Page 70

070 INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY“THE CRITICAL NEXT STEP MUST BE THE CREATION OF GLOBAL WILL WITH FIRM COMMITMENT AT ALL LEVELS TO INVEST THE NECESSARY HUMAN AND FINANCIAL CAPITAL FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION ”Call for Action:Help Baleen pioneer Change to end PollutionVisit www.baleen.com or Contact yuri@baleen.com‘‘When you have very tight budgets, it is natural to go with what you know, or be very careful and certain that something new is going to work before you spend the money. You have to be right, because you do not have extra money to retool if it does not work.’’George Hawkins (DC Water) in an interview with Water Online Editor Kevin Westerling, March 2016The capital requirements, though considerable, are comparatively low when acknowledging the financial cost to address the problem of ageing infrastructure (simply to maintain status quo) is estimated at some US$200 billion each year (UNESCO 2015). The question is not whether such a System Change is necessary or would work, but more so ‘‘Can we make the leap to a new paradigm?’’.Let us now explore the determinable global benefits from such a System Change:‘‘Wastewater produced globally is estimated at 1,500 billion tonnes annually; six times more water than all the rivers of the world.’’UN WWAP 2003From emission-based estimates (UNEP 1998) there is enough energy-rich ‘‘Waste’’ to yield a greenhouse benefit of some 3.34 billion tonnes of CO2 avoided annually (Vs estimated global emission of 9.50 billion tonnes, US EPA 2011), immediately reducing known CO2 loading on oceanic ecosystems by one-third. Resulting cleaner ‘‘Water’’ containing free fertilizer in the form of nitrates and phosphates could supply one-third of global water for agriculture (UN, UNESCO and FAO).WASTEWATER TO DISPLACE 1/3RD GLOBAL EMISSIONS AND 1/3RD IRRIGATION NEEDElectricity generation potential (UNEP 1998) estimates this ‘‘Waste’’ resource to offer around 583 billion kilowatts of useful power (Vs a global demand of 23,322 billion kilowatts, IEA 2013), indicating the amount of energy that can be reclaimed from ‘‘WasteWater’’, though just 2.5 per cent of global demand, is higher than the combined total of 2 per cent from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass (REN21 2014).HUMANITY’S WASTE TO REPLACE FOSSIL FUELInterestingly, this equates to 57 per cent of total electricity demand provided by oil or 6 per cent by coal (IEA 2013). Considering that China, India and the United States represent 38 per cent of global opportunity with the domestic, cereals and meat sectors headlining 72 per cent of all ‘‘WasteWater’’ produced (Pacific institute 2011), it means that Change could be instrumented quickly. And unlike non-renewables, ‘‘WasteWater’’ is found where communities reside, which means it could more efficiently power the transport industry (including electric vehicles) in lieu of existing coal-fired or oil-combustion sources, to encourage a move from fossil fuels.Some 12.6 million people die each year as a consequence of an unhealthy environment, and over 4 billion people live with severe water scarcity