USES OF WATER

Water use can mean the amount of water used by a household or a country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a given quantity of some product or crop. Water as stated in my previous postings is one of the most important substances on earth. All plants and animals must have water to survive. Life on earth would not be possible if there was no water. Water’s main importance as it is well known is that it is consumed by human beings. It plays a very key role in the life of humans. Aside this, people may have other uses. Water is also essential for the healthy growth of farm crops and farm animals. It is also used in the manufacturing of products. Domestically, water is used for the following purposes Washing clothes Cooking Recreation Washing cooking and eating utensils Bathing Keeping plants alive in gardens It is most important that the water people drink and use for other purposes is clean water. As stated in my previous post, safe drinking water can also be called potable water. Disease-causing germs can find their ways into water supplies. When this happens, the water becomes polluted and people fall sick when they come into contact with it. Water can also serve industrial purposes. Industries are well noted of the production of goods i.e. processing raw materials into finished goods. They use water as a dissolvent of most of their materials before processing it into finished goods. An industry like the FANMILK INDUSTRY uses water to dissolve other chemicals to produce their products. Industries that make drugs/medicine also use water in their production. Some medicines are already in liquid form, others are not bu are taken with water. Some industries also have lawns and recreational plants that beautify their environments. Those lawns an plants are watered to keep it fresh and alive. Also, some industries are well noted for making sachet water popularly called “pure water” in Ghana. My question is, how pure is the water? This remains a mystery.. Those industries perform their day-to-day activities with water throughout. According to the ones I interviewed, their main source of water is water from the ground i.e. water from the rocks beneath. Holes are drilled into the ground deep enough to find a permanent long-lasting body of water. A pipe runs down the hole into the water and a pump is used to get the water up to ground level. Water can also serve agricultural purposes. Farmers use it to water plants for health and flourishing growth of crops. My years in the primary school made me know that plants need water to grow. When plants are watered, the water gets into the soil and the roots absorb the water and help the plant to grow. Livestock also referred to as farm stock such as cows, pigs, sheep and goats, fowl, etc are also provided with water to support their lives and growth. Religiously, Christians, Muslims, and Traditionalists use water for sacred purposes. Christians are known to baptize by sprinkling or immersion. This is because the bible says so. An illustration is that, John the Baptist baptized believers in the Jordan River. Water has played a role here. Either immersion or sprinkling is done using water. Muslims are also known to use water when performing ablution before praying. According to them, they use water to clean the filth on their body before praying because man is not supposed to go to God’s presence unclean. Water plays another role here. Traditionalists are known to put their beliefs in either stones, trees water bodies etc. Those who put their beliefs in water bodies use it in performing al their charms. Some water bodies are so sacred that, they are used to curse. Another scenario is that, traditionally, it is a taboo to go to the sea on Tuesdays. We could see that water plays a role in various aspects of life and creatures cannot live or survive without water The term "water footprint" is often used to refer to the amount of water used by an individual, community, business, or nation.
Animals as well as plants need water to survive. Plants use water to prepare their own food and enables them to grow.

The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. Water use is measured in water volume consumed (evaporated) and/or polluted per unit of time. A water footprint can be calculated for any well-defined group of consumers (e.g., an individual, family, village, city, province, state or nation) or producers (e.g., a public organization, private enterprise or economic sector). The water footprint is a geographically explicit indicator, not only showing volumes of water use and pollution, but also the locations.^[4] However, the water footprint does not provide information on how the embedded water negatively or positively affects local water resources, ecosystems and livelihoods.

The water footprint of a product is the total volume of freshwater used to produce the product, summed over the various steps of the production chain. The water footprint of a product refers not only to the total volume of water used; it also refers to where and when the water is used (Source: WFN Glossary). The Water Footprint Network maintains a global database on the water footprint of products: WaterStat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_use.

water pollution

What is pollution?

When something is added to the environment which is very harmful, poisonous or fatal to the animal, people surrounding it and other living things is called as pollution. In simple term pollution is a contamination by a chemical or other pollutant that renders part of the environment unfit for intended or desired use. It is triggered by industrial and commercial waste, agriculture practices, day to day human activities and most notably, modes of transportation and many the other sources.

Water pollution:

During my days in the primary school, i recall my teacher explained water pollution to me as: When water is unsafe for drinking, we say the water is polluted. Germs and dirt pollute water.  Water becomes polluted when,

·         People throw refuse into rivers and streams

river filled with rubbish

·         People and animals defecate near or inside a river or a stream.

Polluted water have health implications on humans in particular. All kinds of diseases are as a result of drinking polluted water which i indicated in my previous post.

Upon advanced investigation, this is what i got to know in addition to my primary school knowledge about water pollution.

 Water pollution causes due to the introduction of chemical, biological and all sort of physical matter into large bodies of water that degrade the quality of life that lives in it and consumes it. We can blame fertilizers, pesticides, or petroleum derivatives for water pollution. In addition to that the other contributors towards water pollution are Waste treatment facilities, mining, Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, oil spills, refiners, Failing septic systems, factories, Oil and antifreeze leaking from cars, animal waste, Soap from washing your car, house hold chemicals and many more to count.

Water pollution is a major global problem which requires ongoing evaluation and revision of water resource policy at all levels (international down to individual aquifers and wells). It has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily. An estimated of 580 people in India die of diarrheal sickness every day.  About 70% of Ghanaians suffer from some degree of water pollution ,[4] and nearly 800 thousand out of the total 2.4 million people lack access to safe drinking water. 

a picture of a refuse filled river at anloga junction, kumasi

 In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing countries like Ghana, developed countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. In the most recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47 percent of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bays and estuarine square miles were classified as polluted.

Pathogens that cause water pollution

Coliform bacteria are a commonly used bacterial indicator of water pollution, although not an actual cause of disease. Other microorganisms sometimes found in surface waters which have caused human health problems include:

·         Burkholderia pseudomallei

·         Cryptosporidium parvum

·         Giardia lamblia

·         Salmonella

·         Novovirus and other viruses

·         Parasitic worms (helminths).

High levels of pathogens may result from inadequately treated sewage discharges. This can be caused by a sewage plant designed with less than secondary treatment (more typical in less developed countries). In developed countries, older cities with aging infrastructure may have leaky sewage collection systems (pipes, pumps, valves), which can cause sanitary sewer overflows. Some cities also have combined sewers, which may discharge untreated sewage during rain storms.

REFERENCES:

www.envifacts.com

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/water_pollution

NEW MEDIA ASSIGNMENT.

A critical look at the trends of how the use of the social media has dominated the dissemination of information and news stories have push the journalism profession to the edge of collapsing. An instance the use of the social media such as twitter ,Facebook , BlogSpot and the likes in transferring messages across the media which is much fast and accessible as compared to the of the main stream journalism where messages are sent across with the use electronic, waves where its operate based on it reach coverage. Hence information sent across using the social media gets down well with the audience due to its wide range of coverage and its accessibility in view with the traditional media which is extensively used by the mainstream professionals.

Innovation has been the core element of this era, it is frequently said that society is living in an information age; hence it has pave the way for the provision of diversities of information technologies world over. These technologies ranges from phone, social networking to other devices such printers, multiple voice recorders that have boost the effect of good communication all over. In the view of this inventions led to the rise of the term citizen journalism, where ordinary individual have the edge to send news stories via the above mentioned social networking.

With rise of citizen journalism due to the advent of social media , a core element of new media, for the purpose of understanding , we love to fully expand on the term, how its personnel’s operate , it merits and demerit, and how it affect the activities of traditional media and lastly how to tackle these effects

A citizen is an individual who has the legal right to stay in a country. Citizen journalism is different from civic or community journalism, where the latter is perform by professionals ,however, to the ordinary man on the street, the former simply refers to an individual who send messages or information via the internet using the social media such Facebook, BlogSpot about an issue of concern for consumption of the general public. Aside the above basic knowledge of the term, other school of thoughts have come out with different definition to this concept. Courtney C  Radsch a school of thought,  sees term to mean an alternative and activist form of newsgathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as response to the shortcoming in the professional journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional journalism. Also Jay Rosen proposes the term as’’ when the people formerly known as audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another’. From the definitions above, citizen journalism can be term as participatory or democratic journalism where the view of any concern citizen is taken into consideration as far as is news worthy. Also it can be ascertain the term as individuals taking the role traditional journalist by collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating information via the social network.

Citizen journalist using the social media to play the journalistic role poses a threat to the traditional media.

''It is very possible that the near future many witness the extinction of print media corporations, in favor of digital media corporations was only the beginning of a much larger shift. Though many people do still read news online that has been produced by traditional outlets, many users are now expressing that they feel the traditional outlets are 'too slow' or that their reporting has 'too much of an agenda'. While this attitude towards traditional media has been around for a long time, the prevalence of mobile devices that can record pictures, video and have constant internet connections, combined with the growing popularity of social networking sites has actually made it possible for people to produce and share news themselves''.(Jayson Demers)

social media and traditional media

 

WHY IS IT CONSIDERED AS A THREAT

Social media’s reach is wider than that of the traditional media. An example is that, a person might get into contact with an issue and reports it on Facebook. The message cuts across worldwide and different people from different places get to know about that issue unlike a traditional or mainstream media who in its operations might report on an issue and that would not have a wider coverage like that of the social media.

Also, advertising is much cheaper on social media than in the traditional media.  Now goods and services are advertised on Facebook, twitter, and on individual’s blog sites. It is well known that most traditional media houses depend on advertising for survival. Now that people choose to advertise on social media, the traditional media is affected financially.

Social media helps bring out creativity in the individual or citizen. Individuals who report via Facebook, blogs, twitter etc., don’t report only words but also attach videos and audio files and images which explain his or her reportage and makes it lively than that of the traditional media where you are restricted to a particular format.

 Some of the weakness of citizen journalism is their lack of training, personal interest and copy wright issues.

Professional journalism are properly trained to understand the libel law which regulates the style of writing for public consumption, hence they (journalist) knows what is lawful and unlawful in connection to the what is news worthy or not. An instance is during the recent presidential petition in Ghana; almost all the convicted of libel contempt were either not properly trained journalist or have not full grasps of the libel law. Another disadvantage of citizen journalism is the probability of the individual being bias, thus to manipulate the information to suit his or her course.  An example is the Boston Marathon bombing where a citizen journalism wrongly accused some individuals as the culprits of the properly to satisfy his or her on desires hence causing huge tragedy for innocent people and also slowing down police investigation.  Lastly the threat place on them by the copy right law, where individual use their information without their knowledge either to advantage or not.`   

HOW THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA SHOULD STARTEGISE TO MEET THE CHANGING TREND

The traditional media are now employing new media strategies in their way of disseminating news. They are now using the social media to interact with its audience. An example is that, most media houses employ social media representatives to help circulate their issues and get feedback as soon as possible.

Most of the reportage by citizen journalist via social media are rumours. Some turn out to be false since there is no censoring.  The traditional media could use their own social media to correct those rumours.

An example is an instance when an ex-footballer called Mohammed Polo tweeted that ‘’ I think Kelvin Prince Boateng is not committed to the Black stars’’. A journalist called Ransford Frimpong Prempeh debunked it using proper journalistic approach i.e. researching on issue. He also did that via the social media.

To conclude, as it is popularly said that two heads are always better than one head and also, interdisciplinary approach is key to academic success. Based on the information presented above, we propose the traditional to take advantage of the invention of the social media to meet their handicap of information outrage and its accessibility.

GROUP MEMBERS

mygijdocuments.blogspot.com

studentbehaviour.blogspot.com

mybestgh.blogspot.com 

 REFERENCES

http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html

http://www.socialmediadefined.com/what-is-social-media/

 http://socialmediatoday.com/chris-measures/1430031/rise-citizen-journalism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-social-media-is-suppo_b_3239076.html

WATER-BORNE DISEASES

There are a lot of diseases around us and they all have their own ways of affecting creatures. There is air- borne diseases i.e. diseases Caused by inhaling polluted or contaminated air, and water- borne diseases.

Water-borne diseases are diseases caused by drinking of contaminated water.  Infection commonly results during bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of food thus infected.   

Various forms of waterborne diarrheal disease probably are the most prominent examples, and affect mainly children in developing countries; according to the World Health Organization, such disease account for an estimated 4.1% of the total DALY global burden

of disease, and cause about 1.8 million human deaths annually.

The World Health Organization estimates that 88% of that burden is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene.

Contaminated water contains micro organisms that harm the human system whenever they come into contact with it. The term "waterborne disease" is reserved largely for infections that predominantly are transmitted through contact with or consumption of infected water. With this assertion, we could say malaria is also a water-borne disease. This point is very arguable.

Ideas about this argument vary. According to some scholars, it is a common practice

to refer diseases such as malaria as "waterborne” just because mosquitoes have aquatic phases in

their life cycles, or because treating the water they inhabit happens to be an effective strategy in

control of the mosquitoes that are the vectors. Others think otherwise.

Some of the water- borne diseases are, Anemia, Cholera, Diarrhea, Dracunculiasis, Hepatitis, Hookworm infection, Malaria, Onchocerciasis, Polio, Ring Worm or Tinea, Scabies, Schistomiasis, Trachom, Trichuriasis,Typhoid etc.

People drinking contaminated water

The above mentioned diseases are very harmful to human especially when he gets into contact with contaminated or polluted water.

Water borne diseases as we all know is very harmful and can have an impact or effect on the person infected, people around that person and also the economy entirely. Water-borne diseases are curable yet one could lose his or her life as a result. An infected person goes through pain. Those around him or her also go through some kind of trauma.  The economy as a whole is also affected when water-borne disease is at its peak or on the rise.

NB: Waterborne diseases can have a significant impact on the economy, locally as well as internationally. People who are infected by a waterborne disease are usually confronted with related costs and not seldom with a huge financial burden. This is especially the case in less developed countries. The financial losses are mostly caused by e.g. costs for medical treatment and medication, costs for transport, special food, and by the loss of manpower. Many families must even sell their land to pay for treatment in a proper hospital. On average, a family spends about 10% of the monthly households’ income per person infected.

This i think is a very big disadvantage. Appropriate measures ought to be put in place to avoid these diseases. I will address them in my next post.

SOURCES OF WATER

             SOURCES OF WATER

Life on earth would not have been possible without the presence of water. Water covers the biggest portion of the earth. The earth is therefore just a small portion of the planet earth. Aside its dominance in terms of proportion on the earth surface, it is also fund below the earth surface and also in the air as vapour. The human body need water to survive. Water constitutes about 70%  of the human body. The body of all plants and animals also contain water.

Water has many sources. The bible says God created water Genesis 1verse 6 and verse 9-10; (And God said, let there be a firmament in the water above and the water below) verse 9 (let the water below be gathered together into one place) verse 10 He called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters, he called sea. Christians throw more light on this issue and even state another point that God makes the rain fall. Moslems have divergent views about the sources of water .

According to Muslims, the Qur’an talks about the matter and also referred to the source of water: Surat Al-Mu’’minun-verse 8(And we sent down from the sky water (rain) in (due) measure, and we gave it lodging in the earth,and verily, we are able to take it away. This verse stipulates that the water inside the earth such as the groundwater is the rains, and this is scientifically proven. Another verse is Surat A-Hijr- verse 22 (We send the wind fertilizing then cause the water to descend from the sky and we give it to you to drink and its not you who are the owners of its store). According to the Qur’an, water is stored inside the earth from the water of rain. This is scientifically proven.

We have natural sources of water and artificial or man-made sources of water. Example of natural sources of water are;  Rainwater, oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and springs. Dams, wells, tube wells, hand-pumps, canals, etc are artificial or man-made sources of water.

There is an exception to the above. That is, lakes as mentioned earlier are a natural source of water but there are instances where some lakes are made artificially. An example is the Volta Lake in Ghana.

 

This is a picture of the volta lake in Ghana. It is an artificial lake made to provide hydro-electric power.

Rain water collects on the earth in the form of surface water and underground  water. Surface water refers to water present on the surface of the earth. Examples are lakes, rivers, oceans,streams, etc. Water in the lakes and rivers come from the rain and melting of snow from the mountain. Rivers flow into the sea

When it rains, some rain water seeps through the pores in the soil unto the non-porous rocks below the earth surface. This is called underground water. Underground water can be obtained by digging wells, sinking tube wells, etc.

 

This is a picture of rain drops falling on the ground.