The Chocolate Factory

Pipelines in a Settlement in Greenland
Pipelines in Oqaatsut, Greendland

The magic of Greenland can be ruined if you walk along the coast around each major city or settlement and you find sewer pipes outflowing to the ocean. Locals call those spots the Chocolate Factory. It is much less yummy than it sounds. The difficulties to deal with wastewaters in Greenland are well known. There are only four types of waste waters collectors: Flush toilets (including house storage with vehicle hauling and Gravity sewer pipes) and Bucket toilets (Individual hauling and collective collection). As a matter of fact, the wastewaters including domestic and industrial are discharged directly into the ocean without treatment. Little is known about the actual impact into the sea of direct discharges of wastewaters. In a remarkably unpopulated area, such as Greenland, this might not be an apparent problem, yet. The poorly preserved pipeline system is a potential source of pollution, but the situation is not dramatic yet. However, continuous discharges will affect fisheries, drinking water, and tourism hitting the basics values of Greenland if a solution is not found.

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Urbanizing migration

Believe it or not, I thought that I was not an urban person even if I was born and raised at the metropolitan area of Barcelona. I realized not long ago of my urban understanding about the world; including not only cities but also rural areas or even wildness. I always saw rural life as an idyllic reality where humans and nature live in peace. However, idyllic is used most of the times for unreal situations, and so were my thoughts. In addition, I always thought cities as artificial places where people should run away from. Cities were part of the environmental problem called climate change. Today, I evolved my thoughts and here I don’t want to talk about cities as part of the problem but the solution. (more…)

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