Water Sector Liberalization and the RainCatch Cloak - Activated Charcoal makes Potable WaterWorld

When Liberty is gone,

Life grows insipid and has lost its relish

Addison, Cato, II, 3

Energy Sector Liberalization is all the rage of late, prompting me to write several articles recommending same as collated in my blog article entitled “Minister Clive Mullings retrogade step on Energy Sector Liberalization - JPS Co's Monopoly An Inconvenient Truth”. So what about Liberalizing the Water Sector as well?

John Public may argue that Water is not burning so great a hole in ones pocket when it comes to bills. After all, some reason to themselves, the Water coming in your pipes is full of “chlorine” Jamaica vernacular for the suspended white Aluminum Hypochlorite salt found in Water.

But as the cost of electricity goes higher, the increasing cost of supplying Water via a distribution System, which like JPS Co (Jamaica Public Service Company), is wasting most of the Water it carries, Water Sector Liberalization will start to look increasingly attractive. Much as Jamaicans are now up in arms about JPS Co expensive electricity rates as noted in my blog article entitled “JPS CEO Damian Obiglio wants Incandescent Bulb ban - Jamaican in the Twilight Zone”, so too will Jamaican be protesting about Water and its spiraling price by 2012AD.

So putting aside the political show necessary to usher in Water Sector Liberalization, how can this be achieved? Just as in the case of Energy Sector Liberalization, which involves liberalization of the Electricity Generation and Distribution as well as implementing a Bio-Fuel Sector as noted in my blog article entitled “ATL Automotive to benefit from Low-Sulphur Diesel in 12 Months Time - Bio-Fuels Resident Evil Apocalypse”, a similar turn of Legislation can also be done for the Water Supply Sector.

First, the current NWC (National Water Commission) Water Supply System would have to be audited and upgraded to make Water catchment and treatment from Rivers, Well, Watersheds and the Sea more efficient, even including desalination of Seawater using Solar concentrators as stated in my blog article entitled “Water Security Policy and Water Sector Liberalization Needed to avoid Drought”. Then the Government of Jamaica would have to issue licenses to interested Local Investors and FDI (Foreign Direct Investors) to develop their business models to Process and Treat Portable Drinking Water.

One model that popped up in my blog article entitled “STS Atlantis test Forward Osmosis Filtration Device – Moonraker meets Waterworld for Water Sector Liberalization” was the use of Forward Osmosis which NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration) tested on the STS (Space Transport System) 135, codenamed Atlantis. For the records, this was the last voyage flown by the Space shuttle on Friday July 8^th 2011AD as stated in the article “Shuttle Atlantis rockets into history on final voyage”, published JULY 8, 2011 2:05 PM PDT by William Harwood, CNET News - THE SPACE SHOT.

Forward Osmosis, which is filtration across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of low dissolved salt concentration to an area of higher dissolved salt concentration, can be used to filter out micro-organisms and impurities that make Water unfit to drink. Desalination of Seawater as proposed in my blog article entitled “Water Security Policy and Water Sector Liberalization Needed to avoid Drought” is Reverse Osmosis, which is filtration across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of high dissolved salt concentration to an area of lower dissolved salt concentration, removes the sea salt and iodine from Seawater to make Water potable.

Both processes require expensive filters and lots of Energy. So are there any low tech solutions that can be scaled up to a larger size and be made into a viable business model? Yes there is, if you like wearing the Rain Water you drink around your hips.

CNET News’s Amanda Koosner highlighted such a concept in the RainCatch Raincoat, which I must agree, looks like a prop out of a Japanese Anime film as noted in the article “Raincatch concept coat for intentional Water gain”, published SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 3:55 PM PDT By Amanda Kooser, CNET News – Crave.

Perfect for scaling up to size! It involves using activated charcoal to filter out toxic heavy metals and a chemical treatment filtration System to make the Water sanitized and “tasty” to the householders.

Coupled this with a large Rhino Tank and connecting the Water outlets from the bathroom and sinks in the house as well as rainwater catchment to recover Rainwater to a recovery System that recycles the Water into a potable form for storage into the tank and gravity feed back into the house. Thus, a single house to an entire community of houses can enjoy potable drinking Water, thus achieving Water Sector Liberalization in a very simple model that would, like Energy Sector Liberalization using Distributed Solar Panels, see customers paying flat rate prices for unlimited Water Supply.

Considerably cheaper than is currently possible! Not to mention being a new concept in Jamaica, as we are used to Metered Water as opposed to paying a Flat Rate thirty (30) day charge for our Water supply.

The only thing that would have to be changed every year would be the chemical treatment package and the activated charcoal, both of which would create side industries for local chemical manufacturer in Jamaica who could supply such material to such a Venture capital startup in a Liberalized Water Sector in Jamaica, Waterworld (1995) Style.