Global Water Crisis: SDG 6 Oceans Want In
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| Image Charity Water |
When a boat goes down in the middle of the Ocean and the sailor takes shelter in the Emergency Raft...what keeps the unfortunate from dying of thirst? A simple desalination system.
With officially approximately 800 million people in the World without access to drinking water, a Global Drought Crisis installed in the regions for decades and billions consuming unsafe water leading to diseases and deaths billions globally are much in the same position as that Sailor in the Emergency Raft.
On April 26 Engineers of MIT reported a breakthrough which could be a game changer for global desalination. Scientists at MIT developed a single sheet of graphene which can withstand high pressures. So what is all the fuss about for a single sheet of graphene?
“If graphene-based membranes could be developed to do desalination at high pressure, then it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities for energy-efficient desalination at high salinities,” Rohit Karnik -Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering told the media.
“We’re showing here that graphene has the potential to push the boundaries of high-pressure membrane separations,” Karnik added.
It would be rational to think that our Global Society would have considered the largest source of water on the planet to solve the Global Water Crisis. Right? Could the Oceans provide water to the quench the Global Drinking and Drought Crisis? The answer is much more complex than one would think.
The lack of real debate on desalination is particularly interesting. UNSDG 6 -United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 deals with drinking water specifically. Of the detailed 2 page long explanation of SDG 6 made by the United Nations Chronicle the words “Ocean” and “Desalination” are mentioned a total of 0 times. Why?
UN does conclude that “Water sustains life, but clean, safe drinking water defines civilization” and that “Achieving SDG 6 promises dramatic improvement to the quality of life and longevity in some of the World’s poorest nations.”
And then they go on to say...“If we declare that access to clean, safe drinking water is a basic human right, then providing the necessary education, infrastructure and support to ensure the success in achieving SDG 6 is the responsibility of us all.”
So what are we missing? For decades Desalination projects have been opposed by environmentalists due to high costs of energy and impacts of massive intake of water as well as lack of integral water conservation projects but fresh new desalination advances, use of renewable energies to power desal plants and new views on how to integrate the plants with integral water projects are poised to open new opportunity doors.
The new study of MIT works in the specific issue of lowering costs of desalination and making desalination more effective.
But they are not alone. Recently new and operative desalination plants have already answered with apparent success the arguments of the negative massive use of energy which leads to the general opposition on Desalination projects. Their answer: Renewable energies.
News Deeply reported on one of those projects. The Desal plant in Abu Dhabi recently inaugurated proved successfully that the operation of a modern desalination plant with renewables is possible. So out the window goes the argument that Desalination Plants consume too much energy.
“Abu Dhabi’s renewable-energy company Masdar is working to reduce the energy intensity needed to desalinate seawater and make it more economically viable, technology which could prove a boon for places such as California in the future,” the News Deeply reported.
Desalination -often considered the final option is now used in over 120 countries in the World. Israel, countries in the Mediterranean, and Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Cape Verde, Portugal, Greece, Italy, India, China, Japan, and Australia and Florida US are in the frontline of desalination.
Still there is much opposition to green light desalination plants. Furthermore desalination plants are often considered elitist and operate in the most developed countries. Cheap, concrete, viable and efficient desalination plants -or small chained desalination plant networks are not considered as an option for the undeveloped and poor regions even for those with ocean shore contact.
In Santa Cruz California the public view is strong against desalination projects proposed. Surfrider Foundation ran a report on April 25 titled “Water Conservation: A Better Choice than Desalination”.
The Foundation -which has successfully stopped several millionaire projects from being executed on environmental impact grounds says that when it comes to desalination you should “Know your H2O, Desalination, Wastewater, Water Recycling and Water Quality”.
Surfrider detailed the ordeal of Santa Cruz residents who advocated for Conservation Strategies to protect Water Supplies and defeated a “Harmful Desalination Proposal”.
“Governor Brown recently declared that although California’s drought is officially over, water conservation must remain a way of life. Indeed, it is important that conservation – as the cheapest and least environmentally impactful option - serve as the first line of defense across the country to alleviate water supply shortages,” the Foundation reported.
Then they hit the note hard...“Drought or not, coastal watersheds nationwide are becoming dehydrated as we overuse freshwater supplies and fail to replenish groundwater with rain”.
The Foundation assures that despite the fact that dozens of desalination plants have been proposed in California “options such as conservation, water recycling and rainwater capture are universally under-employed”.
“Desalination comes with significant drawbacks and should only be use as a last resort. Before even considering desalination, jurisdictions should first look to less costly and preferable, holistic solutions that can protect water supplies and restore ecological function across an entire watershed. If all other options have been exhausted, then it might make sense to consider, with a grain of salt, seawater desalination,” Surfrider Foundation stated.
The Foundation -like many environmentalists argue and with a point that desalination technologies can result in significant and unnecessary impacts to marine life and water quality. The intake of massive amounts of water from the ocean environments are questioned.
But before totally discarding or opposing desalination new innovations are rising to be considered as the solution to environmental concerns, costs and efficiency.
MIT assures that their new development can increase efficiency and drop costs dramatically. Renewable energy use in desalination proved that energy use should not be a problem.
For countries in Central America like Haiti, or Small Island Nations across the Pacific the need for water is desperate. For stressed agricultural regions which support Global Food Demand the need for water is imperative. Desalination combined with integral basin management and replenishing of the natural aquifers is an alternative in many of these regions which have no other alternative.
Dr. Brian Richter a Nature Conservancy Freshwater Scientist assures that “the (Global) water shortages are real, and they definitely are an issue”.
“Desalination can be a feasible option for creating additional water supply along coastlines, or in places where brackish aquifers can be readily tapped. The great benefit of desalination is that it leaves rivers, lakes and freshwater aquifers untouched, adding freshwater deposits to a local water budget without tapping other freshwater accounts,” Dr. Richter says.
Richter also recognizes that the a technology that solves the greatest challenges of desalination, environmental impact, contamination, costs and energy is still in development or testing.
“Ironically, I’m optimistic about the global water shortage, because we already waste so much! In the near term, we could make huge progress in reducing water stress by using the technology and knowledge we already have to reduce our water use. We have to start investing deeply in improving water use in agriculture or we’re going to see cultures, economies and national security come apart in many regions of our world,” Richter adds.
The numbers today are still today as scary as they were 5 years ago or more when we started working on access to safe drinking water as a basic Human Right.
85% of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet. 783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. 6 to 8 million people die annually from the consequences of disasters and water-related diseases.
“Water scarcity affects more than 40 % of the Global Population and is projected to rise,” United Nations stated.
In countries like India over 63 million people do not have access to clean drinking water. Two billion people Worldwide are drinking contaminated water.
WHOI the World Health Organization recently pressed for “dramatic improvements needed in ensuring access to clean water and sanitation worldwide”.
"Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio," Maria Neira -Head of WHO's public health department explained.
It is not just underdeveloped and poor countries which are affected. States like California in the US have been among the most drought hit regions of the World. And still there is no serious debate on how to tap responsibly the largest water reserve in our Planet, Our Oceans.
MIT Engineers are not only not afraid of the talk but sleave up to do the work...
“A single sheet of graphene, comprising an atom-thin lattice of carbon, may seem rather fragile, but the MIT team has found that the ultrathin material is exceptionally sturdy, remaining intact under applied pressures of at least 100 bars,” they reported.
Karnik -the Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering added that the full reports of their development can be found in the journal Nano Letters.
The paper serves as a guideline for designing tough, graphene-based membranes, particularly for applications such as desalination, in which filtration membranes must withstand high-pressure flows to efficiently remove salt from seawater.
Today’s existing membranes desalinate water via reverse osmosis, a process by which pressure is applied to one side of a membrane containing saltwater, to push pure water across the membrane while salt and other molecules are prevented from filtering through. Many commercial membranes desalinate water under applied pressures of about 50-80 bars, above which they tend to get compacted or otherwise suffer in performance. If membranes were able to withstand higher pressures, of 100 bars or greater, they would enable more effective desalination of seawater by recovering more fresh water. That is exactly what MIT accomplished.
“Reverse osmosis is among the most efficient methods of desalination in terms of energy," Karnik adds. "If membranes could operate at higher pressures, this would allow higher water recovery at high energy efficiency.”
The Team at MIT says it's time to “Turn up the pressure”! They add that their testing assures that the membrane serves for high pressure desalination. The result is similar to opening up the water tap flow all the way.
While Desalination plants continue to begin operations in the Middle East and environmentalist press for desalination alternatives in California in the Small Island of Kiribati desalination is not even considered as an option.
“Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink...Kiribati is one of the World’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and sea level rise,” World Bank reported early this year.
Ruteta, a mother of three living in Tabonibara village, North Tarawa, knows all too well the problems that contaminated well water can bring.
“A few years ago our well water got really smelly. We worried about our children, because they had diarrhea after drinking the water we boiled from the affected well,” Ruteta told the press.
“Until recently, communities used groundwater from wells for all their cooking, drinking and farming needs. While usually satisfactory after boiling, groundwater can become contaminated by seawater during floods and king tides, making people -especially children sick. Prolonged periods of drought, usually during La Nina years, often meant heavy rationing of water, impacting general well being and agriculture. Infant mortality in Kiribati is the highest in the Pacific Islands, at 43 deaths per thousand live births and infantile diarrhea contributes to this high number,” World Bank reported.
In many ways our Planet -70% Water (of which 97% is in the Oceans) is much like the Small Island of Kiribati surrounded by water which can not be used for drinking -as it is. No matter how thirsty we are.
Can desalination change the game?
Desalination and its potential to play a major role in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 will continue to be a “silent” contribution as long as it is not properly inserted into the conversation.
The Oceans want in…SDG 6 Clean Water Access
