Recent water is changing into more and more scarce in lots of nations, however not in Greenland. Its ice sheet comprises round 6.5 p.c of the world’s recent water, and over 350 trillion liters are estimated to run into the ocean yearly. And with local weather change accelerating Arctic melting, increasingly of Greenland’s water is about to circulate off the island yearly.
In some locations dealing with water shortages, these exact same water molecules are doubtlessly being taken from the ocean and turned again into recent water utilizing desalination, at massive electrical and monetary value. This has impressed a startup to pursue an uncommon and bold enterprise enterprise that has been partially accredited by the Greenland authorities—harvesting glacier meltwater and transport it overseas.
“We’ve got one of many world’s most interesting assets on this space and loads of it, and we need to push that message out to buyers and potential markets,” says Naaja H. Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for enterprise and commerce.
The startup behind the thought, Arctic Water Financial institution, plans to construct a dam in South Greenland, seize meltwater, after which transport it all over the world by boat in bulk water carriers. If all goes in line with plan, the corporate says the challenge will likely be utterly carbon-neutral and inflict minimal harm to the native atmosphere.
“That is among the cleanest water on the planet. Anybody who has tried Greenlandic water is aware of that it’s pure, white gold,” says Samir Ben Tabib, cofounder and head of worldwide relations on the startup.
Arctic Water Financial institution is at the beginning, Ben Tabib stresses, a enterprise, however he believes it might additionally present a service to Greenlanders and the broader world. He argues that his firm will assist the folks of Greenland by leveraging the nation’s pure assets and paying taxes on revenue generated from them, and it’s an ambition the federal government shares. “The objective is twofold,” says Nathanielsen. “It’s about new sources of revenue for the nationwide treasury, and native enterprise improvement and the related creation of jobs.”
In the long term, Ben Tabib says, Arctic Water Financial institution may even assist mitigate the approaching world water disaster. “It’s most likely not one thing our little enterprise can clear up alone, however in Greenland, recent water is a useful resource that’s simply washing into the ocean.”
Proper now, the startup has the preliminary permissions it wants. In paperwork seen by WIRED, the federal government grants the corporate sole rights for the following 20 years to make use of all water and ice from a river close to the city of Narsaq. On common, this river produces 21.3 billion liters of water annually, nearly completely meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet. However earlier than any water will be shipped, a dam have to be constructed, and Arctic Water Financial institution will want an Environmental Impression Evaluation (EIA) to be accomplished to get began on development.
This isn’t as nice a hurdle because it may appear. Greenland could also be some of the untouched environments on the planet—roughly the scale of Western Europe and residential to fewer than 60,000 folks—however the development of dams shouldn’t be exceptional, says Karl Zinglersen, head of the Division of Surroundings and Minerals on the Greenland Institute of Pure Assets. Within the early Nineteen Nineties, the primary hydroelectric dam was constructed to serve the capital of Nuuk, and since then, a handful of smaller hydroelectric dams have been constructed across the nation. The EIA course of may be very thorough, says Zingerlsen, however in his expertise it not often if ever stops a challenge.
