With one in four inhabitants of the planet without access to drinking water, the vast Antarctic ice is starting to look like it’s made of gold.
The world’s thirsty could quench their thirst by towing icebergs from the frozen south, suggests the book Chasing Icebergs by Matthew Birkhold, professor of literature at Ohio State University.
Birkhold admits that the scientists he spoke to on the subject were rather skeptical.
And yet, the idea is already attracting interest and investment. In Kanak, Greenland, for example, the water supply network is partly fed by water from melted icebergs.
A little further in the Arctic, in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, the company Svalbarði packages iceberg water in 750 ml bottles that sell for €99.95 in luxury stores around the world.
Further west, in Newfoundland, Canada, “iceberg hunter” Ed Kian sells water from melted ice to cosmetics and brewing companies.
Ice for everyone
In theory, the commodity is enough for everyone. According to a recent UN report, more than 100,000 icebergs are breaking off every year from the Arctic and especially Antarctica, which keeps two-thirds of the planet’s fresh water frozen. Each year, about 2,300 cubic kilometers of ice is estimated to break away from the frozen continent.
Antarctic icebergs lure marine rescue expert Nick Solein, who works with scientists on a plan to tow icebergs to Cape Town, South Africa.
The operation would not require large amounts of fuel, since the voyage would take advantage of the Patrol Current that circles Antarctica and the Benguela Current that moves north toward the African coast. The total cost, Solein estimates, would not exceed $150 million for each iceberg.
Similar plans have been in the works for a decade by the German company Polewater, which hopes one day to begin towing ice to the thirsty populations of West Africa and the Caribbean.
Exploiting icebergs, Birkhold reckons, would be cheaper than desalination, which provides 35 trillion liters of water a year globally, but is expensive, uses fossil fuels and pollutes the oceans with extra salt.
That’s where Abdullah Alshehi, an inventor from the United Arab Emirates and the initiator of the “Iceberg Project” to transport icebergs from Antarctica to the desert of his country, is betting. The venture would be cheaper than desalination, he assures.
For many, however, the idea remains out of reach. The city of Cape Town has shown no interest and the dozens of scientists the author spoke to were “unanimously skeptical”, as he himself admits.
The success of the venture would not be guaranteed, since the icebergs could break into pieces and melt en route, leaving those responsible in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
There is also the possibility of political tensions, as to date there is no legal framework for the exploitation of icebergs.
As Birkhold acknowledges, “we will have to decide who has the right to use icebergs – and how many icebergs – in a fair and equitable manner.”
This legal obstacle is perhaps greater than the technical difficulties. But if it is overcome, millions of thirsty people would see the glass half full for the first time.
