The Outrageous Scheme to Seize and Promote Greenland’s Meltwater

Contemporary water is turning into more and more scarce in lots of nations, however not in Greenland. Its ice sheet incorporates round 6.5 p.c of the world’s recent water, and over 350 trillion liters are estimated to run into the ocean yearly. And with local weather change accelerating Arctic melting, an increasing number of of Greenland’s water is about to circulate off the island yearly.

In some locations going through water shortages, these exact same water molecules are probably being taken from the ocean and turned again into recent water utilizing desalination, at giant electrical and monetary value. This has impressed a startup to pursue an uncommon and impressive enterprise enterprise that has been partially authorised by the Greenland authorities—harvesting glacier meltwater and delivery it overseas.

“We have now one of many world’s most interesting assets on this space and loads of it, and we need to push that message out to buyers and potential markets,” says Naaja H. Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for enterprise and commerce.

The startup behind the concept, Arctic Water Financial institution, plans to construct a dam in South Greenland, seize meltwater, after which transport it around the globe by boat in bulk water carriers. If all goes in accordance with plan, the corporate says the undertaking will likely be fully carbon-neutral and inflict minimal harm to the native surroundings.

“That is a number of the cleanest water on this planet. Anybody who has tried Greenlandic water is aware of that it’s pure, white gold,” says Samir Ben Tabib, cofounder and head of worldwide relations on the startup.

Arctic Water Financial institution is at first, Ben Tabib stresses, a enterprise, however he believes it may additionally present a service to Greenlanders and the broader world. He argues that his firm will assist the individuals of Greenland by leveraging the nation’s pure assets and paying taxes on earnings generated from them, and it’s an ambition the federal government shares. “The purpose is twofold,” says Nathanielsen. “It’s about new sources of earnings for the nationwide treasury, and native enterprise growth and the related creation of jobs.”

In the long term, Ben Tabib says, Arctic Water Financial institution may even assist mitigate the approaching world water disaster. “It’s in all probability not one thing our little enterprise can clear up alone, however in Greenland, recent water is a useful resource that’s simply washing into the ocean.”

Proper now, the startup has the preliminary permissions it wants. In paperwork seen by WIRED, the federal government grants the corporate sole rights for the following 20 years to make use of all water and ice from a river close to the city of Narsaq. On common, this river produces 21.3 billion liters of water annually, virtually totally meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet. However earlier than any water could be shipped, a dam have to be constructed, and Arctic Water Financial institution will want an Environmental Affect Evaluation (EIA) to be accomplished to get began on building.

This isn’t as nice a hurdle because it may appear. Greenland could also be probably the most untouched environments on this planet—roughly the scale of Western Europe and residential to fewer than 60,000 individuals—however the building of dams will not be unprecedented, says Karl Zinglersen, head of the Division of Surroundings and Minerals on the Greenland Institute of Pure Assets. Within the early Nineteen Nineties, the primary hydroelectric dam was constructed to serve the capital of Nuuk, and since then, a handful of smaller hydroelectric dams have been constructed across the nation. The EIA course of could be very thorough, says Zingerlsen, however in his expertise it hardly ever if ever stops a undertaking.