Some youth in the city of Alajuela left a sidewalk chalk message for pedestrians the other day: something like “Be aware of the city and REDUCE pollution!”
¡Pura Vida!
Reduce Pollution!
New Graffiti/Mural at Sports Park
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| They are replacing all the old graffiti murals that were on this sidewalk wall. This is first one completed. The whole wall was painted black first, then tags (below), now this over one of the tags, a turquoise scribble. Atenas, Costa Rica |
For a year or more this is what was in the above spot:
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| Last year in the same location. |
Then early in January these “tags” were painted with the bright turquoise at far right being where the current cartoon mice reside. I hope the other tags are overpainted too. I like the mice!
My photo gallery: Public Art & Graffiti – Atenas
-o-
Unfortunately we have Polluted Rivers in the “Green” country of Costa Rica too. Click the link for an online English newspaper article prodding the government to do more. Sad for me that this is about the Tarcoles River, the closest birding river for me and of course dangerous for the birds. The Tarcoles has tributaries coming from the big city of San Jose which is one of the problems. Be sure to see the video in the article showing all the plastic bottle caps and other junk found in the stomach of a fish. Shocking!
Clean Rivers Needed Everywhere!
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| Sign on one of the streets I walk on between my house and downtown. |
Roughly translated, the sign in Spanish says in English:
If we want clean rivers, do not pollute.
ADECA is doing a good job in Atenas of helping people be aware of their environment and the individual’s responsibility to not polute which is a problem here like everywhere. I look forward to finding more of these signs around town, maybe for different purposes like the one I shared earlier on Trees.
“Greywater”
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| “Greywater” in an Atenas Stream near downtown. |
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| Soap Suds into the Drainage Ditch by our road. This runs into the Rio Cajon, though some goes into the ground. |
This explanation from letsgogreen.com:
Greywater is any household wastewater with the exception of wastewater from toilets, which is known as blackwater. Typically, 50-80% of household wastewater is greywater from kitchen sinks, dishwashers, bathroom sinks, tubs and showers. Of course, if you use a composting toilet, 100% of your household wastewater is greywater.
Freshly generated greywater is not as nasty as blackwater, but if it’s not handled properly it can soon become so. Greywater decomposes at a much faster rate than blackwater and if stored for as little as 24 hours, the bacteria in it use up all the oxygen and the greywater becomes anaerobic and turns septic. After this point it is more like blackwater – stinky and a health hazard. In fact, many jurisdictions have strict regulations about disposal of greywater, some even require it to be treated as blackwater.
Not all greywater is equally “grey”. Kitchen sink water laden with food solids and laundry water that has been used to wash diapers are more heavily contaminated than greywater from showers and bathroom sinks. Although greywater from these sources contains less pathogens than blackwater, many regulatory bodies consider it as blackwater.
The safest way to handle greywater is to introduce it directly to the biologically active topsoil layer, where soil bacteria can quickly break it down, rendering the nutrients available to plants. This biological water purification is much more effective than any engineered treatment, thus protecting the quality of groundwater and surface waters.
For more information, please visit his website www.oasisdesign.net
In brief greywater branched out into the ground can be good and earth is the best filter, which is what we are doing in the apartments. But pouring it into the streets and streams as people are doing in town is not healthy. Again, education is the best solution!