A new fresh water source
It may sound odd or even undoable, but there is a plan being developed to harvest fresh water by towing giant ice bergs over 1,500 miles from Antarctica to South Africa. A recent article in the June 10 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek describes in great detail how sea captain Nicholas Sloan plans to lasso 125 million tons of ice and bring it to his home city of Cape Town, South Africa, which has suffered through a three-year drought and had to severely curtail the use of municipal water as the population of Cape Town has increased to 4 million people, an increase of over 40% in the past 20 years.
Capt. Sloane recently spent more than two years overseeing the $1 billion successful refloating of the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that capsized inside a marine sanctuary off the coast of Tuscany, killing 32 passengers.
Icebergs are a source of pure clean water composed of compressed snow and ice and over 100,000 melt into the ocean each year. They range in size from very large to the size of small countries. The World Health Organization estimates that over two billion people on our planet do not have access to safe drinking water; many of them live in places that could make this project feasible. The cost is not cheap and towing 125 million tons of ice will cost an estimated $200 million. Financial backing is available, and if successful, the future could see many more of these projects and a healthier population. The recent problems associated with our changing climate may also put pressure for solutions to a safe water supply.
Sloane will use satellite data to identify an iceberg of the right size and shape and that is on a favorable course that is halfway between Antarctica and South Africa. They will use sonar and radar to inspect the iceberg for structural flaws. Tugboats will encircle the berg in a net of material that is suitable for low temperatures, friction, tension and act as a belt. With the net in place, two large super-tankers running about a mile apart and going about one mile per hour will seek out the favorable ocean currents and begin the 80 to 90 day journey. Melt will lose about 8% and near South Africa, the iceberg will run aground about 25 miles from land where earth moving equipment will work the ice into a watery slurry and be pumped into a fleet of water container ships and taken ashore to be part of the municipal water supply of the city.
Sloane thinks in the future of towing icebergs will be common place. 鈥淚t蘑菇视频 the first one that is most difficult.鈥� How is your water supply? Something most of us probably never give much thought.