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Distributing Portable Water Equitably to Sustain Life - Coggle Diagram
Distributing Portable Water Equitably to Sustain Life
Problem Statement
There are challenges for the increasing human population in sharing water resources equitably for drinking and irrigation, electricity generation and a range of industrial and domestic processes.
Wastage of water in electricity generation
Vedant
Thermal power plants consume an excessive amount of water according to RTI (right to information)
19% of 156 thermal plants whose data was collected said that they did not comply with water norms
Excessive water consumption is causing water stress -- affects households, farms, and industries
40% of India's thermal plants are located in areas facing acute water shortage according to World Resources Institute
600 million Indians live with "high-to-extreme water stress"
Thermal power plants consume 87.8% of the total amount of water consumed by the industrial sector
water is used as a coolant as well as for the disposal of flyash, which is a byproduct of the combustion process
in the past 5 years, 61 coal plants were shut down because of water shortages, resulting in a loss of 17k gigawatt-hours of electricity according to IEEFA
water consumed by thermal plants is enough to irrigate 700 hectares of land a year
in other countries, dry cooling is used to minimize water wastage
thermal power and coal-based plants put stress on households, particularly villages, and farming communities
conflicts
in UP, affecting 4000 people --> petition was flied against Bajaj Power Plant for unlawfulling using the water from the fam that the farmers use for irrigation
in Odisha - 10k people, especially farmers affected. sahara power plant began to use water from the Tel river - many farms use the river to grow crops
1-megawatt (MW) thermal plant operating at full capacity for a year would produce 8,760 MW per hour of electricity while consuming 22,688 cubic metres of water. five solar plants of 1 MW capacity each, operating at 20% capacity, would consume 876 cubic metres of water per megawatt-hour to produce 8,760 MW per hour of electricity
Vipul
India is one of the most water-stressed nations in the world, as our baseline water stress scored a 3.6 out of 5.0, which indicates a high ratio of total annual water withdrawals to total annual available renewable supply.
The IEA estimated water use in 2010 as high as 40 billion cubic meters for withdrawal, with only 4 billion cubic meters for consumption.
Water can also be conserved by substituting it with alternatives, such as replacing it as a heat transfer fluid with other liquids that have cooling applications. Ethylene glycol or glycol solutions can be used as a coolant instead of water.
Possible Solutions and Question
Saving water used in industrial processes and electricity generation -- converting it to drinking water -- using it in agriculture through aeroponics/ vertical farming/ aquaponics
Using renewable energy (windmills and solar power) in place of thermal power plants -- water saved -- saved water can be converted to drinking and irrigation water -- distributed to farms and villages across bangalore
Water is used as a coolant in thermal power plants - is there anything else that can be used as a coolant?
