Water for All: Technological and

Cultural Implications

Professor Michael Depledge DSc FSB FRSA

The Global Population

Contaminants of Water

Benefits of

New Technologies

Nanotechnology & the Life Straw

The Lifestraw

Nanomaterials: Regulatory Challenges

• Exposure ? - too small to detect

• Toxicity ? - altered chemistry, nano-

toxicology)

• Persistence ? – lack of monitoring tools

• Current regulatory protection - do production

volumes trigger action ?

• Regulation ?- who is responsible for

regulating and monitoring nano-materials in

the environment ?

What kind of studies are required

to demonstrate the benefits of

clean water technologies?

Solar powered water purifiers

Energy for moving water around

Smart Villages: Combined Approaches?

Clean Water

Light Energy

Communication

Does access to

clean water fuel

demand?

Unintended consequences of

providing clean water.

• Increased demand for consumer products

• Increased production of waste (with lack

of waste disposal infrastructure).

• Loss of cultural practices and local

lifestyles

• Increased dependence on technologies

and loss of resilience.

• Marked increase in carbon and water

footprints.

Unexpected challenges associated

with providing clean water.

• Unwillingness to adopt new technologies

• Ownership

• Theft of equipment

• Corruption

• Competing demands

• Conflict

May, 2009.

“We are the healthiest, wealthiest,

longest-lived people in history” “Risk” by Dan Gardner