Worst Scheme Ever? TX Company to Ship Alaskan Water to India

Over the years there have been some really crazy ideas for solving water shortage problems, from building a pipeline from water-rich Canada to the  U.S. Southwest to towing icebergs behind ships from Greenland to Europe to filling up tankers in Alaska and hauling water to India and beyond.

Crazy, right? Well, actually, all those ideas have been shot down except the last one, which will actually become a reality in the very near future. Last week, a Texas company called S2C Global Systems announced that they were going to be distributing water from a "world water hub" in India. From this hub (in an undisclosed location) the company will then sell off bulk water to smaller ships that will deliver it to other countries. The company says it will also be selling this drinking water in 20-foot containers for pharmaceutical/high tech manufacturing or in 18.9 and 10 liter bottles for consumers in south and west Asia.

And where will this Texas company be getting their supply of freshwater that they'll sell in Asia? From the town of Sitka, Alaska, which is giving up this precious resource for one penny per gallon. For residents of Alaska who may feel like they've got more than enough water, it probably sounds like a great deal. But in the global picture, a bulk water transfer of this magnitude can have sweeping consequences, especially when it comes to the commodification of water. By taking a shared, public trust resource like water from a local lake and giving it to a company to sell for profit, it opens the door to a slippery slope where water is no longer a human right, but a commodity to be bought and sold.

Harvesting large amounts of fresh water for export can have impacts on the ecosystem, potentially affecting water levels and temperatures and the species who make their homes there. It could also affect the quantity or quality of water for those who live or farm in the region where the water is being exported.

While there haven't been any major water exports recently like the kind S2C Global will undertake, there have been other kinds of less noticeable water exports involving food. When water is used to grow food in one region and then it's exported, that country or region loses what's often referred to as 'virtual water.' Take Arizona, for example. The state grows iceberg lettuce, a crop that is 99 percent water. So, Arizona, with scarce water resources grows a water intensive crop and then ships it out of state, effectively losing that water from the region.

A similar but more dire situation is happening in Kenya's Lake Naivasha, where commercial flower farms have taken so much water to grow their product and export it to Europe, that local people are running out of water for drinking and growing food. While there is no tanker filling up with water directly, the effects of 'virtual water' exports can be the same.

Scarce water resources are a serious issue, with more than one billion people worldwide lacking access to safe drinking water. As climate change exacerbates the water haves and have nots in future decades, they'll likely be more pressure for bulk water exports. Unfortunately, such transfers don't usually go to the most in need, just the ones who are willing to pay the most. Water privatization end ups being a boon only for the companies that are selling it, not the rest of us.

Photo credit: clogozm