May you and yours see all your dreams and goals come true!

Image source: http://dryicons.com

We are very thankful for the opportunity to think about solutions that bring clean, drinking water to the needy.

We are thankful that we have formed and remained as a team of motivated folks working towards water solutions with passion!

We are thankful to our family, friends, mentors and everyone who has helped us along the way and continue to help us, righting our wrongs and showing us the path forward.

We wish you, your families, friends and dearly beloved a very happy time this thanksgiving!

Recently, we came across “bulk water export” as a concept being tested by private organizations through “Circle of Blue”.

It appears that a company in Alaska expects to engage in bulk water transport across continents, selling water to India. The article points to a lot of business and logistical aspects and some issues surrounding that. Our take at AquaNation is not as much about the business issues, but about the sustainability of the idea:

1. In terms of sourcing the water, how are we achieving any type of balancing by taking water from one source and taking it to a completely different place on the planet. Ecosystems tend to be local, and one should carefully identify what could be the consequences of moving water off an ecosystem.

2. Given that water needs to be transported across such vast distances, how do the carbon footprint and the energy consumption line up? Transportation of good through ships over long distances may have a lower footprint than other modes of transportation, but the footprint is sizable nevertheless. Will this counter the footprint of localized water sourcing techniques?

3. Bulk water transportation also places demands on infrastructure creation at the receiving end, which would be the ports in countries such as India. Without a cost (including environmental costs) benefit analysis, does the infrastructure creation remove valuable resources, including money away from critical, local, sustainable projects?

4. On the same vein, does bulk water export/import give people a false sense of security over the short term preventing people from feeling a sense of urgency toward applying local, sustainable water solutions?

5. With respect to bacteria such as giardiasis and others, who takes the responsibility of cleaning up the bacteria? Will we spread new forms of “non-native” germs from one continent to another? Will the benefits outweigh these risks?

These are just some of the questions that we have raised. I am sure there are many more questions that need to be addressed with respect to bulk water transportation. The very existence of unanswered questions does not challenge the validity of the technology, but the questions do remain and someone must take the responsibility of answering them before we dig deep into what may later on prove to be unproven and unreliable technology.

We will keep an eye out on the technology and we will keep you updated. Any study results and opinions on the viability of bulk water transport are always welcome!

References:

1. http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/bulk-water-company-plans-to-export-to-india-east-asia-and-the-caribbean/

2. http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/featured-water-stories/bulk-water-exports/

No, the movie does not talk quaintly about the history of bottled water. Yes, it touches on the history, but more so to reveal the dark side of bottled water than anything else. On the one end companies like Pepsi tend to scratch the surface of social entrepreneurship, with projects such as “Refresh Everything”. On the other end, they claim to have campaigns that claim that tap water is the enemy. Such dichotomies present everywhere in the corporate world only lead us farther away from a solution to our problems.

Rather than paraphrase the entire movie on the post here, we would welcome you to watch the movie on their site directly.

Once you have watched the movie, we hope you will think of taking some action. Action involves simple steps -

1. Carry a re-usable water bottle.

2. Try not to purchase bottled water at all.

3. Discourage the practice of purchasing and using bottled water where possible.

4. If you must use bottled water, please make an effort to dispose off the bottle(s) appropriately.

5. Join a movement, volunteer and/or take action with leadership.

Click here to watch the movie:

To learn more about “The Story of Stuff”, you can go here: http://storyofstuff.org/

The first solar-powered desalination plant in India

Water – not a problem in isolation

In grasping at an acute problem or an acute set of problems plaguing remote areas with limited access to resources, we are often blinded to the fact that just as resources multiply, the lack of resources can multiply too. A village, a tribe or a region that lacks drinking and potable water is usually also likely to suffer from lack of electricity. This is because water access is not an isolated issue. Usually, a multiplicity of factors, least of which is the unavailability of central infrastructure.

Thus, it was a pleasant shock for me when I saw the title, “The first solar-powered desalination plant”. It made me think how important it is, to smell those pesky “roses”. It is important to exercise some humility at every level and keep those eyes and ears open. Alright, enough with the cliches.

Please watch this brief video presentation on the project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oVmz_yqVI

Key Points

1. The first thing to note is that the presenters, the Barefoot College of Tilona and “Manthan” a non-profit, do not claim the solution to be a panacea. However, it is important to note, as is claimed in the video that this solution, current, present and implemented is far better than large scale infrastructure plans that the Government hopes to implement. While one would hope that Governments would find it easier to implement such projects, water access is an urgent issue that requires immediate solutions.

2. People are amenable to drinking water that has been desalinated. This lays to rest one of the key myths relating to providing technological solutions to water problems.

3. Given the opportunity to access clean water, people are willing to pay a fair price. It is now a commonly evolving theme that you would respect something that you are charged for, and that you would pay for a service as long as it is fair. This is key for organizations that are trying to keep their fund-raising needs low, and focus on building long term sustainable operation plans.

4. The Government is willing to help. It appears the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in India (the existence of this Ministry was news to me!) helped with this project. Everyone knows that while Governments may lack in providing infrastructure, and this presents an opportunity for socially conscious organizations to jump in, all such organizations could use some help. This can be funding, direct or indirect support and every bit counts.

5. Water issues do not have to be political.  When AquaNation originally presented a plan for the Social E-Challenge at Stanford University in 2008, one of the major sticking points for a judge of the contest was that water is a political issue and that we would have multiple challenges implementing our solution.

AquaNation was blind-sided a bit by this assumption or conclusion, as you may see it. The successful technology transfer described in this project demonstrates that the political angle doesn’t always have to be important, or even close by a long haul. Yes, one should not draw major conclusions based on one pilot, but it is at least safe to assume that there is hope. It would be hard for a political regime of any size and influence to argue against a solution that solves urgent problems. In the past, this may have been easily overcome, but with rising populations and awareness levels, problems such as water access have created more urgency than ever before.

Hats-off to a project that has inspired us!

Do you know of a similar project that caters to solve water access problems for remote, rural communities? If so, please let us know!

Come back and join us for further discussions on water problems, their origin, innovative solutions that we have come across through our research and much more on this blog.