Английский язык.Civil Engineering

Although 70 % of the Earth is covered by seawater and a further 3 % by ice, neither of these is easily transformed into usable water.

Less than 1 % of the Earth’s total water resources is usable for drinking, farming or industry.

It is estimated that 69 % of worldwide water use is for irrigation, 22 % of worldwide water use is industrial and only 8 % of worldwide water use is for household purposes. Basic household water requirements were estimated at around 50 liters per person per day, excluding water for gardens. Drinking water is water of sufficiently high quality so that it can be consumed or used without risk of immediate or long term harm. Such water is commonly called potable water.

Table 2: Domestic daily water consumption per inhabitant (житель) in liters

As a general rule, 50 liters of water per person per day are enough for a reasonable quality of life, but the regional differences are considerable.

An American uses 400 liters, while an inhabitant of Burundi may have to survive on 10 liters or less.

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Figure 3: Percentage of the population with access to drinking water

Already there is more waste water generated today than at any other time in the history of our planet: more than one out of six people lack access to safe drinking water, (namely 1.1 billion people), and more than two out of six lack adequate sanitation, (namely 2.6 billion people). 3900 children die every day from water borne diseases. One must know that these figures represent only people with very poor conditions. In reality, these figures should be much higher.

Recently a new concept “water stress” was introduced. The concept of water stress is relatively simple. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, it applies to situations where there is not enough water for all uses, whether agricultural, industrial or domestic.

It has been proposed that when annual per capita renewable freshwater availability is less than 1,700 cubic meters, countries begin to experience periodic or regular water stress. Below 1,000 cubic meters, water scarcity begins to hamper (препятствовать) economic development and human health and well-being.

From Water.org High School curriculum

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1.5 Study the expressions to be remembered. Match A with B.

1.6Work in pairs. Discuss the following topics.

1.Water is absolutely essential to the human body’s survival. A person can live for about a month without food, but only about a week without water.

2.About 70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water. A healthy person can drink about two liters of water per day.

3.Of all the water on the earth, humans can use only about three tenths of a percent of this water. Such usable water is found in groundwater aquifers, rivers, and freshwater lakes.

4.Somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water. The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles.

5.The earth is a closed system, it rarely loses or gains extra matter. The same water that existed on the earth millions of years ago is still present today.

6.More people in the world have cell phones than access to a

toilet.

7.Diarrhea is in the second leading cause of death among children under five globally. Nearly one in five child deaths – about

1.5million each year – is due to diarrhea. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles (корь) combined.

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1.7There is a saying: “We’ll never know the value of water till the well is dry”. Prove it.

1.8Watch the video № 9 from Video archive (page 102). Comment on everything you can see.

Unit II: From the History of Water Supply and Sewerage

2.1. Read and try to memorize the words and word-combinations:

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2.2 Read the text “From the history of water supply and water disposal” and answer the questions:

1.Where did the first evidence of water supply come from?

2.What nation set a great example and left its mark in the history of water supply and water disposal?

3.What did Romans have in their towns?

4.The first water conduit in Russia dates to the 12 century, doesn’t it?

5.Was the installation of the first Moscow water conduit completed in 1804 or in 1862?

6.How many cities in pre-Revolutionary Russia had centralized water-supply systems?

From the History of Water Supply and Water Disposal

The history of water supply extends over several millennia. Sites excavated in the Indus Valley and in Punjab show that bathrooms and drains were common in Indian cities 4 millennia ago. Streets were drained by covered sewers 2 ft. deep and made of moulded (сделанный по шаблону) bricks cemented with a mortar of mud. Even two millennia BC, the Greeks and Egyptians had adequate supplies of drinking water for their cities, drained streets, had bathrooms in their houses, and, in Crete, water flushing arrangements (устройство для слива воды) for toilets. The Incas also had

impressive sewerage systems and baths. The first aqueducts in the form of

tunnels originated in ancient Persia (Iran) probably as early as the fourth millennium B. C. Their purpose was to bring water from the foothills of the northern mountains to the southern plains region for irrigation and domestic use.

Stone pipes were very early preferred for small quantities of water and for drains. Such pipes were used in the Indus cities before 1500 B. C.

As sanitary engineers, the Romans set a great example and left their mark in history. A public water supply was considered a basic essential of civic life. They had well-developed water supply systems, and their standards of engineering sanitation were not matched again

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in Europe and North America until the 19th century. Studies show that Rome's water supply exceeded 40 gallons per head per day, and was supplied to public baths, fountains and other public structures, as well as private houses. At their peak they were able to provide an estimated 300 gallons per head per day. Their aqueducts and cisterns (цистерны) can be seen all over Europe, and were frequently (часто) copied in medieval times.

In medieval Europe, the most urgent (крайне необходимый) task was also to provide an adequate supply of good water, using cisterns, natural springs, and dug wells, practices still of course in use today in undeveloped areas. Stone water courses (курс, ход), aqueducts, and wooden pipes were used there in the 13th century. Lead pipes were used only in the 15th century. Usually, pipes carried water to cisterns in the town at street intersections. A constant problem was separation of wastes from the water supply that was why from the 14th century strong city regulations controlled cesspools in the streets and elsewhere were adopted.

Developments were similar in North America. But the Roman’s idea of publicly-owned water and sanitary systems did not come into effect here until about the mid-19thcentury. Even the construction of water supply systems in the U. S. dates from 1754.

In Russia a water conduit made of wooden pipes, whose construction dates to the turn of the 12th century, was discovered during excavations in Novgorod. There is also information concerning a gravitational-flow water conduit made of earthenware pipes that was constructed in Georgia in the 13th century. In the 15th century a springfed water pipeline system was constructed for the Moscow Kremlin. The water-main systems in St. Petersburg, Peterhof, and Tsarskoe Selo were built in the first half of the 18th century. The installation of the first Moscow (Mytishchi) water conduit was completed in 1804, and the St. Petersburg municipal water-main system was completed in

1861.

In 1902 a new Moscow water conduit was put into operation, with a water intake from the Moskva River near the village of Rublevo. A total of 215 cities in pre-Revolutionary

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Russia (about 20 percent of all cities) had centralized water-supply systems. During the years of Soviet power, water supply has been greatly developed, both in the number of water conduits and the length of water mains and in the amount of water supplied to the public and other consumers. By 1968 there were 1,600 cities and 2,520 workers’ settlements with centralized water supply, the length of water mains had increased by a factor of 34, and the total amount of water supplied through municipal water pipelines had increased by a factor of approximately 40.

2.3 Complete the table and speak on the problem.

Milestones of WS history

2.4 Read the text “Foreign Visitors to Water Museum Stunned by Russian Wastefulness” and answer the following questions:

1.When did the first official Russian water supply system appear in Moscow?

2.How was water pumped through?

3.Baron Delwig was the first to address the water shortage problem, wasn’t he?

4.Did the first sewerage system in Moscow appear in the 18th or 19th century?

5.What country is the world’s largest water consumer?

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Foreign Visitors to Water Museum Stunned (ошеломлены) by Russian Wastefulness

In all, Water Museum has three rooms dedicated (посвящать) to different periods of water-supply and sewerage development in Moscow. The main exhibits (экспонат) there are historical documents: building plans, clippings from old newspapers, and yellowed photographs. What impressed me the most were wooden models of ancient water towers (башня).

I learned that the early Kremlin water supply period goes back to the 14th century. At the time, city residents laid the first oak (дуб) water pipes from Kremlin towers to the river. From then on, until this century, modernization and development of the Moscow water supply system had been the exclusive domain of foreigners. The first official Russian water supply system appeared in Moscow in the 18th century. Engineer Bauer was the first to address the water shortage problem. He chose the Yauza River, near the settlement of Bolshiye Mytishchi, as a source of water supply for the capital. Water was pumped through underground galleries. Muscovites received about 4,000 bucketfuls (полных ведер) of water daily. Every year the capital expanded, demanding (требовать) more and more drinking water. In the 1830s, Baron Delwig (cousin of A. Delwig, a friend of Pushkin) used cast iron (чугун) pipes and steam (пар) machines to modernize and expand the existing system. The museum has also plenty of information about fountains, the first of which appeared in the capital under Nicholas II.

The museum does not have very many visitors, but when they come, they come in large groups, including from abroad. Recently, it hosted (принимать гостей) a group of tourists from Berlin and Amsterdam. What strikes them most about our water supply system is that Russia is the world’s largest water consumer. According to Lydia Vandergucht, the museum director, the capital uses up to six million cubic meters of water daily. The trouble is that Muscovites simply do not know how to save water and do not particularly care if their taps are leaky. As a result we suffer (терпеть) colossal losses.

Now a little about sewers without which no civilized city can exist. The first sewerage system in the capital appeared in the late 19th century. It only served Moscow’s central area. As Moskovsky Vestnik wrote at the time, the authorities spent about nine million rubles on

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this “incomprehensible (непонятный) installation”. Prior to that, said Lydia Vandergucht, the city was “positively filthy (грязный)”. Muscovites used exclusively outside latrines (отхожее место) – cesspools that were cleared very rarely (редко).

From Moscow News, by Yelena Starovoitova

2.5 Complete the sentences.

1.The early Kremlin water supply period goes back to …

2.… was the first to address the water shortage problem.

3.… was chosen as a source of water supply for the capital.

4.In the 1830s … used cast iron pipes and steam machines to modernize and expand the existing system.

5.The first sewerage system in the capital appeared …

6.It only served …

2.6Now summarize the information from this text, using expressions (page 137).

2.7Watch the video № 2 from Video archive (page 101) and say if you would like to visit St. Petersburg’s museum of water. Why?

2.8Render the following information into English. Make use of the given words and expressions.

pipes were put from … to; taps with water; was built on the right side; was given without any treatment; with the help of an old electric power engine; wells were dried; shortage of water; a bucket of water cost; water tariffs; to design; to be put into operation.

Первый водопровод в Кемерово построили в 1918 году. Металлические трубы тянулись из Томи в поселок Нижняя Колония, который стоял на берегу реки рядом с “Кокcохимом”. В поселке было 33 колонки, a в девяти домах были свои краны с водой.

В 1925 году водопровод наладили и на правом берегу. Американцы из колонии “Кузбасс” протянули трубы на Красную Горку. Вода из Томи подавалась без всякой очистки, с помощью старенького электромотора. Но жители были рады. Лето в Сибири было очень жарким. Колодцы пересыхали, и воды не

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хватало. Люди ходили за водой на реку, брали ее – грязную – из луж и котлованов.

Ведро воды из колонки стоило 0,25 копейки. Привозная вода или из крана обходилась жильцам в 1 копейку. Это первые в Кемерово коммунальные тарифы. Новый водопровод начали проектировать только в 1929 году. А в конце 1935-го сдали 1-ю очередь. Так, почти 76 лет назад, в Кемерово пришла цивилизация.

From www.kem.kp.ru, 2007, by Vasiliy Soldatov

Unit III: Water Treatment

3.1 Read and try to memorize the words.

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