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one of the
topics highlighted at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting.
Among other projects, the Clinton Global Initiative last year helped
launch Sustainable WasteResources International to tackle the
health and environmental impact of billions of tons of waste
produced worldwide. (Read more: Clinton Global Initiative is
'mobilizing for impact') This year's week-long conference will bring
together more than 1,000 global leaderssome 60 current and
former heads of state, including President Barack Obama, along with
NGO and philanthropy leaders from over 70 nations to brainstorm
ways to head off increasing strains on the natural resources that
keep the global economy on track. They have a lot of work ahead of
them, based on the main finding of a recent survey conducted for
the U.N. Global Compact, the world's largest corporate initiative to
develop a more sustainable global economy. The survey of more than 1,000
undertaking a variety of efforts to develop a more sustainable supply chain,
CEOs across the worldthe largest of its kind ever conducted found that two-thirds believe
the global economy is not on track to meet the demands of a growing population. Despite
wider awareness of the need to adopt sustainable practices "business efforts on sustainability
industries and sectors. Both also need to better share the financial
impact. Global businesses may also feel less urgency to advance sustainability at a time
when sluggish economic growth has eased the upward pressure on supplies of raw materials
become more and more sophisticated as over the last 100 years to go and exploit those
resources. The problem right now is that demand is outgrowing our ability to find new
The risk is that we're outgrowing our ability to find new stuff."
more: As drought spreads, firms could be up the creek ) The
resources.
(Read
relentless
growth of human population in the modern world has brought dire warnings of resource
spurred investment in new production, and research in efficiency and substitution of cheaper
materials have helped head off shortages. As a result, for much of the last century, the global
But
the rapid expansion of the global pool of middle-class consumers is
straining the world's supplies of natural resourcesfrom energy and
minerals to water and foodat a pace that would make Malthus say
"I told you so." "It's not the total number of people, it's the number
in the consuming class," Fraser Thompson, a senior fellow at the
McKinsey Global Institute, co-author of a 2011 report on resource
sustainability. "That's where the real transformational change is happening." (Read
more: The American invention India really craves--exurbs ) The
numbers are stark. While the current world population of about 7
billion is projected to top 8 billion by 2030, almost all of that growth
is expected to come in the developing world. That means the current
population of consumers people with more than $10 a day to spend
is expected to more than double from 1.8 billion to 4.8 billion.
economy was fueled by a seemingly endless supply of cheap, abundant raw materials.
states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are two of these places. As described by T.P. Sreenivasan, former ambassador of India,
the
held behind a dam in Kerala that supplies Tamil Nadu. Writing in the Indian Ink Sreenivasan added,
so
. With increasing resource pressures from our exploding population of more than 7 billion, combined with the consequences of climate
change,
police records revealed a boost in water thefts as frequent droughts further degraded water supplies. Brazilians also suffered from a 19-month long drought that ignited
conflict during fierce competition for dwindling water reserves. Unfortunately,
. By altering rainfall patterns, river flows and increasing the frequency of floods and
droughts, our ability to manage and ration fresh water supplies will become an increasingly serious challenge. So what will happen to diminishing fresh water supplies and
resultant resource conflicts when our population reaches 9 billion by 2050?
needs such as those of schools and hospitals, the necessary level is more than
doubled to 50 liters per person per day. With the rising global population,
industrialization of developing nations and overall increase in quality of life
throughout most parts of the world, fresh water consumption levels are rising rapidly .
Approximately 67% of the worlds population will be water stressed by 2025, as
at about 6.5%.
California and Florida are the major consumers of desalinated water in
the US. Additionally, populated areas struck by natural disasters are faced with a
industrialized countries in terms of desalinated water consumption
great need to quickly supply potable water to the victims for drinking, cooking and
sanitation purposes.
in
use to power desalination processes. Some of these relationships are in
commercial operation today; others have yet to be demonstrated. Solar
and wind are proven, and tidal and wave energy have very recently begun to show
much promise, but are still in the early phases of commercialization. Ocean thermal
energy conversion (OTEC) is unique in that it naturally combines opportunities for
power production with seawater desalination. Using the temperature differential
between warm ocean surface water and cold deep water to generate clean baseload
(24/7) renewable energy, in a closed cycle OTEC system, the heat from the surface
water is used to boil a working fluid with a low boiling point (such as ammonia),
growing global need for potable water, the lack of available fresh water
sources, increasing concentration of populations in coastal regions, and
rising energy prices, pairing potable water production with baseload
(24/7) renewable energy from the sea is a natural fit. And with data
from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the United States
Department of Energy indicating that at least 68 countries and 29 territories
around the globe are potential candidates for OTEC plants, the technologys worldwide capacity for fresh water production and CO2 emissions diminution is truly
staggering. Although it has not yet reached its commercial potential, OTEC is now a
technically and economically viable option that is rapidly emerging not only as a top
contender in meeting the energy demand for coastal communities in years to come,
but also a major global player in the sustainable potable water generation market as
well. While there is certainly truth in the old adage that oil and water do
not mix, OTEC is concrete proof that the same cannot be said of energy
and water.
challenges that still need to be overcome. For current plants, there are
some issues with construction in fragile marine environments, sealing
of the different parts of the installation against sea water, maintenance
of material in the sea environment, and bio-fouling of the pipes and
become a serious issue in the last century, as water use has been growing at more
than twice the rate of the increase in population. The UN estimates that water production lost
due to leakage, theft and inadequate billing practices ranges from 10% to 30% in developed nations and
from 40% to 50% in developing countries. By 2050, untreated wastewater could contaminate a
third of global annual renewable freshwater supplies. Including those who currently
do not live in areas of physical scarcity, 1.6 billion people face economic water
shortages, where countries lack the necessary infrastructure to make water from
rivers and aquifers accessible. At the same time, agriculture alone utilizes 15% to 35% of its water
in excess of sustainable limits. According to Jimnez, agriculture illustrates the classic case of water
mismanagement, where potable water is often used for purposes that could be served by other types of
"reutilized" water, preserving the premium water for more vital purposes (i.e., for drinking or personal
hygiene). This problem extends beyond agriculture, given that many parts of the world use the same
premium, potable water from the faucet to flush toilets. Finally, there is also a growing need for
they tried next year, yet again failure. Tight budget and lack of
sufficient infrastructure the task became difficult. Bad weather
compounded the problems. Two attempts of deploying the 800 m long
and 1 m diameter cold water pipe in 1100 me ter water depths failed.
Mooring of the barrage in severe weather condition was also proving to
be critical. Even when the power was generated transfer of the same
to shore was yet another design difficulty. Failures did not deter them. Rather
they starte d to think laterally. D ifficulties in transfer of power to shore and
economics led to rethinking. W hy not use the e nergy by - passing the electric power
conversion? Many coastal places and islands are in need of drinking
water and natural sources are either absent or inadequate. Trend towards
desalination of sea water is seen. Kathiroli and others also thought of designing Low
Temperature Thermal Desalination plant. The energy produced by OTEC could be
used; and it need not be converted into electricity and sent to shore. Rather the
energy could be directly used to purify sea water and potable water could be sent
offshore. NIOT under Kathiroli constructed a Barge Mounted LTTD plant
off Tuticorin . The plant had a capacity of 100 m3 per day. The project s
ucces sfully demonstrated continuous production of good quality fresh
water . Impelled by the success, one lakh litre LTTD was commissioned
successfully at Kavaratti . NIOT's recently unveiled barge - mounted
desalination plant, produces one million lit re s a day at about 6 paise
per litre. The team is confident that they would be able to scale up and
establish a p lant with 25 million litres per day capacity and should be
able to produce water at just 3 paise per litre . World over total
electricity generation is abou t 125 GW. Estimated OTEC energy
potential within Indian EEZ through OTEC is alone 200 GW. Thus indeed
OTEC could become a significant contribution for meeting the energy
needs of future. Though recent success of OTEC has been in establishment of
LTTD , elec tricity generation is not off the burner. World s leading aerospace
engineers are involved in designing suitable fibreglass pipes that could be practically
used in ocean. Even if some power could be generate using the ocean
energy then one could at least r educe that much dependence on the
coal and petroleum.