Redistribution of Water

Posted by Andrew on 26 May 2010 | 0 Comments

Tags: News

Today we have an interesting article about Waters of Patagonia, a Chilean company that is looking to the future of the bottled water industry in a somewhat unusual manner. Rather than bottle small amounts of water for sale to consumers, Waters of Patagonia is viewing water as a commodity and looking to treat it in much the same way we distribute other natural resources.

 

"The notion that water should be free has to change," said JC. "It's a commodity and it won't be long before this is recognised. In time, redistribution of water will become a normal practice, just like with oil. But if an oil tanker leaks into the sea, you have a catastrophe on your hands. Not so with a floating aquifer filled with water."

 

So is Waters of Patagonia the first company to step forward with such a bold, potential solution? "We can't believe that in all the financial reporting and water research reports from Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and The Financial Times etc, no one has identified what we believe to be the mechanisms for the transformation of the water business; namely to create movable pipelines that could address so many issues, such as geographic distribution, dependability of supply and water quality, let alone the problems of staggering pollution, greenhouse gasses and inefficient energy use.

 

"It's been a long time since water has been truly innovative. Desalination, bottling purified water - all of these things were indeed innovative, but have only gone so far. We're talking about redistributing the world's water supply. That's a significant innovation."

 

Read the full article here: http://www.foodbev.com/article/waters-of-patagonia-transforming-the-worlds-water-supply

 

By transporting such large quantities of water, Waters of Patagonia is seeking to confront the water shortages that threaten the future of people around the world. The process is logistically complicated, but not as much as you might initially think:

 

It's integrating what it terms a ‘revolution' into its programme. Portable aquifers will aim to compete with local water sources worldwide, and in some cases help to recharge and replenish natural aquifers.

 

According to Raccoon, the aquifers can be pulled at neutral buoyancy by relatively small vessels, are completely spill-safe and can transport 300m litres per load. They can also provide optimal offshore storage when set at a vertical position in deep water for a long period.

 

The phrase "redistributing the world's water supply" makes the process sound potentially harmful to the environment, but that is not the case with regards to Waters of Patagonia.

 

They initially targeted the Northern Patagonia Ice Field, but soon realised that the Southern Ice Field was much larger and had clearer, higher quality streams running through it. Using such an untapped resource immediately throws up questions about altering the natural life of the glacier. The team is quick to point out that they do nothing at all to interfere with the cycle of the glaciers: "The ice is melting into giant rivers all year round. All we do is source some of this before it flows into the ocean.

 

"We hope to accomplish this without affecting our untouched environment," said Bear. "Quite the contrary. We hope it will contribute to its own conservation. By allowing the natural services of the area to do what they do best undisturbed, we're putting large swaths under protection to work in conjunction with our only neighbour: the largest national park in Chile (Parque Nacional O'Higgins). In doing so, we're not only ensuring the quality and supply of our water for future generations, [we're] also finding a way of translating the land's intrinsic value into something that's economically viable and self supporting."

 

Waters of Patagonia represents an intriguing new direction for the bottled water industry, and shows how bottled water can be used to combat the looming threat of water shortages in an environmentally conscious way. It will be interesting to see how this new process, and any others like it, develop in the coming years.