01-07 Opportunities - John Bulloch

One person’s disaster can be another person’s opportunity. This is what is happening in a world facing water shortages, flooding and all kinds of water disasters. It means new forms of desalination and irrigation. New ways of producing food. And a world of opportunity for hydraulic engineers.

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During my teaching days in the 1960s, one of my tricks was to bring in 20 copies of the daily paper and have students look at all the bad news and see if it suggested opportunities.
This is what is happening today, as water issues dominate the thinking of the world.
We have coastal areas everywhere dealing with rising oceans and extreme weather. But from the photo of the moveable dams in the Netherlands, we already have a nation of hydraulic engineers providing consulting services to the world.
The Netherlands is a nation of dams and dikes with a thousand years of experience with rising oceans. No one builds a home on the ocean to get a view. That is what Americans like to do. Now if you want an ocean view in the US, better build your home on stilts.
Another nation that is a leader in water technologies is Israel. They were a nation of water shortages and now are a nation of water surpluses, and their technology is being used to build friendships with its Arab neighbours.
Desalination technologies were traditionally based on the simple idea of boiling water to separate water from the salt. But Israel uses a unique process of filtering the water through special membranes.
They not only depend on desalination for 60% of their fresh water, but send desalinated water by pipeline to refurnish the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan, the traditional sources of local drinking water.
And this technology is being sold to the world. One big installation is in San Diego with another planned for Santa Barbara.
Israel culture is all about turning adversity into opportunity. And their innovations linked to water include producing water economically from air, and providing water for crops a drip at a time using underground pipes.
In terms of adversity becoming opportunities, how exciting to see the world adapting new forms of urban agriculture. Like hydroponics, where soil is replaced by water and nutrients. Like roof-top farming on city buildings. Like growing vegetables under solar panels. Everything is about using less water.
The most exciting technology is called aquaponics where fish and vegetables grow together and the poo from the fish under the plants provides the needed nutrients.
Climate change is transformational with issues associated with water providing the greatest threats and the greatest opportunities. It’s going to be one surprise after another. Quirky.