Translator: Peng Meng Reviewer: Helena Bedalli
This is the story,
the matter that unites everyone and everything around us.
It is a major part of ourselves
and all that we see.
Yet it has become so common to us
and it is easy to take for granted.
It's time to give the stage to the element,
that enables life
before we run out of it, water.
My name is Sid Vollebregt,
I'm the co-founder and managing director of Elemental Water Makers,
and we ensure fresh water today
without limiting tomorrow.
Allow me to explain.
Many of you might be shocked to hear
that already within 10 years from now
2/3 of world populations will face water shortages.
Actually already today,
many of the ecosystems
that keep our water system thriving, and feed our population
have become stressed.
Through the food we buy,
the products we consume,
the energy we generate,
we currently use three and a half more times of water
that the earth can provide us.
As a result,
our lakes, aquifers, and rivers are quickly drying up.
Already over half of the world wetlands have disappeared.
I have got good news and bad news for you.
Water is becoming a reason for conflict,
because the population is growing,
and through climate change effects
water scarcity is actually accelerating.
So the good news is
although water is scarce, we got a lot of it.
70% of earth is covered with water.
The bad news is that only 3% of it is fresh.
The remainder is salt sea water.
And of this fresh water
we can only access a limited amount.
The rest is stored in ice caps and glaciers,
or deeply underground.
The obvious solution to get more access to water
would be sea water, desalination.
However desalination is an energy and fossil intensive industry.
Desalination currently accounts for 1% of the global electricity consumption,
while it doesn't even supply half percent of our water.
This number will increase.
This means the obvious solution would be desalination driven by renewable energy.
So why are we not doing this?
Desalination is designed for constant operation.
Our renewable energy
the sun, the wind, and the waves they fluctuate over time.
As a result,
existing solutions are expensive.
It ought to use batteries,
or operate this continuously.
Enter Elemental Water Makers,
we came up with a solution for this.
Four years ago,
we built our first pilot in Indonesia.
Last year,
we delivered a commercial installation on the British Virgin Islands.
We can offer up to 70% savings by avoiding use of electricity.
This particular system saves 63%
in comparison with the fossil fuel electricity driven desalination unit.
The same time
he is also enjoying guilt-free water,
avoiding 25 tons carbon dioxide emission per year
using only a limited resources.
And the beauty is,
it is scalable from a few cube meters up to millions of liters per day.
We are currently executing a municipal size project
for a village in Cape Verde.
For 1300 people we will supply the system.
As of now, still have to truck water
to this village each day.
This would be cheaper water,
it would generate jobs,
and it would be higher water quality and availability.
We are on our way, but we need your help.
It is difficult to reach the decision makers and policy makers
on these water-scarce islands
and these coastal regions.
Municipalities, communities, governments,
resorts, private properties,
can all benefit from our solution.
It's time to re-connect with water.
Join us in solving fresh water scarcity
using only the elements sea, sun, earth, and wind.
Thank you.
(Applause)