Nature's Voice Our Choice

Overhead View of a Natural Waste Water Treatment System Constructed and Operating in Mauritania

Nature's Voice Our Choice strives to preserve, conserve, and restore water resources one community at a time; through the following programs

• Education and public awareness
• Ecologically engineered natural waste water treatment systems
• Rainwater Harvesting
• Empowerment of local populations to become stewards of their water resources
• The Empowerment of Youth through Action

It is our goal to provide information and technical support that allows people to make informed decisions about water use, increase awareness of alternatives, and implement balanced community based water resource projects.

One of Twelve Poster Contest Winners, Ryan Hu - Age 10 - Southplainfield, NJ

 

In celebration of World Water Day, 2009 over 3000 students from 8 different countries and throughout the United States participated in the 2^nd annual International Poster Contest sponsored by Nature’s Voice Our Choice.  The theme for this year’s competition was ‘Water and Culture’.  Water is esteemed by every culture in the world for its spiritual, ceremonial, scientific, agricultural, recreational, and life giving values.  The ways in which water is celebrated and used varies greatly between communities of different regions.  Educators were encouraged to spend time speaking to their students about the different ways in which water shapes their lives, culture, and values; finding examples in their community. 

 

This year the posters were split into 2 categories, US students and International Students.  Finalist were selected by a panel of judges and the posters were then displayed at the Earth Day celebration on the national mall and voted on by the public.  Six posters were selected from each category.  The posters were judged on visual message, impact, and creativity. 

 

Click Here to see the Winning Posters

 

 

In the race to develop and produce alternative energies their impact on water resources must not be overlooked.  When searching for an alternative energy source, we expect the alternative to be better than the existing source; better economically and better environmentally.  However, in regions already under water stress, such as the Western United States, bio-fuel production will further decrease the availability of freshwater for development and limit water for ecosystem survival, food and livestock production, and for meeting the basic needs of people in the region.  Current policies in the United States promote and subsidize the production of bio-fuels and many view bio-fuels as an environmentally sustainable alternative source of energy. 

An overview of at the interrelationship between water and bio-fuel production will quickly tell you that this practice is not environmentally sustainable.  Let us look at one feedstock crop ‘corn’ which is widely used to produce ethanol in the United States.  Corn for ethanol production is grown mostly in the Corn Belt and western U.S. 

In Iowa, under partial irrigation, corn production uses about 1081 gallons of water for every gallon of ethanol produced.  In dry regions, such as the southwestern part of Nebraska where corn is fully irrigated, corn production uses over 1500 gallons of water for every gallon of ethanol produced.(1)  Thus, the 13.9 billion gallons of ethanol that was produced in the United States in 2006, required an average of 18 trillion gallons of water. This is more water than the entire US population consumes for domestic use in a year, yet it only replaces 3% of our fuel needs.(2)