Local farmer using excess water to flood crops and improve his water table.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — An olive orchard at Terranova Ranch in western Fresno County is being flooded to recharge the aquifer.
"A lot of people didn’t think we could do it, or we’d injure the vines or crops long-term," said The water percolates underground where it’s stored and pumped back up at a later date– the olives still look healthy.
"We’re seeing how much water we can put on, how long we can leave it on without harming the crops," said Don Cameron, Helm farmer.
Cameron is a pioneer in the process– a flood recharge workshop on his farm drew over 70 people, including UC researchers, irrigation districts, and farmers from around the state.
"I think there’s much greater attention to this concept now because water scarcity has such a direct economic threat to the viability of the Valley," said Daniel Mountjoy, Sustainable Conservation.
Grapes hold the most potential– we were on Cameron’s farm in February when he started flooding this vineyard.
But the technique is now catching on with olive, almond, pistachio, and walnut growers statewide.
Many came to learn more about the science behind flood recharge and how to best protect their crop.
"That excess water is going to benefit us by leeching the naturally occurring salts that we’re pumping through our groundwater on and getting our soil profile clean for our roots," said Matt Efird, Caruthers grower The technique works best in sandy soils because the floodwater has an easier time soaking through, reducing the risk of over-saturating roots.

CHENNAI: The Union government’s move to tap treated water from sewage treatment plants (STPs) to fulfil the needs of coal power plants will not be adequate as STPs do not have enough capacity to fulfil the needs of power plants, said a report from environmental NGO Greenpeace.
According to the study, ‘Pipe Dreams: Treated Sewage will not solve coal power’s water problems’, a 1,000-MW coal-based power plant requires 84 million litres a day while most of the sewage treatment plants in smaller cities have a daily capacity of less than 20 million litres.
The Power Ministry has mapped the operational sewage treatment plants in cities that are at a maximum distance of 50 km from the power plant, and has identified 29 power plants across the country, which could be supplied with treated water from STPs.
Of these, two are in Tamil Nadu — National Thermal Power Corporation Tamil Nadu Energy Company Limited (NTECL) in Vallur and Ind Bharat Power Gen in Thoothukudi.
However, according to Greenpeace, less than 8 per cent of India’s coal power plants can completely switch from fresh water to treated sewage water, while about 5 percent can partially meet their water requirements from treated sewage.
The study said switching from fresh water to treated water will not reduce the impact of coal power plants on water scarcity in the country.
It also called for timely adoption of water consumption target set by the Environment Ministry in its notification dated December 7, 2015.
All permits for new coal plants must be halted as they are in any event not required at least till 2027 as per the Central Electricity Authority’s draft National Electricity Plan, said the report.
“Switching to treated sewage water is not a solution to the water scarcity created by coal power plants and should be done after an impact assessment,” the report said.
The way out, the report, said was moving to renewable technologies such as solar energy, which have many advantages.

Water is the Currency now on Fear the Walking Dead: Mad Max Inspiration.
Reminiscent of Mad Max: Fury Road, Strand commented “Water is the Currency now”.
Reclaiming the crown as king, green paper reduced to the history books.
The ominous vision of the future where the rich and powerful control a basic necessity for life… Was more chilling than a herd of zombies could ever be.
Fear the Walking Dead inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road If you care, my top five 2015, so far: 1.
Mad Max — Robert Kirkman (@RobertKirkman) August 30, 2015 It’s no secret that Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead was a major fan of 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.
In fact, he listed the film three times in his top 5 movies of 2015 on Twitter.
Mad Max appears to have inspired Kirkman to put his own spin on the concept on Fear the Walking Dead.
A major part of Kirkman’s success with The Walking Dead was after all, the idea of human behavior faced with limited resources.
The walkers have always been consistently predictable, human behavior is not.

Carlsberg aims for zero carbon emissions by 2030.
The Carlsberg Group has announced it will commit to eliminating carbon emissions and halving water usage at its breweries by 2030.
The group also plans to power breweries using exclusively renewable electricity by 2022.
Beer-in-hand emissions are defined as those that relate to the ‘full life-cycle carbon footprint of a product,’ for example agricultural production, transport logistics and retail refrigeration.
In line with its efforts to halve water usage, the Carlsberg Group is working with the WWF to identify breweries located in high-risk water scarcity areas and improve water management at these sites in particular.
Finally, under the leadership of the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, the group will establish a community of young scientists to ‘help foster further scientific developments within carbon dioxide, water and sustainable brewing.’ Cees ‘t Hart, CEO of the Carlsberg Group said: “Global challenges such as climate change and water scarcity require strong collective action, and with Together Towards ZERO we’re setting new industry standards for science-based and partnership-driven sustainability as part of our SAIL’22 strategy.
“We’re committed to delivering zero carbon emissions and halving water usage at our breweries by 2030.
As a first action, we’ll switch to 100% renewable electricity by 2022 and cooperate with partners to protect shared water resources in selected water-scarce areas.
I’m certain that in achieving our targets we’ll create efficiency improvements, risk reduction and a more resilient business that exists in harmony with local communities and the environment.” “Our clear targets and ambitions reflect the mentality of our founders to always strive for perfection and contribute to society through science.
The world needs leadership, which is why we’ve made it a top priority to improve the world of tomorrow in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.” Those wishing to follow Carlsberg’s progress on social media can do so using the hashtag #TowardsZERO.

Monkeys causing no harm to devotees: PADT.
Kathmandu, June 13 A behavioral study of monkeys recently conducted by Pashupati Area Development Trust showed that monkeys neither caused havoc nor harmed devotees coming to visit the temple.
Acting on the interim order issued by the Supreme Court, which had ordered the board to act on the havoc caused by monkeys, the trust had conducted a behavioral study of monkeys.
Member Secretary at PADT Dr Govinda Tandan said the study had proven that monkeys did not cause nuisance, but just ran from one place to another in search of food and water.
“As monkeys were not found causing havoc, we informed the Supreme Court about it,” Tandan told The Himalayan Times.
“Though we have managed drinking water for monkeys of Bhandarkhal, there is still a severe scarcity of drinking water in other places in and around the temple area,” he said, adding, “We are discussing alternatives for managing clean drinking water for monkeys.” The study report showed monkeys drinking the polluted drinking water of the Bagmati River were growing thin.
Except Bhadarkhal area, monkeys in and other areas of the temple are facing severe scarcity of water these days.
Apart from pollution, receding water levels in the Bagmati River is causing water shortage in the temple area.
He also suggested that PADT make arrangements for treatment of ailing monkeys.
PADT said there were around 600 monkeys in the Pashupati area.

Egypt food security in wake of climate change and water scarcity.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt’s agriculture sector annually consumes more than 85% of the country’s share of Nile water.
With the completion of GERD, it would be able to hold around 74bn cubic metres of water.
Which is defined as the integration of conventional aquaculture (captive rearing and production of fish and other aquatic animal) with soil-less culture (growing agricultural crops without soil) according to the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
A tank of fish turns fish feed into waste, and the water is then pumped out of the fish tank onto growing beds where bacteria then converts the ammonia and other fish wastes into fertilisers the plants make use of.
There is a symbiotic relationship is clear as fish contributes to plant nutrition, while plants provide oxygen and cleans the water for fish.
This helps plants grow faster and more naturally compared to planting on soil.
During the experiment, the same water within the closed system was used without change for more than 10 years, without any effect on the quality of the fish or plant growth.
Aquaponic systems are expensive, as the owner must install a full aquaculture system and a hydroponic system.
However, these inputs can be reduced by using solar panels or any other renewable electricity source, fish feed production, fish breeding, and plant propagation, but these tasks require additional knowledge and add time to the daily management.

Malawi’s water crisis: 7,000 households grappling for one borehole in Salima North-West Constituency.
There is only one borehole.
This is one of the typical examples on how the water shortage has reached crisis proportions in the country after 53 years of the Malawi’s independent.
The Maravi Post’s visit to the area on Sunday.
While at Matumba, Traditional Authority (T.A) Nkhombedza, this reporter encountered the ordeal of women and young girls who wait for up to six hours to draw water from the lone borehole.
The borehole, which was constructed about two decades ago, still remains the hope for the communities, despite it’s on-and-off operations, to serve the villagers.
This situation prompted Water Mission and Christian Services, local faith organizations, to respond to the crisis by fixing the oldest borehole.
The organizations planned to drill five extra boreholes, in a bid to solve the water and sanitation challenges this community grapples with.
Various interviews with members of the communities, reveal the shocking escalation of social ills due to the scarcity of safe clean water, among them high school drop outs, early and child marriages, marital fights, and water-borne diseases.
“With the water crisis hitting hard in most local communities, the best thing is for Government to allocate more resources in the CDF.

By COLLINS OMULO comulo@ke.nationmedia.com Nairobi City County Governor Evans Kidero has threatened to arrest Senator Mike Sonko accusing him of vandalizing water pipes in the guise of supplying water to Nairobi residents.
Governor Kidero said Mr Sonko was playing politics by pretending to be at the forefront of providing the solution to the water problem, which has bedeviled the county since last year.
We are going to arrest him and his team if he continues vandalizing the water pipes,” said Dr Kidero.
The governor said that supplying water by bowsers would not solve the water problem in Nairobi as that was just like ‘a drop in the ocean’.
He added that the water scarcity witnessed in the capital had been caused by a natural calamity and was not something new and that the situation only needs proper and strategic interventions to solve.
“We have been rationing water in the city because of the drought which affected water levels at Ndakaini Dam.
Dr Kidero’s warning comes after Mr Sonko took a swipe at the governor over the continued suffering of Nairobi residents over lack of water.
In a cryptic Twitter post on his official Twitter account on Monday night, Mr Sonko hit at the county government’s laxity in implementing a Water Bill recently passed by the Senate decrying how water scarcity in the city was still a major problem four years down the line.
“Water scarcity in our city is still a very major problem and the County Government, 4 years on is yet to act.
“To temporarily deal with the ongoing water crisis, my team has today (Monday) supplied water to Buru Buru Phase 2, 4 and 5 and later to Buru Buru Police Station…they then proceeded to Hunters in Kasarani where residents haven’t seen a drop of water for several weeks.” “Just as my team was about to head back to the city, they received complaints from parents of students from Muhuri Muchiri Secondary School in Ruai…we also supplied water to the neighbouring primary school after it was noted that they lacked enough water to run their daily activities,” continued the post.

Phoenix approves water-conservation deal with Gila River tribal leaders, federal agencies.
The Phoenix City Council unanimously approved a water-conservation agreement with the Gila River Indian Community and federal agencies on Tuesday, finalizing a plan that will help stretch supplies on the Colorado River.. To stem falling water levels and help prevent a shortage, the Gila River Indian Community will leave 40,000 acre-feet of its river allocation in Lake Mead.
In exchange, the city of Phoenix, state of Arizona and Bureau of Reclamation will each pay the tribe $2 million.
The Walton Family Foundation will contribute $1 million.
“This is an incredible partnership among many parties,” Mayor Greg Stanton said.
“This agreement today is one of the many ways the city of Phoenix is leading the way to make our city and our state more resilient than ever.” For years, the Colorado River system has been drained faster than it has been refilled.
Water levels have dropped about 12 feet a year in Lake Mead, which today sits at 1,081 feet above sea level.
“It is unchartered territory,” Phoenix Water Services Director Kathryn Sorensen told the council.
It is the second water agreement between Phoenix and the Gila River community this year.
Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis and Stanton are longtime friends from before their time in office.

Carlsberg brews up science-based zero carbon targets.
Carlsberg has unveiled an ambitious new sustainability programme aimed at wiping out the carbon footprint of its breweries by 2030 and putting the company in line with a 1.5C climate scenario.
Launched today, the new plan is described as "a response to increasing consumer demand for sustainable products at a time of global challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and public health issues".
On water, Carlsberg said it had worked with experts from WWF to identify those breweries situated in regions with a high-risk of water scarcity and would co-operate with local partners to improve water management.
The brewer has additionally set out to cut its water usage by 25 per cent by 2022 from a 2015 baseline, rising to a 50 per cent reduction by 2030.
Cees ‘t Hart, Carlsberg Group CEO, said he wanted to set industry standards on sustainability, as climate change and water scarcity challenges require collective action.
"Our clear targets and ambitions reflect the mentality of our founders to always strive for perfection and contribute to society through science."
Further bolstering its climate commitments, Carlsberg also announced plans to establish a community of young scientists led by its existing Carlsberg Research Laboratory to help improve the resilience of crops and "foster further scientific developments within CO2, water and sustainable brewing".
Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, praised the Danish brewer’s new climate ambitions for going "above and beyond" the levels of carbon reduction needed to stay within a 2C scenario.
"Carlsberg has taken a genuine leadership position on some of the most critical environmental issues the world currently faces, by developing an ambitious long-term business strategy that focuses on delivering a sustainable future."