Page 40 - Respond 2014 | RTCC Publications

Cities and regions

does cleAn

wAter AlwAys

HAve to come

At A cost?

Pak Oasis explains how its solar-powered ultrafltration plant
in Karachi can make water purifcation less energy intensive

One of the biggest challenges facing our world today is balancing the competing drinking water because of the rising global scarcity
demands of present and future generations. of freshwater – half of the operating cost comes from
energy use.
On June 28, 2010 the UN General Assembly declared that access to clean water
and sanitation is a human right for all people – an announcement that was warmly Pak Oasis – in partnership with the industry’s leading
welcomed by Pak Oasis, one of Asia’s leading water engineering companies. technology companies, such as Dow, Grundfos, FSI,
Pentair and LORENTZ – has been pushing back,
Yet three years on, and a full thirteen years since the Millennium Development Goals searching for technological and operational improvements
were launched, there are still some 780 million people who lack access to clean drinking to constantly reduce the energy requirements needed to
water and more than twice as many with no access to basic sanitation facilities. purify water or desalinate seawater.

There has never been any doubt at Pak Oasis that every member of the world’s According to the International Renewable Energy Agency
population deserves these most basic of human rights. However, with a growing global (IRENA), renewable energy-powered desalination is
population – set to hit nine billion by 2050 – and water scarcity also on the rise, we now able to compete with conventionally-powered
must ask, can our planet cope? desalination in remote areas where the energy
transmission costs are high. And while it may still be more
Respecting and nurturing the environment, and reducing the effects of man-made expensive in less remote areas, IRENA asserts that it is
climate change, must be as high a priority as helping those most in need today. The ‘expected to become economically attractive as the costs
only way to provide the necessary investments to lift this generation out of water of renewable technologies continue to decline and the
poverty, without irreparably damaging the chances of future generations, is a much prices of fossil fuels continue to increase’.
greater utilization of renewable and sustainable energy sources in the implementation
of our goals. Pak Oasis’ frst entirely solar-powered Ultrafltration plant
– a process which removes bacteria and viruses from
Previously, the main problem in the production of drinking water, most particularly in non-saline water – was established in Karachi, Pakistan,
the desalination of seawater, was that the cost was far too high when achieved using last year. The lessons learned from this successful project
renewable energy. For seawater desalination– increasingly relied upon to provide enabled Pak Oasis to proceed to build Pakistan’s frst

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