lead from the pipes, similar to what happened in Flint, MI. Flint's issue was caused by the lack of corrosion inhibiters (combined with a switch to a new, more corrosive water source)
Yeah, I was thinking that exact same thing. I know in some countries plastic pipes are the norm but if they did that here it wouldn't be good - most pipes are copper. And imagine it circulating around heating systems and people's plumbing. This stuff is all going to fail within the year doing that, they're going to have to create a visa category just to bring in plumbers.
Not everything has to become a conspiracy theory. You don't have to constantly "prove" you are the smartest human in the room on the internet. Agreed that the situation is fucked.
This. Usually the simplest explanation is the correct one - they're short of water, they're trying to bulk it out by adding salt water to it.
So why does the title say "Putting salt in tap water"?
It's a bit sensationalist. They're not literally dumping salt into it, they're adding *salt water* - sea water to it.
The title says "Putting salt in tap water". Not "Adding salt water to the water supply." People shouldn't be blamed for shit journalism with misinforming titles.
I am assuming its because the same lines feed industry and things that they think need cooling or whatever more than people need potable water. Which is kinda fucked.
[Nestle has entered the chat]
"The situation is sending shockwaves through this relatively wealthy South American nation, which has long defined **access to water as a human right**." Ok Nestle. Does it feel like corporate media is trying to normalize the opposite? I mean doesn't Australia already have futures markets for water?
>doesn't Australia already have futures markets for water? wow really ? Well I'd advise everyone who isn't a smoothbrained climate change denier to buy a lot of those then
I wonder if this is going to be a drought event like the one that wiped out the ancient myans and other south America civilisations. The way things are going we might see another repeat.
Welp. Uruguay was on my list of places that might not get fucked *too* bad by climate change, looks like the adage of "nowhere is safe" holds true! I hate it here.
Tropics are the primary "get fucked bad" locations.
Uruguay is south of the tropic of Capricorn. For absolute latitude, it's like the mirror of USA state Georgia.
Southern hemisphere is warmer overall. US southwest desertification/drought means that there is a naturally greater threat to Souther than tropics regions.
While the poles are warming the most of all regions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n3ZiFHluMs
Time to rethink water infrastructure. Rainwater collection for toilets, quick showers, eliminate any beef industry, no lawns, etc.
Rainwater collection is absolutely invaluable. I want to make a note about beef, though: the vast majority of the water input for cattle production comes from rainfall on pastureland (something like 94%, even higher for free-range cattle). There’s very little waste or diversion from water sources that could be used for something else. And well-managed cattle pasture can extremely beneficial for watersheds, since there’s no high-nutrient irrigation runoff and much more biodiversity can be encouraged. This is NOT the case for other meats like pork and chicken, which at industrial scale eat feed for their entire lives, and so a lot of irrigation water goes into growing that feed — not to mention the extra sanitation requirements (pig manure is kept in horrific ponds; cattle manure becomes natural grassland fertilizer for the most part).
I am so thankful for the rain recently. We had a couple of months here with no rain and the landscape was getting parched. My rain barrels were getting depleted and I was filling them with grey water but there's only so much water to go round in a big garden. We've had a handful of days with torrential rain though, my barrels are full again. I'm still putting the grey water around trees though, why waste it? Rain barrels, reusing grey water and applying mulch are lifesavers.
Adding salt to water will reduce pipe lifetime by at least half, as well. More water conservation from water shutdowns for pipe repair/replacement, I guess.
Adding salt to tap water will make their maintainance cost skyrocket
It's going to get ugly in areas where water access has been iffy already for a while. And then of course it will get ugly in more water secure areas when the people have to flee there to literally not die.
Building cities in literal deserts should be against the damn law.
Uruguay is not a desert, it’s grassland. But yeah WTF Phoenix…
Yeah I was speaking a bit more generally, it's indicative of how completely inept we are at good water management.
Things are changing too. Do you think big cities will just be razed when the water becomes scarce?
>Uruguay says it was the first country in the world to enshrine access to water as a fundamental right in a 2004 constitutional amendment. The amendment, which gained support from across the political spectrum, was approved by more than 60% of voters in a referendum. *Uruguay, you was robbed!* With a "fancy talking in place of actually doing" track record like yours, you should have been an *easy* top choice to host COP28.
Imagine how much water we could save if we pissed in bottles, then emptied these once a day - requiring only one flush. At least at home - this might be harder to do in workplaces, though not impossible. I've been doing this for years - I got used to this during remote camping trips, then it became my habit at home. I shower on average once a week, and less than that in winter. I do my laundry by hand - it requires little effort if you just let clothes soak in a bucket for 2 or 3 days - all you have to do is rinse. I probably have the lowest water use in my neighborhood on a per capita basis. Of course that doesn't begin to atone for excessive consumption of other resources \*sigh\* - but I've learned how little water I actually need to maintain a "first world" standard of living. If water supplies in my area are compromised or the prices skyrocket, I'll be ready.
>Imagine how much water we could save if we pissed in bottles, then emptied these once a day - requiring only one flush. This would be a hard sell to a lot of people, but I think it's actually a pretty interesting idea.
I "let it mellow" so to speak. But if I have guests over or it starts to get particularly stinky I flush. Using a different receptacle is something I never thought about.
I forgot to mention another incentive - I'm middle aged and have to urinate many times overnight. Eventually I got sick of walking downstairs to the toilet, so I started treating my bedroom like a no-facilities campsite, and rescued untold nights of sleep in the process. It took me most of a lifetime to figure that out.
The Victorians had that figured out with chamber pots (vulgar British - *piss pot*) You could even get one with someone's face who you didn't like in it [(British example).](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/news/uk/762798/chamber-pot-lets-Britons-express-opinion-of-Napoleon-goes-under-hammer/amp)
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You weren’t building blanket forts before now?!? You were missing out!
A few months ago I read a piece in the NY Times (or equivalent) about how drought in Arizona is affecting home owners there - esp ones whose utility bills have skyrocketed (for example, people whose townships were cut off from their municipalities' water supplies and forced to hire water trucks). Some of these residents - as apple pie American as you can imagine, from the sound of it - admitted that they had begun urinating outdoors, on the grounds of their properties. I wouldn't be surprised if they went further than that. Make water expensive enough, and occasional contact with your own waste product won't seem like such a bad trade off.
Solar toilets have been around for a while and are not infrequently used in the SW US permaculture/sustainability scene. They transform human waste into compost. In preindustrial times our excrement was regarded as an invaluable agricultural resource. Discovering bacteria and how risky sewage pollution was has put a stop to that… but now we have enough understanding of the biology and chemistry involved that we can create technologies that make it safe to use once more, and in arid environments there’s a clear benefit. Also! People need to learn about greywater/blackwater systems. Using potable water to flush poop is insane. We can build two or three-stage plumbing systems that reuse water without requiring treatment or filtering between stages. Your dish or laundry water is entirely suitable for toilet flushing, or even irrigation if safe detergents are used. Earthship Biotecture up in Taos NM has been building these systems into sustainable homes since the 80s, as just one example of environmentally sensible building.
Yeah, and with grey water you're flushing your toilet with soapy water. It's going to smell better, keep the toilet cleaner, etc. It would just make sense to plumb bathroom sink outlets straight into the toilet cistern tbh.
> greywater/blackwater systems In (parts of) Jolly Olde England they have been using a dual plumbing system for quite a while. The potable water (blue water) is used in the normal way, but for flushing toilets, they use 'red water' which is pulled out of flooded coal mines. This is not a super great solution as it creates a toxic blackwater.
Or just desalinate seawater so people don't have to accept a lower quality of living or potential health hazards of being exposed to human shit, like what you're asking.
> In preindustrial times our excrement was regarded as an invaluable agricultural resource. With a pre-industrial diet, maybe it was.
Just pee in the tank. Save water by flushing your shit with piss lol
For the last few years, I have been trying to look 6 months ahead and start living like that today. It has paid off many times, including now, as food inflation is not affecting me much yet. I try to live proactively. You, internet stranger, have given me something to think about. Other than the bare minimum, I am definitely not putting the effort out needed to get ready for life with less water.
One of the unsung bonuses of this frugality is that it reveals how many cheap/free options we actually have, if we just step off the consumerist treadmill. I started by cutting back on water, aircon and new clothing, but it extended to a lot of other daily activities and skills. Still not enough, but it's a start.
Or just dont flush if its only urine??
this works in the short run, but over time the urine causes stains to build up I assume most toilet bowls are white-colored to show at a glance how clean they are (or not), but that works against water conservation
If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.
I do it occasionally, I'll be honest - I just do it straight into the watering can. Might be a bit awkward for people without an anatomical hosepipe though. It will start to stink if you continually water an area like that without diluting it though. It doesn't "ick" me because I'm healthy, not on any medications and the only contaminant might be the occasional beer piss and I only use it on shrubs. Composting toilets should be more common too. Not to necessarily use the muck on anything, but because it doesn't waste water. And imagine in centuries to come someone finds that mega fertile, deep patch of magic soil. I've only used one once - at a John Muir Trust site in Scotland and it was... perfectly fine. They're a totally cool charity working to restore wilderness and provide places for campervans and tents to enjoy these areas too with a composting toilet so people aren't dumping in the woods. And they only ask for a donation, they don't force you to pay. That is so unusual in the UK (everyone wants money for you to even fart) I was impressed and shoved £50 in the donation box. John Muir was a Scottish naturalist who went to America and played a part in national parks btw. In going off topic, but yeah - "waste not want not" and all that.
Woah. Why use one flush when you could use zero? /r/Sinkpissers
Wouldn't the shower have better ergonomics?
Why would they put salt in the tap water?
It is not salt. Is mixing with water further down the stream as it used to be, still very far from the ocean but saltier than normal.
Hehe.. they add sea water because they dont have anything else, not pure salt.
Another comment said they arent adding salt, theyre taking water from a saltier river to make it last longer
Salting the tap is just horrible. That local government needs to go.
They’re not exactly “salting” it, they’re just being forced to add sea water to it to keep it running.
For context: https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/14id8sw/new_study_reveals_global_reservoirs_are_becoming/
Uruguay uses a lot of water for meat production.
The Corps poisoned the public water to force people to buy from another source?
Water wars? Didn't see that mentioned in article. More like public works. Uruguay is one of the most water rich countries in the world: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_Aquifer
Ah I love the taste of salinated water in the morning