??Ocean Mini Dives: Water Accessibility
Founders Factory
We’re co-founders and early stage investors. We build and fund startups globally.
Despite being totally surrounded by it, water remains one of the most pressing challenges for island nations. That is, scarcity of access to fresh water and a lack of effective systems for sanitation and irrigation poses considerable social and economic challenges to island communities.?
Why is this? For one, many island nations are reliant on rainfall for freshwater supply—the Bahamas, for example, lacks freshwater lakes and rivers. As weather grows more erratic and far more regular, rainwater becomes much harder to rely upon.?
On top of this, extreme weather (both droughts and flash-flooding) and rising sea levels both contribute to salt water intrusion, leading to an increase in the salinity of surface water and groundwater. We’ve seen this in Florida’s Everglades, which are one of the principal water sources for the Florida Keys: rising sea levels have submerged lower lying parts of the Everglades, threatening water supplies with the potential of pushing salt water further upstream, as well as posing a risk to agriculture.
Solutions in the space are limited:
?? Water treatment—whether that’s desalination or water reclamation—is costly and highly energy intensive, largely relying on diesel-operated reverse osmosis systems
?? Many islands and coastal communities even ship in freshwater from other locations or desalination plants, but this is largely considered both inefficient and expensive
?? Rainwater harvesting is not only weather dependent, it can be costly to maintain and is exposed to contamination risk
We’ve seen a number of exciting opportunities for innovation around water supply and accessibility for island and coastal communities:
?? Innovative desalination technologies
There are numerous new methods for desalination that can help island and coastal communities capitalise on an almost-infinite supply of seawater.?
领英推荐
?? Water use reduction
There are opportunities to make more out of less, particularly when it comes to water. AI can be a powerful tool for analysing water consumption and identifying opportunities to reduce usage, as well as for monitoring the status of water infrastructure
?? Waste water reduction
Technology opens doors in terms of reducing water consumption, for the likes of sanitation or irrigation for agriculture. Closed loop systems, for instance, reuse greywater or rainwater for non-potable purposes
?? Water treatment technologies
The vast majority of domestic and industrial wastewater is not reused, and is often released back into the oceans without proper treatment. Nanobubble technology, for instance, can help remove impurities and pathogens from water supplies, while other startups have deployed electro-ceramic technology for desalination purposes (see Membrion)
Are you building in this area?
?? Apply to Blue Action Accelerator: https://bit.ly/3wOB8ow
?? Recommend a startup: https://bit.ly/3yDEfjF?
Read our previous Ocean Mini Dives:
#oceantech #startups #climatetech?