Meeting livestock's water needs

Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak DVM — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:36:45 -0400

I visited the Zaragoza site and was very disappointed to not be able to find any reference to animal water needs. Animals play a crucial role in the lives of people in Developing Countries. They are key elements to the BoP, ranging from transportation, farming, nutrition, investment, livelihood etc. Most of these animals have limited access to water due to the daily water struggle of the people and because of myths that have evolved to help reduce the struggle. The larger animals ( cattle, horses, donkeys...) are often only allowed access to water once a day, while the smaller animals like goats are believed to not need water at all. This severely limits their ability to extract nutrition from the food they eat and limits their intake of food (thus energy for work and meat production). This is like us trying to eat uncooked rice. In the long run the lack of water intake reduces productivity, decreases milk production (milk is 80% water) and impacts health and longevity of the animals. Adding animal water troughs to catch water run off from pumps, springs etc. would help and it would also reduce the number of animals contaminating water sources. While this seems to be a small overlooked idea in the water arena, it could have a huge impact on peoples' lives. Myriam

Roundup: Expo Zaragoza '08 and Other Reasons to Join the Water Conversation

Francisco Noguera — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:12:44 -0400

If there was ever a good summer to be in Spain, 2008 was it. Not only because of the great celebrations that surely followed Torres' match-winning goal last Sunday, but also because of the remarkable Expo Zaragoza 08.

Titled "Water and Sustainable Development", the Expo will be a three-month long venue --already underway through mid-September-- full of movies, shows, live performances, talks, and discussions among experts from all over the globe to celebrate water and raise awareness about its role in our planet.

The venue is timely in its purpose of "radically changing the way human beings think about and relate to this resource". Hence the following roundup of upcoming events at the Expo and recent discussions that tend to affect the way we relate to and talk about water, regardless of where in the economic pyramid we happen to live.

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)

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Meeting livestock's water needs

Roundup: Expo Zaragoza '08 and Other Reasons to Join the Water Conversation