While meeting with business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in January, he made a case to put water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and to take action to prevent conflicts over scarce water supplies. Ban Ki-moon reminded his audience that the conflict in Darfur was triggered by a drought and that the peoples of Chad, Columbia, Israel, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Somalia, Sri Lanka and the Palestinian territories all live with poverty and social hardships that are exacerbated by water shortages in their region.
The Secretary-General went on to state that a recent report by International Alert identifies forty-six countries where climate change and water-related crises create "a high risk of violent conflict" and those forty-six nations are home to over 2.7 billion people. Additional nations were identified as "at risk." "Too often, where we need water we find guns instead," said the Secretary-General. "Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon."
Ban went on to say that he welcomed the Forum's focus on water issues in 2008. Water is scarce, but "we need to adapt to this reality, just as we do to climate change," said Ban. "There is still enough water for all of us -- but only so long as we can keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly." The CEOs of the Coca-Cola Company, Dow and Nestle all voiced publicly their support for Ban's agenda to reduce water scarcity in the developing world by 2015. Said Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical Co, "Water is today's issue; it is the oil of this century, not a question."
It is certainly heartening to see so many in industry and government embracing the Secretary-General's challenge. The real question that must be asked by this group is, "How will we accomplish our goal?" The world's leaders are committed to bringing clean water to billions - in just seven short years. With the support of so many in industry, it is looking like the money to accomplish the plan will be available. The only major hurdle that appears to remain is the practicality of the job. In essence, what technology can bring water to that many people so quickly?
Perhaps the best technologies in this case are some of the oldest. Wells and irrigation canals can be dug quickly, with locally available labor and limited needs for infrastructure and equipment. Couple these projects with on the ground, "in the village" support by UN and NGO personnel and it just may be a recipe for success. The aid workers in the villages can work with the local families and elders to develop a locally-sustainable and more importantly locally-supported plan for water distribution in each village. Where will the well(s) be located? What about the irrigation ditches? Will the system reach everyone in need? These types of questions must be answered in the next year or two so that the construction of the projects can begin soon after. In the absence of the 'planning' phase, conflict will inevitably erupt during or after the construction - "my home is too far from the well" or "the well is on my land and you cannot take from it". Such conflict would not only defeat the purpose on Ban's plan, but would also make it virtually impossible to achieve his plan's goals.
With coordinated, on the ground planning, the Secretary-General's dream can begin to become a reality. Imagine a new era in just a few short years where farming and prosperity are taking hold in regions where, up until recently, violence, poverty and drought were the norm. Imagine what the improved agriculture could do for famine and what the more sanitary conditions brought by fresh water could do for disease. Every effort should be made to make the Secretary-General's plan a model for bringing fresh, clean water to the next half of those who do not today have access to itDo you have a great idea on how to deliver clean water to disaster victims? If so, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) needs your input. ASME recently put together an 'open source' community to design a human-powered water purification system. The goal of the project is straightforward; the team wants to develop a device that provides potable water without relying on an electrical hookup. Such a device has many potential uses ranging from use in the developing world to use after a disaster when utilities and sanitary services have been interrupted.
Great Ideas from Students
The project grew out of a 2007 ASME student competition focused on the design challenges of a human-powered still (boiler) to distill potable water after a hurricane or other natural disaster. The 2007 project asked student teams to design and build a unit that could boil polluted or otherwise undrinkable water then condense the steam to provide drinking water. The competition focused on creating the lightest possible, human-powered boiler and condenser system; ultimately the 2007 competition was so well received that a desire to build a usable system grew from the students' efforts. David Soukup, Managing Director for Centers at ASME said, "This is really a new venture for us. We saw a number of interesting designs [at the 2007 competition] and we wanted to pull the best from them."
Individuals that became finalists during that competition were invited to apply to become part of what is the current design team. Ultimately, ASME selected five student team members and two faculty from the Western Kentucky University who will serve as project managers. The student team consists of William Hagen (University of Miami), José La Verde (Lunds University in Skane, Sweden), Javier Lopez (Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela), Zach Pearl (Western Kentucky University), and Ken Ruble (New Mexico State University). Kevin Schmaltz and Robert Choate will serve as the project managers and faculty advisors; both are professors at Western Kentucky University. This group organized and initiated the online, open source community to further refine the team's goals. Soukup said that the team has been holding weekly web conferences where the students share their research and design ideas.
One of the team's important decisions was deciding on the real scope of the project. Soukup told H2Bid that the team's objective is a "compact, easy-to-transport water purifier that would be able to provide a family of four with drinking water for 2 weeks." He went on to say that rather than rely solely on human power to distill water, the team is leaning toward a mostly-human-powered device that takes advantage of solar energy and uses filtration in addition to heating the water.
Online Collaboration Powering the Effort
"One of the trends we see in the engineering field is collaboration, particularly online collaborations. ASME can provide the vehicle to show the value of collaboration for this kind of work," said David Soukup. Interestingly enough, ASME didn't restrict the collaboration on this project to the design team or even to the broader engineering community; instead the collaboration is truly open to all who want to participate. By opening the design guidance to any internet user, the team felt that they would be getting the best input for their design. Some of the early discussion in the online community was focused on fundamental questions such as: What pollutants should be considered? Should the device remove both biological and toxicological pollutants? How clean is 'clean enough'? What sorts of environments will be host to these devices? These types of questions were fundamental in helping the team to refine the scope of the project.
The design team is continuing to use the online community's input to develop and refine their design direction. Taking the community input into account, the design team will design a fully-functional water purification system. Beyond just a concept on paper, the team will assemble and test the device in mid-May at Western Kentucky University. The team hopes to show that the use of community collaboration can result in faster development times and a more complete understanding of potential problems or issues that may affect the success of the design. Additionally, the team hopes to finish with a device that works well in as many situations and environments as are practically possible.
The team has high hopes for where the project might go after the prototype has been built and tested. "We are open to what the next step might be," said Soukup. He went on to add that ASME is eager to hear from the industry about any potential "ideas or opportunities for further collaboration." There is a good chance that the device will be almost immediately useful in a variety of situations around the world. H2Bid will continue to follow the design teams' efforts and will report on the outcome of the project in late May after the testing is complete. To provide input or to participate in the online community aimed at developing the water purifier, browse to Directions on the page instruct the user on how to apply for an account and join the open source design community.