Graywater Dreaming
Mike Banos
February 28, 2006
Cult fanatics of Frank Herbert?s Dune trilogy know the Fremen well: natives of the arid planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, they are the displaced lumads of their own homeland which becomes the battleground between the warring clans of the Harkonnen and Atreides, galactic oligarchs who would control the trade in melange, that spice (more a narcotic) found only in the wastelands of the parched planet, that enabled their navigators to chart their travel through the galaxies.
But that is not what interests us here. Let us about the Fremen talk, specially their simple lives in the planet before their Mahdi, Paul Atreides, the Muad?Dib, messiah and redeemer, foretold in ancient Fremen chronicles, led the revolt that rid their planet of its alien overlords and changed its face forever.
Dune was a desert planet, and water here was life. There was so little of it that Fremen lived beneath the earth and wore stillsuits to prevent water loss from evaporation. Their stillsuits were technical marvels that recycled all water contained in their solid and liquid wastes, including water lost through their perspiration, back to a tank from where they sparingly drank their daily needs through a tube leading to their mouths.
Compare this to our present day Cagay-anon. He consumes an average of 188 litres of water a day, an amount which could have maintained an entire Fremen family for a week. He splashes it on his face as he gets up in the morning, brushes his teeth with it, takes a bath with it, washes down his meals and snacks with it, uses it to propel his liquid wastes and sewerage to his septic tanks. We wouldn?t last half a day in pre-Muad?Dib Arrakis if we chose to live with the Fremen.
Neither would we last much longer with the reckless abandon with which we throw away this most precious of our earth?s resources, down the drain of our flush toilets, kitchen and laundry rooms. The urban jungles of Metro Manila and Cebu have graphically demonstrated how arid it can be, especially for the poor, to be waterless in the midst of plenty.
Some years ago, golf course projects, which consume up to 3,000 cubic meters of water daily or enough to last 100 households an entire month, were declared environmentally critical projects and are now required to conduct a comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) which will be the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources? (DENR) basis for the issuance of an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
Most important perhaps of the new requirements, is the installation of an integrated recycling system for water used, whether from groundwater, freshwater systems like rivers and creeks or from rain, and wastewater treatment facilities to handle all effluents and ensure that these conform to existing water quality standards. Our friends from Aqua Treat in Australia tell us that treating waste water to 20/30 percent of its original quality will make this ?graywater? recyclable for use in flushing our toilets, watering our gardens and washing our laundry.
It may be dreaming too much to require our residents to go around in Fremen stillsuits to conserve water but we hope DENR will not confine its crusade to golf course developers. Highly urbanized areas like Cagayan de Oro and Iligan are after all, the biggest users of water and as a consequence, the biggest producers of wastewater. A similar requirement for an integrated recycling system and wastewater treatment facilities for water districts would go a long towards mitigating a problem that is fast getting out of hand in this City of Golden Friendship, now reputed to be one of the most sewage contaminated cities in the country.
INDNJC-
But that is not what interests us here. Let us about the Fremen talk, specially their simple lives in the planet before their Mahdi, Paul Atreides, the Muad?Dib, messiah and redeemer, foretold in ancient Fremen chronicles, led the revolt that rid their planet of its alien overlords and changed its face forever.
Dune was a desert planet, and water here was life. There was so little of it that Fremen lived beneath the earth and wore stillsuits to prevent water loss from evaporation. Their stillsuits were technical marvels that recycled all water contained in their solid and liquid wastes, including water lost through their perspiration, back to a tank from where they sparingly drank their daily needs through a tube leading to their mouths.
Compare this to our present day Cagay-anon. He consumes an average of 188 litres of water a day, an amount which could have maintained an entire Fremen family for a week. He splashes it on his face as he gets up in the morning, brushes his teeth with it, takes a bath with it, washes down his meals and snacks with it, uses it to propel his liquid wastes and sewerage to his septic tanks. We wouldn?t last half a day in pre-Muad?Dib Arrakis if we chose to live with the Fremen.
Neither would we last much longer with the reckless abandon with which we throw away this most precious of our earth?s resources, down the drain of our flush toilets, kitchen and laundry rooms. The urban jungles of Metro Manila and Cebu have graphically demonstrated how arid it can be, especially for the poor, to be waterless in the midst of plenty.
Some years ago, golf course projects, which consume up to 3,000 cubic meters of water daily or enough to last 100 households an entire month, were declared environmentally critical projects and are now required to conduct a comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) which will be the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources? (DENR) basis for the issuance of an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).
Most important perhaps of the new requirements, is the installation of an integrated recycling system for water used, whether from groundwater, freshwater systems like rivers and creeks or from rain, and wastewater treatment facilities to handle all effluents and ensure that these conform to existing water quality standards. Our friends from Aqua Treat in Australia tell us that treating waste water to 20/30 percent of its original quality will make this ?graywater? recyclable for use in flushing our toilets, watering our gardens and washing our laundry.
It may be dreaming too much to require our residents to go around in Fremen stillsuits to conserve water but we hope DENR will not confine its crusade to golf course developers. Highly urbanized areas like Cagayan de Oro and Iligan are after all, the biggest users of water and as a consequence, the biggest producers of wastewater. A similar requirement for an integrated recycling system and wastewater treatment facilities for water districts would go a long towards mitigating a problem that is fast getting out of hand in this City of Golden Friendship, now reputed to be one of the most sewage contaminated cities in the country.
INDNJC-
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