W.E.A.R= WATER,ELECTRICITY AND REFRIGERATION.
Feb. 8. 2016 By mike Dunningham.
EMAIL; gosnaphoto@gmai.com
Ph. 0428688000
Probably the most troublesome of the three main travelling/camping issues would be having sufficient water on hand. The second being electricity and the third is of course refrigeration. I am going to add a brief paragraph on both the second and third issues later but right now we are discussing drinking water and how to obtain it without fuss from pretty well anywhere you may venture. Imagine Loading up anywhere with water from nonpotable water tanks, billabongs and rivers. Reduce your travelling load/weight because you can simply make your own drinking water quickly and easily wherever you end up.
You may be quite happy to rely on town water, and I watch folks ferrying Gerry cans each day from the nearest town. Every day they go back and forth, and that’s one way of doing it but to

me it takes a lot of effort and the quality isn’t all that hot when you realize that town water is drawn from a catchment area consisting of crop farms which use rather nasty sprays. In town water you have Herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc., and also you have chlorine, which has recently been upgraded to gas chlorine and this is seriously unhealthy and finally good old fluoride. That chlorine aroma you get when you turn the tap on is actually the smell of the dead pathogens in the water. Lovely. Because of this all homes and RV’s should be using some form of filtration.
My aim here is to describe how to obtain absolutely perfect drinking water from the bush. My travelling rig is somewhat bush orientated but the method may be adapted to any RV or caravan. I will describe in detail each step as it’s taken and I will include the make, cost and where I have purchased all the machinery,
along with the flocculent, sanitizing agents and their required mixing ratios. It’s so quick and easy you will wonder why you never thought about it before.

Lets look at what we need to start with.

In the pump box photo you will see two pumps, above which are the individual switches. The

top pump [#1] is kept solely for reverse osmoses [clean] water so it’s the lower pump [#2]weneedtofocuson. Itssetuptobea detachable unit and is used to pump water from out of creek gullies and then general usage around the camp. The filter you can see in the blue housing is a 0.5-micron washable ceramic, which will produce sparkling clean water. Note the collapsible 200- liter water tank bottom left. This batching tank is an important piece of equipment. Make sure its base is set up perfectly level. Once the job is complete it packs up so small you almost have a problem finding it.
Occasionally you may have water right outside your doorstep, which means you can leave the #2 pump where it is, though often you will find a tricky spot, which will test you. Here we have to reach down the riverbank. In the picture I have 5.7-meter drop to the water and I think you will be amazed at how well this little pump performed.
You can see the pump on its 15meter extension cord, sitting about one meter above the river,

leaving a remaining 4.7-meter head to the camp.

Holding the hose one meter off the ground at the top, the pump gave a whopping eight liters a minute. That’s the best part of a six-meter head.

When I hooked up the second pump as a test, the flow rate only increased by one liter making it nine liters total so thirty meters of 12 mm hose is creating a lot of friction. This means one pump is all you need. Max flow rate normally is 11.2 liters a minute, no lift, no head, so the extra load barely affects it. Amazing. Check summary for pump details. The water is being pumped directly into our collapsible water tank and this will take less than half an hour. As it is filling we add Aluminum sulphate as a flocculent and calcium hypochlorite as a sanitizer. If you intend to RO some of your water leave the Cal/Hyp out for now. Mix ratios will be in the summary. The flocculent begins to work pretty fast so after an hour or two the water is looking great. I prefer to leave it overnight for best results. The sanitizer needs thirty minutes to make the water safe to drink but again I leave it one hour as a minimum to be on the safe side. Health departments in third world countries use cal/sulph for its reliability and long storage life. You use so little each time that a kilo will be in the boot of your van for many months so its good to know you can rely on it to last.

It makes me chuckle when I see some of the fancy works of art blokes use with their brass foot valves, floats, tethers and stuff. I reckon it just about requires its own locker. All you need is the plastic container you use for your hose fittings; drill a few holes here and there and voila! You have your strainer. The end most hose fitting is a stop fitting and becomes a foot valve, the cord, which we all use to tie up the coiled
hose, becomes your tether and a tent peg becomes your anchor. Don’t forget an inline filter before your pump. I like to use a 3⁄4 inch filter reduced down to fit the 12 mm hose, as it’s screen is four times the size of the half-inch filter. So far it has taken about fifteen minutes to set up. Half an hour will fill the tank and about a

further twenty minutes to pack it all away when you have finished. Tomorrow you can fill the tanks in the van with lovely clean water and relax for a while.
If you want really perfect drinking water lets take it to the next level. Reverse osmosis [RO] removes heavy metals, fungicides etc. from drinking water. These killers come mainly from farms due to run off straight into the water catchment area, where council treats it to supply as your town water. It’s filtered, chlorinated and fluoridated then delivered to your tap. Don’t forget farm runoff chemical’s are still in your town water and this is where I get all fussy and use my RO water purifying system. Details on where to get this gear will be in the summary.

All the RO equipment is kept separately. On the top shelf we have a dedicated 2.2-liter per hour pump. This low volume unit is designed especially for the RO system. The faster pumps will stop/start on you a bit where as this one runs steady at 125 psi, nice and slow and at a pressure that the RO loves. It is 24 volt via a 240-volt step down transformer between which I placed a toggle switch and fuse.
The actual RO unit is the six-stage model that gives beautifully clean, balanced, oxygenated water that once used in tea or ice cubes for your scotch becomes a lifetime habit. You will never

go back to town water ever again. I’m getting ten liters an hour from mine so it doesn’t take much time to fill up a twenty liter container lasting three or four days. My method is to fill a 20 liter bucket with unsanitized water via
the .5 micron ceramic filter and let the RO pump pick it up. To obtain 20 liters it will need filling twice as 50% of water is rejected by the RO system. This is not wasted as I use that reject water around the camp. The FSA system uses a balanced, economical ratio of 50% treated to 50% rejected water. Check on the one you may be looking at, as some are around 5:1 ratio, waste to treated.
SUMMARY;
Pumps. Model 4009 Shurflo makes these
amazing pumps. They draw only 5.2 amps
and are the latest version, taking over from the old workhorse model 2088. A bit on the heavy side but very sturdy. At $105 from Caravan Plus how can you go wrong? If you do not require a pressure switch pump, think about the Rule Congo submersible or something similar.
Electric cable. It may sound silly to mention

wire but it’s really not at all. Use
only tinned wire if you can. I have used 6mm tinned dual core for the extension. If you are not able to so and even if you solder the joints make sure you use Aluminox to any bare wire or other joints, especially up into the plastic so as to avoid electrolysis. You will be sorry if you don’t. My philosophy regarding wiring is doing the job once not twice.
Water tank.
As seen in the photo this collapsible water tank is a seriously heavy-duty piece of kit. Every free camper must own one. It doesn’t matter whether you fill it by carrying buckets or use a pump; this item is absolutely essential for spending time down by the river. Go to Australian Direct and at $99 it’s the best dollar you’ll ever spend.
Flocculent. Aluminum sulphate [ALUM] is the flocculent everybody
recognizes. Great stuff. Add it to the tank as you are filling at a rate of one slightly heaped teaspoon for every 200 liters. Stick to straight

crystals for reliability.
Water sanitizer. Be strict with your measuring as the health of your family is
involved here. Survivaltopics.com say the following.
.....................................................................................................
2005 by Ron Fontaine.
Better than Bleach: Use Calcium Hypochlorite to Disinfect Water May 4,
To make a stock of chlorine solution (do not drink this!) dissolve 1 heaping teaspoon
(about one-quarter of an ounce) of high-test (78%) granular calcium hypochlorite for each two gallons (eight liters) of water. To disinfect water add one part of this chlorine solution to 100 parts water to be treated. Let the mixture sit for at least one- half hour before drinking
Copyright © SurvivalTopics.com Read more at: http://survivaltopics.com/better-than- bleach-use-calcium- hypochlorite-to-disinfect-water/
................................................................................................. ..............
That makes up to a quarter of a teaspoon for 200 liters if my math’s is correct. Using a 1⁄4 tsp.

measure, have the granules just higher than the lip but not heaped. Uppermost in favour of calcium/hypochlorite in my mind is the fact that health organizations all over the world use it for its long-term reliability. Bunning’s have it at about $17 for 2 kilos, and again get the granules for long shelf life. For me that’s a ten-year supply.
Filters and the Reverse Osmoses unit. After eight months research I came back to Filter Systems
Australia [FSA] for this side of things. All My buddies agree for price and service. The RO was $300 plus the sturdy 125psi pump $170. This pump is a bit heavier than I imagined it would be, but the service life is great. 24 volt motor drawing one amp per hour through a step down 240vlt transformer. Power it up through the
inverter. The .5-micron ceramic filter is the washable model and was only $ 30 odd. It cleans up easily and the filter casing, having plug in hose fittings both sides means I am able to reverse the water flow in order to reverse flush it after scrubbing. Don’t put Cal/ Hyp through the RO unit, as it will degrade your RO membrane. On the subject of salt volume in the water, consider
buying a TDS meter so as to get an accurate ppm

reading. Less than $50.You don’t want more than 2700 ppm to safe guard your RO filtration unit. Preferably a lot less. See the boys at FSA on this and see if you will require one where you are. It could be a money saver for you to have one on board.
I mention the following two items, as these help to make for pleasant camping. Everything must work in harmony and be hassle free.
REFRIGERA TION.
A fridge is only as good as its insulation along with a big powerful compressor. That combination will dictate the correct usage for that fridge. It’s not the brand or ones loyalty to that brand that cuts the ice. Its not fancy electronics or canvas covers. In the end its simply heavy-duty machinery and good old insulation. I own both a Trailblazer [75mm wall thickness] and an Engel [40 mm wall thickness]. 75mm wall will require around 30 amps total per day in the territories as opposed to 5 amps per hour, running virtually nonstop for the thin-skinned job. That’s a huge difference to consider when you work the figures. The Australian army, international governments and medical outfits use these and they cost about the

same price as the lightweights. Alternatively look for fridges designed for Aussie conditions that are powerful and therefore become efficient
because they do the job quicker. There are many to choose from but now at least you will have an idea what to look for. Bear in mind, bigger, more powerful compressors may have a larger draw but run for less time each day, making them more efficient by handling ambient temperatures quickly. If you can afford the power usage of the more domestic units try them but have a good look around first.
POWER. This is the nuts and bolts of all your basic camping needs. If you want really long life and maximum power from your, batteries there is no alternative to lithium. 5000 recharge cycles as opposed to less than 600 [its recharge cycles and not years],gives your battery ‘years’ more life. They weigh only a fraction of the old deep cycle jobs and are a 1/3 smaller. Almost all campers are having some issue with battery power. Those that are ok now are only so for the moment because as recharge cycles are used so does the reserve power of your batteries diminish. When you reach 300 of your total 600 recharge cycles, you have around

half of the 50 amps you started with. Your 100- amp battery new had 50% amps available. A battery weighing thirty-kilos having been recharged a full 300 of its 600 recharge cycles now has a reserve of around 25-amp hours. Sounds rather silly, but this is what happens. It’s at this point that folks start thinking they need another solar panel or they begin wearing out their expensive generators. Sorry but your battery’s are wearing out.

If you are starting afresh with a new van don’t consider anything else but lithium. Buy right and they are not expensive. I prefer the heavy- duty,

commercial, 3.2volt cells with balancing units between each of the four cells. The reason for this is I am able to replace a single cell and not the entire battery. Be pleasantly surprised and go to E.V. WORKS. W.A to check the prices on these serious batteries. I love to yarn about the lithium setup so email me if you are looking for more details as this is a big subject and deserves full consideration.
Remember it’s all about Water, Power & Refrigeration. [Acronym W.E.A.R.]
So lets get out there and spend some time with these guys.

Its all about fun and relaxation. 

Lets start with water. It creates and nurtures life.  It’s the most precious item in our lives and the one thing we are most careless with. Will the human species survive or will we fail.

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Global water woes: Australia's looming water crisis

 Kellie Tranter 28 March 2015, 7:00am  30

 PoliticsEnvironmentAgricultureFood

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(Image courtesy www.bookofjoe.com)

With the world facing a 40% water shortfall by 2030 threatening Australia's food and water security, Kellie Tranter calls on the Abbott Government to urgently address the need for investment in water research and development.

NO-ONE cares about water until the taps run dry. It’s a reality now facing the residents of Broken Hill. In time we all will, including our Asian neighbours, unless we confront and plan for our water-insecure future.

In October 2010, the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council report, ‘Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections’, highlighted that

‘Australia faces major challenges at energy-water-carbon intersections to mitigate climate change while continuing to supply energy and to cope with limited water availability while maintaining and increasing population. These challenges will demand transformational responses.’

Last year researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, Vermont Law School and CNA Corporation in the United States warned that

‘by the year 2040 there will be not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing what we are doing today.’

Calls for transformational responses are still lacking. Baker & MacKenzie’s April 2014 submission to the Government’s issues paper on Agricultural Competitiveness said that over 50 per cent of those surveyed believed the greatest challenge to Australia’s food supply was the availability of water.

Iron ore billionaire, Andrew Forrest, recently called for the harvesting of 5,000 gigalitres of water from underground aquifers and rivers to drought proof existing agricultural areas and open up thousands of hectares of land for new agricultural projects. 

Good in theory perhaps but such plans would require a thorough study of the over-exploitation mistakes made in countries like Pakistan and India and, closer to home, the over allocation of water licenses in the Murray Darling Basin.

The Australian Water Crisis

Tuesday 9 September 2008 5:55PM

Australia is simply running out of water for human use. How did this happen? Maude Barlow, Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, offers some explanations and some solutions.

Supporting Information

Australia has a water crisis; on this everyone is agreed. There is no consensus however, on the cause of the crisis or the best solution to address it. Many blame climate change or believe that the current drought is cyclical and will pass.

But what if this is not a cyclical drought? What if it is permanent? In researching my new book, it became clear to me that greenhouse gas emissions are not the only cause of climate change. What is just beginning to be understood is that our collective global abuse and displacement of fresh water is also a serious cause of climate change and a major culprit in the desertification of the planet.

Simply put, humans have polluted so much surface water, we are now mining groundwater and rivers far faster than they can be replaced by nature. We are moving water from where nature has put it, in watersheds and aquifers, either for flood irrigation, where much of it lost to evaporation, or to service mega cities, where it is often dumped into the ocean rather than returned to the watershed. Water is also lost to ecosystems in the form of virtual trade - water used in the production of crops or manufactured goods that are then exported. Finally, urbanization, deforestation and wetland destruction greatly destroy water-retentive landscapes, reducing the capacity of the hydrologic cycle to function properly.

Australia (like most other countries in the world) has mismanaged its water resources. Excessive land clearance, gross over-allocation and extraction for human use, water intensive food production for export, rampant dumping of pollutants, all these practices have led to excessive salinity, growing land degradation and dying rivers. Total water allocations for human use in the Murray-Darling Basin, for instance, are roughly twice the recent average flow of the river - a totally unsustainable practice. The water is just not there. Yet vast amounts of water are still shipped out of depleting watersheds in the form of virtual water trade every day, a practice protected by successive governments committed to a competitive export model at all costs. Recently, governments have promoted lucrative private water trading schemes, allowing the further removal of water from rivers and watersheds needed for their survival. Disturbingly, protections promised in government policies for groundwater and integrated river systems that could act as an environmental buffer against these abuses have not been effectively implemented.

It is entirely possible, in fact almost certain, that Australia is one of what scientists call "hot stains" - parts of the world that are literally running out of water. These also include northern China, much of India, twenty-two countries in Africa, most of the Middle East, Mexico City and the U.S. Southwest. Urgent, comprehensive action is needed to reverse the further drying of the driest inhabited continent on earth.

The Australian government must approach its water crisis as it would a war. All other activity must be geared to this great project - the restoration of the freshwater systems of the country - and all other levels of government and all citizens and businesses must be enlisted to this great project. Eco-system restoration and preservation must take priority over short-sighted and short-term technological solutions such as desalination or future Australia will be a desert surrounded by hundreds of giant de-sal plants ringing the oceans. As well, Australia's surface and ground water must be declared a Public Trust and a Commons that belongs to all Australians, future generations and nature, not to private interests.

Wrenching as it is going to be, Australia must make decisions to use its limited water resources to provide first for local needs and only then for export opportunities. Corporate agribusiness and big mining interests have been granted access to water rights in excess of any long-term good they return to the country. Local, sustainable food production for local consumption is a growing trend around the world, but must be a basic priority in drought-plagued countries.

The destruction of clean water plus the growing corporate control of water is driving the price of water up everywhere. While the real service costs of providing water should be applied to all users to promote conservation, no one must be denied access to water because of an inability to pay. Furthermore, all decisions about water must be made in a fully transparent manner with full public participation. Water is every Australian's business.

The Price of Divorcing Ourselves From Nature

You don’t have to go very far back in history to get to a point where “What should I eat?” was a nonexistent question. Everyone knew what “food” was. They harvested food off trees, bushes and out of the ground, and they ate it, either raw or cooked in some fashion.

Our current confusion about what is healthy and what is not is basically rooted in having divorced ourselves from the actual growing of food. What’s worse, this separation has led to an even greater forgetfulness about our place in the ecosystem, and our role as shepherds of the natural world.

Soil health, for example, is a crucial component of human health that many are clueless about these days. And because people don’t understand this connection, they fail to realize the importance of regenerative agriculture, and the dangers of industrial farming.

For decades, food production has been all about efficiency and lowering cost. Today, we see what this approach has brought us — skyrocketing disease statistics and a faltering ecosystem.

In the following posts, the question of Australia's long term water future will be looked at very closely and how modern farming practices may be bringing about catastrophic developments.