We have a global water crisis. Over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water.
The health and economic impacts are overwhelming. Over 7,000 children a day are dying because of dirty water. Waterborne disease is the number one health issue in the world, filling 50% of hospital beds globally.
In developing countries, people are forced to choose between sickness or purchasing expensive packaged or bottled water from untrustworthy sources. We believe that's an unfair choice. It's also inconvenient and burdensome, with serious impact to the environment.
Even in middle- and upper-income countries, lack of access to clean water remains a problem and drag on economic development, with contaminants such as arsenic and excess fluoride causing water-related illnesses, cancer and diabetes and resulting in billions of medical costs.
The more we've learned, the more we've become convinced we need to completely change the paradigm. We support those digging wells and the need, in certain circumstances, for large water treatment projects and hope governments will do more to fund them. But, it's time for more creative and cost-effective solutions. Both well water and tap water often need to be purified before they're safe to drink. It's more important than ever that we be willing to look at old problems and find innovative ways to solve them. The issues of water access, quantity and quality need to be addressed at the same time.
Traditional solutions like centralized water treatment plants are simply too expensive, consume enormous amounts of energy and take years to implement. Only 1-2% of water treated at a typical water treatment plant is actually used for human drinking and cooking. The other 98% leaks out of the antiquated pipes and is used for household utilities. Even worse, the treated water is frequently re-contaminated in the pipe system. It's estimated that the world will have to spend over $5 trillion dollars to adequately repair our water infrastructure (about $400 billion alone in the U.S.). This will not get done!
We can save time, money and energy by only purifying the water actually consumed by people if we purify the water at the point of drinking instead. The closer to your lips you purify water, the more effectively we can provide safe drinking water and reduce medical costs throughout the world.
Just as mobile phone technology allowed billions of people to leapfrog telecommunications technologies, we are convinced that effective point-of-drinking solutions will leapfrog the current reliance on water treatment plants and bottled water.
We formed The Water Initiative (TWI) because the global water crises requires local, customized solutions. TWI co-creates customized and sustainable drinking water solutions through innovative partnerships with municipalities, businesses and local micro-entrepreneurs in developing and developed countries. Using advanced filtration technologies that don't require electricity, we treat the water right after it comes into the home, school or hospital and before it is used for cooking and drinking. TWI addresses global water problems with affordable point-of-drinking solutions that remove virtually all contaminants.
TWI acts like a doctor: we first diagnose the local conditions and then develop the "prescription" or water purification system that is most appropriate to address the local conditions. Finally, local partners are engaged to deploy those solutions in the targeted markets. We believe the best way to help is to utilize the power of business and micro-entrepreneurs to create smart, appropriate solutions and put the affected people to work implementing these solutions.
Mexico was our first venue, where the water has very high levels of pathogens, arsenic and fluoride, three of the worst and most dangerous contaminants in the world. In partnership with the local community and Mexico's National Water Commission CONAGUA, TWI diagnosed Mexico's specific water problems, employed our customized approach and deployed innovative, low cost solutions that are transforming these communities. For the first time in water history, a state municipality, Durango, has determined not to deploy water treatment plants, but instead to deploy TWI point-of-drinking solutions for its people. Many municipalities are expected to follow this lead in Mexico and globally.
We've also learned to use the power of business to create jobs in our partner communities. Local micro-entrepreneurs help educate the community and deliver these low-cost products, with a family paying a nominal cost each month to be invested in the impact and upkeep of their clean water solution.
The Water Initiative is now taking what we've achieved in Mexico to other countries in the Middle East, Latin America and hopefully, soon to Africa, bringing investment and game-changing solutions to urban as well as hard to reach rural communities.
Water is the defining crisis of this century and we urge you to help us to avert calamity and bring health and peace to our world together. We need to open our minds to new ways to conquer our biggest global issues.
Our vision is to take our innovative, customized process to scale and address the overwhelming water issue globally.
As one of the greatest innovators of our time, the late Steve Jobs, said: "Let's go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday."
Wow. For the first time I just realized that my state is a developing country. Fraking makes the water here burn baby burn.
I'm trying to think like a Republican ....again.
Actually lthe Chinese are leading in this without worrrying about the "free market". They know that water is an absolute essential, and so they know the government has to provide it.
They bought a full, complete, water de-salinizing plant from Isreal. It was taken apart, and shipped to China where it will be put together.
Yes, China is an authoritarian state that despises individual liberties, yes it abuses the world environment, yes, it abuses the world economic system.
But when they see a water crises, they drop all the idealogical nonsense, and buy one from Israel, I'm sure in cash with U.S. $.
To use an old water related saying. "When you are done, pull the chain" Don''t "study" the issue.
One of the problems I visualize is how to prevent marginal or non-functioning filter systems being marketed by shysters or detect when a system malfunctions. With large centralized systems, you can support the cost of monitoring, maintenance and making sure the suppliers systems meet the specifications.
You could get enough economies of scale in the manufacturing of the micro treatment system to end up with the same or better economics at the drinking water level as you can get with all the macro semi-custom designed systems.
In the future we will need to stop short of 10 billion or 20 billion, or 100 billion "Or no future".
Of course addressing the problem requires having to discuss human sexuality. That is something that general wisdom tellls us should not be discussed with anyone under the age of 18.
And never ever with anyone who is darker than a Norwegian. You are likely to offend their sensibilities.
I was not aware that you were involved in the fight.
Well Quincy use your stature to get this movement going!!!
Yet, though it may be difficult, please go to countries in Africa asap. Of about 190+ nations in the world, too many African nations remain at the very bottom of life expectancy charts. Some less than half of US life expectancy, like in the thirties.
A great organization!!!!!
How great are they if they are working to increase the popluation of the world to unsustainable heights. Love your Icon.
It is an somewhat inefficient and undesirable way of decreasing population. But, not doubt if Medcines sans has they way, it will become more popular.
Your name sounds good. Got a recipe?
But seriously. The ultimate cunundrum is that the manufacture of anything today requires energy, and transportation uses energy. Unfortunately we are still dependent on fossil fuels.
The despised science of ecology is really the study of energy through a system. But we must immediately defund any research on the science, lest we hurt the Petroleum Institute.
I am not an ecologist, but I'm willing to be that the manufacture of condums and birth control will is very energy effective in the long run.
A great idea. Also make sure to forget about the number of children we are producing today, who will need water and food, and ALL the Apple products.
97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water.
A friend and I wondered how much water has been used to extract crude oil from this earth since 1870? http://www.physorg.com/news160906147.html
In 2008, chemists Istvan Lakatos and Julianna Lakatos-Szabo of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences theorised that less than 100 billion tonne of crude oil has been produced since 1850 and that the average annual production rate is less than 700 million barrels per year.
John Jones in the School of Engineering, at the University of Aberdeen, UK, suggests that the figures cited by Istvan Lakatos and Julianna Lakatos-Szabo grossly underestimates how much oil we have used already. Jones says that we have used at least 135 billion barrels of oil since 1870. However, in 2005, The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) in London provided a total figure of almost 1 trillion barrels of crude oil (944 billion barrels) since commercial drilling began.
It takes approx. 12 barrels of fresh water to extract one barrel of crude oil. A back of the envelope calculation produces something on the order of 12 trillion barrels of water since 1870, using the ODAC crude oil extraction est. Converts to a current annual rate of 8 billion plus gallons of water.
All the water we have now is all we'll ever get. there are no new sources of water.
But the water is is used in conjunction with all sorts of carcinogens, so that water is now contaminated and it is running into our watershed where it will contaminate that water!!!!
I got great idea, since we are killing ourselves S L O W L Y, why don't just put a gun to our heads and be done with it.
It is a shame what we are to our natural resources, and so few people R E A L L Y care!