Since 2012, when the Health4Youth project was founded, it aimed to make young people aware about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, from a physical up to a psychological level. As water is a basic element of life, the Health4Youth team, with the collaboration of the Environmental Working Group, decided to plan an entire day dedicated to it on March 22nd, in honor of World Water Day. Great initiative, for which they get also the United Nations partnership.

World Water Day takes place once a year on March 22nd, since 1993. This single day celebrates something that is constantly in our lives : WATER. The importance of this awareness event is huge because it tries to promote in 24 hours a way of thinking and of acting we should  always adopt. This is why during the year The United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for freshwater and sanitation (UN-Water) provides ideas, resources, projects and more to inspire the celebrations of March 22nd around the world.

Water Day is observed shining the spotlight on a different issue every year. “Water and Sustainable Development” is the theme of 2015. It is about how water links to all areas we need to consider for creating the future we want (health, nature, urbanization, industry, energy, food, equality).

Since the event has also become a popular Social Network trend, Health4Youth decided to promote online awareness campaigns to celebrate Water Day. Join them in this initiative by:

– organizing a one/half day event with workshops and discussions about one/all these topics: water and health, water and hydration, water and sport activities, water as economical, political and social elements in conflicts around the world, water and pollution, experiments with water, water and clean water, water and current situations, etc.

– creating a flashmob in your city to make people aware of the importance of water;

– taking selfies, pictures, videos in your personal and original way with elements that refer to your connection with water or just express a message about this topic you would like to share

“The involvement of Health4Youth on this day is due to the relevance of the topics covered by World Water Day, to the closeness of the issues with our project and to the desire to get knowledge. As the initiative will be held all over the world, this will be an outstanding occasion to connect each other in the name of water’s importance in our health.” said Christian Spagnol, event manager of Health4Youth.

In March 22nd, AEGEE-Udine and AEGEE-Ljubljana will collaborate to organise a Water Day Event in Nova Gorica. A concrete realization of these ideas, a day of discussions and workshops about water and the issues connected with it. Everyone can participate!

If you want to take part in such an important initiative, make suggestions or simply get more information, write to health4youth@aegee.org!

Written by Karina A. Silivas, AEGEE-Udine

You might have heard about protests against fracking already. Romania is the most recent case of big protests this week, where an American gas company has started to explore their big reserves which may consolidate the country’s role as the largest gas producer in Central-Eastern Europe. But at what cost? What are the negative effects of Fracking?

Since the industrial revolution, our energy consumption has increased unceasingly. For many years this energy has been mainly produced by combustion of fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. After exhausting most of the natural conventional reserves around, every day many European countries look for more and more costly importation trades. Prices are reaching never-seen values, beacause of this new extraction techniques -with extra costs- have now started to become profitable. One of these methods is hydraulic fracture: ‘fracking’.

Photo by: ebachetti

What is fracking about?

Shale gas is natural gas in sand or shale horizontal-layer formations. It is usually trapped, so conventional vertical drilling does not work. To make it easier to understand, imagine this: you have a cake and you love icing. So you first go for the top of the cake and since it is easy to reach, you eat all the icing pretty quickly, but you want more.

All that is left is a thin layer right in the middle, and if you drill a hole down into the cake you will only intersect a tiny little bit of icing, but if you have the capability of going down till that layer of the cake and then go sideways: you are in business. The current fracking method combines horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracture. The hydraulic fracture makes it possible to get the horizontal layers of gas out, by injecting huge quantities of water mixed together with sand and some chemicals under incredibly high pressures to crack over the rocks which keep the gas trapped, allowing to pump it up to the surface.

Why is fracking that controversial?

• As we said, huge quantities of water are transported (an average of 7-8 million litres, similar to a daily consumption of more than 60.000 people)  and pumped into the ground, with a significant environmental cost.
• Together with the water, thousands of litres of chemicals (some of them very toxic and potentially carcinogenic such as benzene) are also pumped underground to facilitate the process. Even though the majority of the fluid is pumped out again, some of the chemicals stay behind (or might even flow somewhere else). This used water is so contaminated that it cannot even be cleaned in a treatment plant nonetheless, often -after the gas source is exhausted- the used liquid is pumped back inside and ‘sealed’.
• Not only these chemicals, but also gases like methane, may dissolve in water and trickle down through the soil and reach water sources. In some cases concentration of chemicals is so high that water may become flammable!
• The methane that might be released in the process is also a greenhouse-gas, and one with a much, much bigger negative effect on global warming than CO2.
• There are worries that the fracking process can cause small earthquakes due to the aggressive techniques of cracking the underground layers. And there have been cases of small tremors following fracking in different countries like the USA and the Netherlands.
• Last but not least, fracking is another a commitment to hold on to the use of fossil fuels a non-renewable energy source, instead of investing on cleaner energy production.

And in Europe?

Last October, the European Parliament voted in favor of an amendment which imposes impact studies before any shale gas or other unconventional drilling method  is used in a EU-memberstate. Until now this was for every Member State decide themselves. Now the amendment’s fate is in the hands of the European Council, who will make a final decision whether or not make it an EU law. Further proposals for legislation on shale gas are expected to be announced in January by the European Commission as part of its 2030 energy and climate-change strategy.

However this new method of gaining energy is really attractive for the EU as it is now strongly dependent on fossil fuel supplies from Russia, Norway, North Africa and the Middle East. Some governments like the ones from the UK, Poland and Ukraine have publicly expressed their support and interest in a development of fracking. This despite the fact that there are more and more protests and anti-fracking movements all over Europe.

Should EU reconsider fracking? Would you like to know more about this technique? Do you know or would you like to know more about your country’s situation? Then join the next EnWG Social Skype Meeting Sunday 15^th at 19h (Brussels time). Fracking will be the topic this time! There will be a short documentary/video and right after there will be an informal discussion where everybody is welcome!

Written by: Pablo Laborero (Speaker of the Environmental Working Group)

Water means life. Life begun IN water and no known living thing can function without it. From the smallest to the biggest organism, the simpler to the most complex; and in between, us. GOOD NEWS: 3/4 parts of the Globe are covered by water. BAD NEWS: only 2.5% of it is fresh water, and only 0.007% of the total amount is accessible to human use.

We depend on a reliable, clean supply of drinking water to sustain our health. Not only that: because of our developed techniques and demanding lifestyle, we also need water in a daily basis for agriculture, farming, manufacturing, energy production, recreation and many more. All these uses put pressure on water resources, but stresses are likely to be exacerbated by climate change.

But, are these two topics related? And if they are, what are the connections?

‘CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER AVAILABILITY’ was the topic of the 4^th Social Skype Meeting organized by the Environmental Working Group (EnWG), which gathered a big group of people concerned on and interested in the issue.

‘Oh, here it comes again. Climate change!? You guys are always buzzing about the same topic, on and on. What does climate change may have to do with water consumption and availability?’
-Well, it really does!

Water cycle is a delicate balance of precipitation, evaporation, and all of the steps in between. Warmer temperatures increase the rate of evaporation of water into the atmosphere, in effect increasing the atmosphere’s capacity to “hold” water. There are two direct consequences: excessive precipitation in some areas, while increased evaporation may dry out some other. 

Source: US EPA

Storms are bigger, more violent and unexpected

Water cycle is already changing. Over the past 50 years, the amount of rain falling during the most intense 1% of storms increased… by almost 20%!

Extraordinary runoffs or floods may erode and damage natural drains and slopes or land crops, dragging either pollutants or dissolved particles, and necessary nutrients from soil.

Urban sewer systems, designed for out-of-date, former drier conditions, may also collapse and overflow, allowing untreated sewage to gush and reach fresh water supplies.

In dry areas, water demand increases while water supplies shrink

Collection of rainfall for human purposes becomes harder and requires bigger-sized facilities due to longer periods of drought. Wells may dry up.

As temperatures raise, people, animals and plants need more water to maintain their health and thrive. Just think for a second how your consume of water boosts in summer: you drink more, you take more showers, you go to the swimming pool…; also, crops irrigation has to be increased due to higher evaporation, and so animals feeding. And like this, the amount of water available for these activities goes down as Earth temperature goes up.

Natural water reserves are shrinking

Warming winter temperatures cause more precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow. Rising temperatures cause snow to begin melting earlier in the year. This may threat the supply of fresh water downstream by modifying the natural timing of rivers that have their sources in mountainous areas.

Furthermore, glaciers are shrinking worldwide and with them present and future water supplies for millions of people, as they gather around the 70% of fresh water reserves on Earth.  Studies show a global-averaged 10-59 meters/year retreat rate, and it speeds up every year.

The Arctic Ocean will likely be free of summer-sea-ice before the year 2100. (goo.gl/vZtqX)

Sea level rising causes saltwater intrusion

Predictions say sea level may rise up to 80 cm (in only 100 years!), flooding coastal areas worldwide. Ok that does not sound ‘that’ bad, does it? Let’s see it from another angle: in flat or gently sloped coastal lands or beaches, a 5 cm higher sea level would imply several meters of saltwater advance inland.

When saltwater comes inland and reaches fresh water underground aquifers they mix in complex ways, depending on the soil characteristics. Because of their density differences and the regular human pumping of fresh water, saltwater may spread much further inland, spoiling the aquifer for human applications.

Saltwater intrusions reach the surface and help increase salinity of soils, turning productive lands into sterile deserts in few years.

There is an African proverb:

‘You think of water only when the well is dry’

Are you aware of the amount of water you use every day?

Statistics say ‘each one’ of the 700 million European citizens consumes between 100-200 liters a day! Just ‘do the math’.

Reducing water consumption is, today, more important than EVER in history.

And it may be surprisingly simple… Do your part!

Written by Pablo Laboreo, AEGEE-Santander and member of the EnWG