Solving the water crisis one nickel at a time
The realities of fresh water:
- Only 1% of water on earth is fresh/drinkable
- Demand is increasing
- Droughts have become more common
- Snowpack & polar ice caps are shrinking
- Pollution continues to contaminate several sources
If our very existence is entirely dependent upon the consumption of fresh water from diminishing sources what exactly is stopping us from actively pursuing alternatives? Have we convinced ourselves that this is next generation’s problem? I guess that’s what the last generation did to us (thanks Dad!). This sounds eerily similar to our dependence on oil, but unfortunately in this situation the Saudi’s aren’t sitting on millions of barrels of fresh water reserves and no matter how much drilling/fracking we do water isn’t going to come gushing out of the ground. Our current situation is a classic example of supply and demand from Econ 101, however there is much more at stake here. Take a look at the curve below….please forgive my poor illustration skills.
Looking at our current equilibrium it’s clear that supply is not meeting demand otherwise there would be far fewer water related deaths. Should we continue down the same path of destruction we’ve been on (increasing population & fresh-water depletion), both the supply and demand curves will shift creating a new equilibrium (intersection of Demand 2 & Supply 2). While equilibrium is typically considered a positive position in most economic examples, in this case equilibrium results in exponentially more water related deaths. That’s human beings dying due to an inadequate and/or insufficient supply of fresh water. No seriously stop and think about that for a minute. People are dying every day because they don’t have access to the water you’re swimming in, literally.
I’m sure we all agree that this is a very real problem. Not a problem exclusive to developing nations or Mexico. Right Donald Trump? This is our collective problem as water consuming beings. The question is, what are we doing about it? When I say we, I don’t mean the government or some other agency. I’m talking about the human race. What are we doing about this problem that affects all of us? Have you stopped watering your lawn? Seriously. Why in the world would you waste such a precious resource just to have green grass? Are you still washing your car every Saturday? Are you still showering every day? Okay, sorry I didn’t mean that last point. We all need to be clean! So if you’re not willing to change your water usage, what is the path of least resistance to help conserve water? Maybe we can force the electricity companies to stop using fresh water to cool their equipment? While these might be valid points, we know how reluctant we are to change. So maybe we can keep doing what we’re doing and instead figure out a new source of fresh water.
How about donating a nickel to water research & development for every beverage you purchase? Yes, that’s right $0.05 per drink. After all every drink is made with water so why wouldn’t we attempt to renew this resource when we consume it? So now instead of spending $5 on a coffee. Seriously Starbucks? $5 for a coffee? You’re looking at $5.05 unless Starbucks is willing to dial back their PBIT. Oh is that too much? You’re complaining about a nickel when you just dropped $5 on a latte? What if I said Starbucks would match your donation? So now $0.10 would be donated per beverage to H2O R&D. Okay, don’t commit to this just yet. How about I explain the idea first?
Have you ever heard of Desalination? With upwards of 70% of our planet covered in saltwater there needs to be a push to explore this process and find methods to make it economically feasible. There are several companies (IDE, Aquatech, Deka) already leading the charge but much more R&D is required to find adaptable systems that meet the needs of a variety of usage requirements. Finding the right desalination technology is a challenge, however if everyone contributes to the cause I’m certain we can figure it out. We did after all put a man on the moon!
So now that you understand the utilitarian nature of this project are you willing to help out? If you think about it, you’re really helping yourself. So basically your nickels are keeping you clean. Heck, you might be able to take a few showers a day if we sort this thing out! Or think of this as a philanthropic gesture to nature…..hey maybe you can claim this on your taxes. I think it sounds pretty cool. I’m a nature philanthropist. Look out Warren Buffett!
Maybe we should run the numbers before you answer the question? Let’s use the relatively small population of Canada as an example. Canada’s population is roughly 36 million people and we’ll assume that every single Canadian consumes one store bought beverage per week.
36,000,000 people X 1 purchased beverage per week = $93,600,000 per year
So that’s almost $94 million raised per year via beverage consumption for H2O Research & Development. Now let’s double that to include the producer share of the fee. So now we’re looking at just over $180 million per year to fund desalination research and development. If these funds were pumped into a Harvard or MIT classroom, I’m sure the smartest students on the planet would come up with something innovative to rival existing technologies and this push might lead to better systems.
The point is that if we’re all willing to help out both financially (one nickel at a time) and through conservation methods we will eventually solve this deadly problem and make things better for the next generation.
If we raised all that money in Canada, why would we give it to an American University to do the research? This could definitely take sewage treatment to a higher level though.