Fact, as they say, is stranger than fiction. Make that much stranger.
In a commercial scheme that is said to be an attempt to rectify some of the inequalities inflicted by the beginnings of climate change, water from a lake in Alaska will be sent to a new, yet-to-be-built water hub in Mumbai and then exported to arid cities in the Middle East. (source)
A San Antonio, Texas, based company has announced plans to export 12 billion gallons of water per year from the Blue Lake Reservoir in Sitka, Alaska, to a new, yet-to-be-built water hub on the west coast of India. It will be bottled here and supplied to the Middle East.
I can see many of you having tons of questions – “Hey, is Indian water any less pure than the Canadian water that it makes sense to transport it all the way?”, “what about the amount of CO2 emitted along the way from Canada to India?” and so on.
I have little doubt that the company at the forefront of it has done some research and they possibly have the answers to your questions. To me, what this news item brings home is the fact that water is going to be a pretty precious commodity that people could run round the earth to procure it.
Interesting web resources
- C2V – CO2 to Value – a comprehensive web resource providing insights on opportunities in converting CO2 into a range of useful products – fuels, chemicals, food & materials
- All about CO2 – CO2 Q&A – a unique resource providing answers to 100+ questions on the most talked about gas today.
During the rule of the East India Company The Ice House near the marina beach, Chennai is supposed to have stocked huge blocks of ice brought ashore from cooler climes of the globe !
But I am not sure why water is being sent from Alaska to India for consumption in Middle east.
Does that mean the desalinated water is not as good as the water from a lake ?
Even then why carry it all the way to bottle in India ? Why not bottle it closer to middle east ? Or in middle east itself ?