13

Reflections

第十三章

反　　思

Modern urban water systems are unobtrusive by design. The pipes tha tbring water to our homes, drain our streets, and transport our wastes are hidden underground. Treatment plants are tucked away on the water’s edge or are located on a side street in an obscure part of the city that almost nobody visits. Even the huge reservoirs that hold our drinking water are usually locked behind fences in protected watersheds. By handing the management of water over to the professionals, we have reduced out daily encounters with the water cycle to the turning of a faucet and the flushing of a toilet. That’s exactly the way we have wanted it since the days of the first Roman aqueduct.

我们把现代城市水系统安置在很不显眼的地方。所有水管都隐藏在地下，它们将水带进我们的家、将街道上多余的水排掉并清除掉我们的废弃物。水处理厂大多隐匿在水边或坐落于城市的一个无名小巷里，鲜有人问津。即使是贮存我们饮用水的大型水库，也通常被封锁在防护栏栅后面那片受保护的水域。通过将水的管理权移交给专业人士，我们日常接触的水循环仅仅是拧开水龙头和冲厕所。这也正是自古罗马修建第一座引水渠以来，我们所希望的生活方式。

When we absentmindedly pay the monthly water bill, we are not onlybuying water, pipes, and treatment plants, but also hiring someone to sweat the details for us. There is nothing unique about this behavior. We act the same way when it comes to many other elements of modern life—food, electricity, cellphone, and cable television bills—as well as toward the countless day-to-day decisions that need to be made about the infrastructure that supports our daily lives and life styles. As long as our bills are paid and the service continues, we assume that the people who provide the service and the government officials responsible for overseeing their activities will make sure that we are safe. For people in a complex, modern world, it’s difficult to imagine living any other way.

当我们稀里糊涂地支付每月的水费时，其实不仅是在为水、管道和污水处理厂付费，也是在为辛苦劳动着的工作人员付薪水。缴这笔费用并没有什么特别之处，在日常生活的诸多方面，我们也采用同样的方式付费，如食品、电力、手机和有线电视等的账单，以及为支撑我们日常生活和生活方式的基础设施而做的无数次决定。只要我们缴清费用，并且这些服务继续存在，我们就认为提供这种服务的工作人员和有责任监督这些服务的政府官员，会确保这种服务的安全。很难想象生活在这个复杂的现代化世界中，人们还会以其他什么方式生活。

(Last three paragraphs of Chapter 13)

Modest behavioral changes also can protect aquatic ecosystems and downstream water supplies from pollution. If you are concerned about the effects of organic compounds in sewage effluent on rivers and drinking water aquifers you can make a difference by paying attention to the household products that you use and ultimately put down the drain. Reduce the impacts of pesticides and nutrients in urban runoff by using only what is needed to maintain your property or by changing your expectations about the urban landscape. If it makes sense for your location, rethink the ways that rainwater moves across your property by directing water away from impervious surface. Think about the storm sewer as if it were connected to your faucet (which in away, it is): don’t wash your car in the street and don’t pour used oil, unwanted coffee, and rinse water from dirty paint brushes into the gutter.

适度改变我们的生活方式，也可以保护水生生态系统和下游水源免受污染。如果您担心污水中的有机物影响河流和饮用水的含水层，你可以关注所使用且最终流入下水道的家居产品，这可能会使情况有所不同。通过只使用维护你的房地产的必需品，或改变你对城市景观的期望，可以减少城市径流中农药和营养物质的影响。如果可能的话，你可以重新考虑一下雨水穿过你家房屋的方式，试着引导雨水避开不透水的地表面。把雨水下水道想象成是连接到你家水龙头的水源（在某种程度上，它确实如此）：不要在大街上清洗你的汽车，要把废机油、喝剩的咖啡和清洗过肮脏油漆刷的水倒进排水沟里。

Most importantly from the standpoint of bring about lasting change, raise awareness within your community about the importance of figuring out the right path for a local version of Water 4.0. Your water utility and the government that regulates its actions pay attention to public opinion. Until now, members of the public who worry about excessive spending on water projects have often dominated the dialogue. Make sure your opinions are heard: when decisions are being made about water infrastructure investments, speak up about the need to consider both climate change and chemicals that pose risks to human health and the environment.

从能否带来持久变化的角度来看，最重要的是提高你所在的社区居民关于选择适合本地“水４．０”版本的重要性的意识。水务部门和管理水务部门的政府应该重视民意。到目前为止，担心在水利工程上过度支出的民众往往主导着话语权。让决策人听到你的观点：在对水利基础设施的投资做出决策时，提议需要考虑气候变化的影响、对人类健康和环境有风险的化学物质的影响。

Ultimately, no one person or small group of people will determine the path that urban water systems will follow. The map to our future will be drawn collectively by the thousands of small decisions made in our homes, at community meetings, and in the voting booth. We all have a role to play indetermining when Water 4.0 will become a reality and what it will look like when we build it. Once we better understand the costs and benefits of different approaches, we can make informed choices supporting or opposing investments in desalination plants, potable reuse systems, graywater recycling systems, and other new forms of infrastructure. We need to start learning and working on Water 4.0 now because the simple and inexpensive responses that have helped usin the past are not going to be enough to get us through future challenges. The time has come to secure the water future we want before a crisis forces it upon us.

最终，不是一个人或一小部分人能决定城市水系统何去何从。我们未来的蓝图将由我们在家里、社区会议上和投票站的成千上万的小方案共同绘制而成。我们都有责任来决定，何时将“水４．０”变成为现实，以及当它建成时会是什么样。一旦我们更好地了解不同方法的成本和收益，在支持或反对投资海水淡化厂、饮用水再利用系统、灰水回收系统及其他新基础设施时，就可以做出明智的选择。现在，我们需要开始学习，并致力于“水４．０”的工作，因为那些简单而廉价的应对措施，虽然在过去帮助过我们，但并不足以应对未来的挑战。现在是确保未来水安全的时候了，我们不能等到危机到来时才开始行动。

ps. I typed up the English myself, so errors are possible.

水４．０：饮用水的过去、现在与未来

［美］戴维·塞德拉克　著

徐向荣　等译    虞左俊　校

上海科学技术出版社

出版时间：2015.08

ISBN：978-7-5478-2729-1

定价：38元

Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource

Paperback：March 31, 2015

by David Sedlak (Author)