Study Water Conservation and Water Management
- Learn to manage water better
- Learn to maintain water quality and conserve water resources
- Develop skills for industries from water supply and irrigation to horticulture and agriculture.
This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to design, implement and assess water management plans and procedures. You will learn about water resources, how water conservation measures are applied in various contexts and improve your ability to apply these in the workplace and at home.
Lesson Structure
There are 11 lessons in this course:
- Introduction to water conservation
- Importance of water
- The water cycle – rainfall, evaporation, infiltration, effective rainfall
- Water sources and storage – water quality
- Facts on water uses – water use at home, in primary and other industries
- Why conserve water – personal, regional and global significance
Water conservation at home
- In Australia
- In the United Kingdom
- In the United States
- Measures undertaken to save water in the home – in the kitchen, bathroom and in the garden.
- Water Saving Devices
- Water conservation in the workplace
- General principles
- Implementing water saving strategies
- Installing small appliances
- Large water saving devices
- Water management
- Water quality – maintaining water quality, salinity, chemical contaminants
- Controlling Use and Quality of Water – water flow measurement, water quality
control, testing water salinity
- Preserving Water Quality – minimising evaporation, water sanitation
- Water Audits
- Water Management Plans
- Water conservation in Primary Production I
- Water Saving Measures
- Water Wise Plants
- Water Wise Procedures
- Water Wise Irrigation systems
- Water Wise Landscaping
- Equipment, structures and tools to save water
- Water conservation in Primary Production II
- Use of water in primary production
- Methods of water storage
- Rainwater collection and storage
- Bore water
- Farm dams – planning, lined ponds
- Water Requirements – livestock requirements, domestic requirements
- Water Quality
- Water Problems on Farms – contamination and disposal of water, evaporation, seepage, runoff, overs pray, scheduling
- Using Farm Waste Water
- Irrigation System Design
- Maintenance Procedures and Scheduling
- Surface/Flood Irrigation
- Sprinkler Irrigation
- Swales and Keylines
- Water conservation in Services industries
- Use of Water in Services Industry
- Contamination and Disposal of Water
- Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
- Water conservation and Health
- Hospitals, nursing homes, laundries, clinical laboratories, dental practices, human and animal research facilities
- Uses of water in Health Industry – control pathogens, general use
- Water minimisation
- Water efficiency
- Water conservation in other sectors
- Use of water in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry
- Water use in the production process
- Examples of water using activities in food facilities
Water holding
- Benefits of cleaner production
- Water treatment, reuse and recycling
- Water Sanitation – filtering and disinfection
- Water Reuse and Recycling – classification and composition of waste water.
- Recycling Wastewater
- Wastewater treatment
- Suitable plants
- Treating saline water
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Explain the importance of water in the world and the reasons for its sustainable conservation and management.
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water at the workplace.
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water at home.
- Explain water flow and quality control.
- Explain water audits and water management plans.
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water in Horticulture
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water in Agriculture.
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water in the Services Industry.
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water in the Health Industry and allied services.
- Explain the importance of water conservation and methods to save water in other occupations.
- Explain water sanitation and wastewater treatment methods and the difference with water reuse and recycling.
WHY TO CONSERVE WATER?
- PERSONAL, TERRITORY AND GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE
Human beings cannot survive more than 3 days without any source of water. Neither can other animals or plants. Water is life. Water is needed to move, eat, reproduce, work and think, in other words, to survive and to live.
Water resources are challenged in our world today due to pollution and overuse of the local resources. There are also fights for water between different users: farmers, people in cities and industries. There also rivers that cross frontiers, and thus there some problems in the sharing and use of the water between different countries. We are using much more water than what is really needed and available in many locations around the world.
This is due sometimes because of lack of water, but more often it is due to a bad management of the water resources available, bad or non existent urban planning and bad or non existent population planning.
We are also wasting our water resources when we are discharging our wastes and sewage into it, making the receiving waters unsuitable for life and in many cases even unsuitable for industrial or agricultural use.
These are the main reasons to preserve our water resources. There are many ways to do so. Water conservation needs to be addressed through the three environmental R’s:
1. Reduce water use and water losses. This is also called water saving or minimization. Cleaner Production is a term used to describe all the actions taken to minimize the use of resources, water, energy or materials, that are used in our daily life (at home) and in our productive activities, such as industries, crops, health industries, office work (yes, water is also used, even minimally), etc.
Water reduction is the first step in water conservation as it is the most important factor in using water more efficiently. We reduce our water use at home when we use “water savers” in the shower. In gardening we save water when we use drip irrigation, instead of surface watering.
2. Reuse: Once water use has been reduced, we can study how we can use water that has already been used once. This is done normally with water that is not heavily contaminated with wastes. We can reuse shower water, but not water used to flush the toilets.
We are reusing water at home when we are using our grey water (from washing) to water the garden. Some industries can reuse water so effectively that they don’t produce any waste water. There are nowadays very efficient technologies to that effect.
3. Recycle. This is the third step, and generally it includes some type or technology the clean the water and use these recovered water. In rural houses, water from flushing the toilets can be cleaned with several simple and affordable technologies. This water can then be used to water trees. In Israel, in very dry areas with great shortage of water, sewage water is cleaned and disinfected so well, that it is being used to supply part of the drinking water. It is an expensive technology, but it can be done if there is no another solution to provide water to the population.
Career Tips
- Make sure that your skills are up to date, by pursuing further studies or attending professional development activities.
- Keep abreast with what's happening in the field of Water Conservation. What are the most pressing issues and where is there likely to be more work?
- Join a networking group to meet people who are working in the field.
- Get some experience. Whether paid or unpaid, experience will always make your CV look more impressive and give you some practical knowledge to apply in your interview.
