Wind Pump

<>When Dathan Herulus arrives at the Ice Dragon Inn, he notices a wind pump that is responsible for providing the inn with fresh water.  He's right about this.  Although Dathan thinks that the pump's upper tank stores water, it does not.  The pump's upper tank stores air, which is used to pressurize a large water tank buried below the frost line to protect it from low winter temperatures.  (When the fleeing Tamarians broke open the lower air valve, they rendered the pump useless.)  The AirLift Technologies and Bowjon companies build wind powered water pumps that works on this principle.  The only difference between these systems and the one installed at the Ice Dragon Inn relates to the position of the water storage tank.  This .gif came from the AirLift web site:  AirLift Technologies

This is an older, mechanical technology that will probably be familiar to readers living in the western U.S.:

Rainwater Collection

Though Tamaria is described as a land of high mountains, glaciers, lakes, rivers and streams, certain geographic situations and microclimates very careful water management.  Among the strategies for dealing with problems of this kind, rooftops in places like Marvic are made with metal to facilitate the collection of rainwater and melting snow.  Guttering is designed to collect the diffuse rainwater and channel it into a filtration system.  After this, the water is stored for later use.

This system uses plastic barrels linked together by tubing to create
a manifold-style storage system.

The filter is created by filling the bottom of a drum with gravel to a depth of about 9 inches.  Over this about 3 inches of coarse sand or washed charcoal would be placed.  The downpipe from the roof would contain an extra length that extends lower than the filter.  This serves as a way of allowing dirt on the rooftop to wash off before any collection takes place.  This can later be drained.

A rotary pump, installed in the final storage bin, allows house water to be pressurized.

Multrum Toilet

Human waste is not a pleasant subject to discuss, but as it is a necessary part of life, avoiding the subject detracts from the realism of a story's narrative.  Of all the technologies available to deal with this problem, composting toilets are the most environmentally friendly for several reasons.

• Well composted human waste eliminates the spread of dangerous pathogens, such as typhus and cholera.

• Composted human waste closes the nutrient cycle by returning valuable minerals and chemistry to the soil, utilizing friendly bacteria that have been doing this since life began.

• Composting toilets aid in water conservation.

• Odors do not develop in a well designed aerobic system.

• Multrum toilets are often less expensive to install and maintain than traditional sewage treatments.

• These systems remain effective in cold weather, provided the decomposition tank is kept warm.

The way they work involves creating an environment that is remote from the toilet itself, where aerobic bacteria can successfully break down waste.  This system often contains a rotating drum to mix the contents and functions like a tiny sewage treatment plant.  A gravity, micro flush toilet's outlet leads into an insulated chamber where air is circulated.  In this bacteria friendly environment, water evaporates and waste is rapidly decomposed.  After several months (or even years, depending on usage) the fully composted waste can be safely removed and re-applied to soil.

Aquaponics

The vast majority of protein consumed by Tamarians comes from fish.  Not every locale is suitable for catching wild species, and though Tamaria is a land where glacier-fed rivers are abundant, in some places the Tamarian people are completely dependent on rainfall.  As a means of conserving water and preserving natural fish stocks, the Tamarians utilize aquaponic methods for raising fish and vegetables.  It's a technique that mimics the natural processes found in rivers and lakes, whereby the cycle of nutrient and waste is closed, enabling people to supply their protein and vegetable needs within a confined space, using minimal water and energy.

In essence, fish grow in the lower tank.  Their wastes settle into a gravel bed, and water from there is pumped up to a biofilter pipe where microorganisms feed on the waste and transform it into plant food.  Vegetables, grown without soil, using hydroponic techniques, uptake the effluent for their needs and by doing so, clean the water.  The water drips back into the fish tank.  Most of these systems utilize species like tilapia, which are vegetarian and eat plant scraps from the vegetables.  People benefit from eating the fish and vegetables.  Of course, the Tamarians would be using metal tanks and pipes for this!

There's a LOT of information about this technique available on the web.  I took this image from a .pdf document composed by Travis W. Hughey.  It's a step-by-step manual detailing how this system is constructed, and it can be found here:

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