Water Conservation Models
As the water crisis becomes more evident in our lives each day, scientists and corporations alike are investing resources in designing innovative methods of conservation and ways to help alleviate the harshest effects of this crisis worldwide.
Earlier in 2007, droughts in the remote Marshall Islands near Guam impacted local populations so much that some U.S. governmental and relief agencies supplied these areas with reverse osmosis purification systems. Many technologies aimed at reducing the water crisis, especially for rural areas, are currently in use or still in the development phase. Here’s a brief overview of these various water-tech innovations:
Desalination: Though costly and energy-intensive, this process could prove considerably effective if a more efficient and environmentally-friendly method, such as solar extraction, can be employed. Desalination is the purification of water (especially ocean water) by removal of salt and other minerals, often producing table salt in the process. Only complete extraction of salt renders the water available for human consumption. This is most popular in arid Middle Eastern regions, though it’s gaining in prominence worldwide. Many ocean water desalination plants are paired with power plants, raising considerable concern about the preservation of marine life. The U.S. has responded to these concerns by citing the Clean Air Act in banning most of the cooperative desalination and power plant efforts, which also result in substantial air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Living Machines: Now a trademarked name, these systems were initially designed by John Todd in the 1960’s, with the goal of producing clean water and biomass by passing sewage through a variety of stages of an artificially-created micro-ecosystem. This design relies on the filtration efforts of microorganisms, small invertebrates (snails and even small fish), and plants, especially photosynthetic plants and algae which intake solar energy to oxygenate the systems. Though these systems were initially thought to be impractical for production on mass city-wide scale due to their inability to process some heavy chemicals that appear in our drains (such as toxins found in paint) , smaller versions are used domestically in some European countries in order to purify in-home wastewater.
LifeStraw: This drinking straw is used to filter bacteria that causes disease and often results in fatality. The design was made especially with rural, third-world regions without access to clean drinking water in mind. This cost-effective little wonder comes equipped with filters which kill strains of E. coli, typhoid, cholera and salmonella. It is said to have a filtration lifespan of up to 700 liters of water per day.
Micro Hydro: In many remote and rural regions, micro hydro is the new small-scale power currency. These systems draw off of water-created energy to generate electric power, and work well combined with the efforts of photovoltaic (PV) solar systems. One renowned designer, Dean Kamen, has developed a “locally powered water distillation system” which is still in the patent process. A small machine (currently powered by cow dung) produces electrical power while supplying enough heat for the distillation and purification of brackish, contaminated water. While his creation was made to reduce the incidence of disease-spreading water contaminants in rural areas, Kamen hopes to market his design by simultaneously creating an entrepreneurial niche in the communities in need of his product. According to this model, one individual would operate the product and sell the electricity, a second individual would collect dung and market it to the electric provider, and a third would lease out appliances. Clean water and a sustainable model for economic growth – it doesn’t get much better than that!