Nanotechnology and the access to clean water as a global challenge

Introduction
Focus and objectives of session
Preliminary workshop agenda

Introduction

This targeted workshop aims to increase awareness and promote dialogue, networking, coordinated policy initiatives and fact-finding related to the opportunities and challenges of nanotechnology to contribute to the purification of water.

Purified, clean, water is rapidly becoming a scarce resource for socio-economic developments globally. Megatrends driving the economics of clean water relate to population growth, increasing demand for energy, pollution, and climate change. Population growth is increasing the demand for water as a major input for agriculture while the energy sector already now is one of the major users of clean water in the developed world. Meanwhile climate change and drought are compounding the problems especially of developing countries. Worldwide 1.2 billion people lack access to sufficient amounts of clean water, 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation. This combination is the single largest cause of diseases and deaths in the world, accounting for approximately 3.4 million deaths annually.

The scarcity of clean water is essentially an access problem. While over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water most of it is unusable for consumption, especially to meet human needs. Freshwater lakes, rivers, ice and snow, and underground aquifers hold only 2.5% of the world’s water, while saltwater oceans and seas contain the remaining 97.5%. In addition to being relatively scarce, freshwater access is also very unevenly distributed with the least access for the developing world. Meanwhile available freshwater supplies are increasingly threatened due to the contamination of aquifers, from toxic compounds to salts intruding and contaminating these supplies.

The accessibility problems of clean water relate not only to freshwater scarcity but also to the fact that current water purification techniques are relatively expensive, increase stress on watersheds and the environment, and are not readily transferable to the developing world. Further, many existing techniques are very energy-intensive and thereby at odds with the mega-trends identified above. Emerging nanotechnologies, notably in the field of filtration and desalination, catalysts, new materials and sensors, may offer prospects of improving this situation. Analysts, scientists and technologists, as well as watersuppliers are increasingly pointing to the opportunities that nanotechnology hold for the provision of affordable and efficient new water purification techniques that may ease the accessibility problem. However, the development, commercialisation and diffusion of nanotechnology also faces many challenges, some of which might be even more pronounced in the context of water.

Focus and objectives of session

This workshop is intended to support major international initiatives that have recently been launched to highlight and consider the access of clean water as a key global challenge, ranging from those of the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the World Water Council to thinktanks such as the Meridian Institute and others. The work is being carried out in the context of the OECD Working Party on Nanotechnology (WPN), which focuses on the responsible development of nanotechnology.

Presently the WPN involves OECD member and some non-member countries, the EC, ISO and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), with representation from policymakers involved in nanotechnology development and promotion. The WPN thereby represents one of the broadest intergovernmental bodies working on the development and socio-economic utilization of nanotechnology. The mission of the WPN is to advise on emerging policy-relevant issues in science, technology, and innovation related to the responsible development of nanotechnology. Thus the WPN is well-placed to highlight and influence international activities related to nanotechnology and clean water.

The more precise objectives of this targeted workshop on nanotechnology and clean water are the following:

• Highlight how nanotechnology could contribute to addressing a key global challenge
• Help address key policy challenges in delivering policies that can foster the benefits of nanotechnology for water purification
• Highlight the role of nanotechnology in the context of developing countries

The workshop will primarily seek to invite participants with an interest in policy-related aspects of the opportunities and challenges of nanotechnology to contribute to accessible clean water. Nonetheless, the session is organised in such a way that various perspectives are reflected in the programme (see the preliminary programme below). These perspectives cover industry, the research community, other key stakeholders and the possible users of nanotechnology-related water purification techniques. The workshop provides a platform for researchers, companies and other stakeholders to exchange ideas, share contacts and suggest possible actions.

In particular, invited speakers will highlight both the opportunities that nanotechnology can provide as well as some of the key challenges that relate to the development, diffusion and commercialisation of nanotechnologies in the context of water purification. Key challenges might relate to the immaturity of some of the more promising water purification techniques, cost-efficiencies of these technologies compared with conventional options, conflicting incentives across institutional sectors and industries, intellectual property rights issues, public perception, health and safety concerns, as well as specific challenges that relate to the transfer, commercialisation and usage of cutting-edge technologies in the developing country context.

The precise content of the workshop will be based on further consultations with experts and delegates involved in this project. The workshop will, pending on its format, also aim to produce either conference proceedings or a policy report based on its main findings. This policy report will then be presented at the OECD WPN meeting in November 2008 for further action and planning of activities in 2009-2010. One possible dissemination target for this project is the 5th World Water Forum Conference, by the World Water Council, that will be held in March 2009 in Istanbul.

Preliminary workshop agenda