Water on MNLY Blog

A compilation of posts on water. Ways of utilising water. As a tip: a cost-effective dump, as 'unintentional' 'run off' or as general human-caused eutrophication of water bodies. Taking risks with public health by polluting the elixir of wet for all life.

Water & public health:
On the use of water and on the creation of dead zones 28082007
The water bodies of the Earth are being used as a cost-effective way to dump the unwanted.

Drinking water and healthy water bodies Pt II 04090207
Sydney's drinking water, we are being told 'is no public health risk'. Some areas of Australian coasts are so polluted, that it “can cause selective inhibition of phytoplankton species”

Drinking water security sewage and emerging bugs Pt III 10092007
"Growing population centres and the inefficient use of water is “the greatest threat to waterways”. Urbanisation, norovirus, disease history

Drinking water, food & health:
Drinking water security, Sydney belly: Cryptosporidiosis, Giardia 17102007
Reducing risks when eating out 21092007
More on Sydney water, Health and Pollution 27092007
Manly restaurants and eateries - a wishlist 13112008

Draining Sub-urbia, 'run off' Eutrophication:
Water chemical mashup over suburbia 23082007
Shelly Beach palm gully creek 20102007

Impervious surfaces, spaces for cars and running toxins in urban heat islands:
The world as a car park - hot and oozing toxins running into our water streams 13092007

Lawns - water guzzling & toxic
Lawn transplants costing the Earth - Manly style 09082007
A mono-culture of petrol and water intensive regime of foreign grasses (lawn), noise, air and soil pollution.
Coastal lawns golf and pesticides 04082005

'Run-off' to Manly Beach, dog feces and chemical cocktails:
Water quality at the beach 09082007
Careless urban sprawl in coastal areas is devouring wetlands and other natural buffers such as dunes and beach grass that would otherwise help filter out dangerous pollution.“ Local beaches are ranked here for both faecal coliforms and enterococci. Some of the waterborne illnesses like gastroenteritis, dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments etc. probably hit people 'out of the blue'. Toxic waste such as heavy metals etc also show their effects only after some time.

Suburbs draining toxins into Manly Beach and Lagoon 16012006
Suburbs drain toxins and feces to Manly beach and Manly lagoon as a way of disposing of these unwanted substances cheaply. All the everyday actions of the everyday people are then drained into the non 'my space'. Socialise externalities" Mr Galloway found that concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, copper, lead and zinc in Manly's stormwater exceed ANZECC guidelines for pollutant concentrations in waterways by between two and 168 times."

Draining Manly suburbs pipe at the beach 20102005

Can Manly afford not to share North Head with Penguins? 19102008

Red Tides in the making...
Preventing red tides at Shelly beach, Manly 06102008

Proud to waste water
Wasting water as a life-style 25032007

Desalination mega projects - Water as a commodity
Water and Desalination Factories by M. Barlow 08102008
Privatising water, offshore factories sludge in the ocean
Desalination - A mega project or water conservation and whales 13082008

Mnly tag: water

Blog Action Day 2010 Water, Twitter: blogactionday, #BAD2010

Images: 1. Water sculpture for gathering clouds by the Eora people of the Sydney sandstone region. 2. Ancient drinking trough (for horses ?) in a town square, Lake Constance

Sand - Salmonella, E. coli and that cute pet

With reported salmonella infections surging in NSW and gastroenteritis reaching epidemic proportions again, it is time to look at the local 'mystery' disease.
The latest outbreak has hit the Northern Beaches' sandy playgrounds. 23 children are suffering from Salmonella paratyphi bio var java, a bug associated with exotics in aquariums.Suburbs cleansed of Australian 'wildlife' only allow interaction-starved young humans to relate to animals as pets, held in captivity. Under the guise of education & child-care living creatures become the objects to form the attention skills of little ones.

After dogs & cats, exotic pets fuel rampant animal traffic and pet shops. Lifted out of their habitats, and/or raised in unsanitary crowded conditions, these exotic beings are then brought (mostly illegally) into the child's space. The exotic bugs come gratis. Reptiles and amphibians became fashionable recently due to their perceived low maintenance and cost effectiveness. ” During 2001--2006, the number of turtles kept as pets in the United States increased 86% to nearly 2 million turtles.” Both turtles and other reptiles are a cause of human Salmonella infection. In the US children in 33 states have become infected with this new emerging disease. “...Salmonella carried by small pet turtles has sickened more than 100 people and hospitalized at least 24 nationwide in the largest recorded outbreak of its kind...” Salmonella Paratyphi B var. Java has been found in most of the cases, “an exposure to turtles, other reptiles, or aquariums containing tropical fish.” was prevalent. In some instances the children were even sharing the unchlorinated pool with the turtle, for some it resulted in renal failure.

The Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) is one such popular pet turtle from the wet-lands of the United States. Popular with the animal trafficking industry, later as another costly invasive pest they are finding their way illegally into Australia, from Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Hobart and Melbourne. “The CDC has found that potentially fatal diseases such as monkeypox, salmonellosis, tularemia, and plague have been transmitted to people via imported animals such as squirrels, mice, lizards, snakes, and turtles.”

It would be sustainable to learn to share the world with the Australian animals,that still exist and interact by providing a long-term habitat for them and healthy young human beings, learning about ecology and interacting with peers in an intact environment. No invasive pests and no hurled alien bugsAnd more on beach sand...and E. coli
It has been found that bacteria from sewage ( Escherichia coli, fecal coliforms, and enterococci) accumulates in the golden beach sand of Florida's shores. ” Results showed that wet sand (in the intertidal zone) and dry sand above the intertidal zone had significantly more fecal bacteria than near-shore seawater ”. Feces-derived bacteria actually continue to reproduce on the beach sand, wave action washes some back into the blue surf. Rolling on beach sand could harbour health risks.

Let's not think about the untreated mess illegal dog-walkers leave behind on unsupervised beaches. Lucky, that Manly is girth by a vigilant water quality management.
More:
On Salmonella, CDC
Turtle-Associated Salmonellosis in Humans—United States, 2006–2007, CDC
Stop kissing that turtle, Barf 0908
Update: 
280709 Beach sand fecal contamination and salmonella
260212 Salmonella in Sydney playgrounds, Mona Vale, Winnererremy Bay,  S. Paratyphi B biovar Java exotic pets reptiles aquarium hygiene Multidrug-resistant Salmonella Java
06012015 Finally, the 'feel good solution' of blaming Australian native animals is here. Blame the last endemic bandicoots and turn a blind eye to pet feces and contaminated sand in which minors aggregate in large numbers (with their pets).