Today (22 March) is World Water Day, and the IOE&IT Daily Update is turning its focus to some of the recent stories on trade in H20, from Danish imports of Norway’s wastewater to the companies trying to make a splash with ice exports from Greenland.
Greenland water exports
The Guardian reported earlier this year on Arctic Ice, a startup firm based in Greenland. The firm exports ice harvested from the vast, Danish-owned territory’s fjords to the UAE, where it is used in high-end cocktail bars.
The enterprise is the latest in a string of failed attempts to turn a profit exporting the ice, which is used in drinks by those living in Greenland. Arctic Ice’s co-founder, Malik V Rasmussen, explained to the Guardian that the region’s ice is more compressed than most, has no bubbles, and does not melt as easily. For over 100,000 years, it has “not been in contact with any soils or contaminated by pollutants produced by human activities”. This makes it a valuable export – and “the cleanest H20 on Earth”.
The journey taken by those shipping it for Arctic Ice stops in Denmark before it continues to Dubai. Arctic Ice argues that the journey to Denmark is of particularly low carbon intensity because most refrigerated ships leaving Greenland are empty, and their product uses this empty space.
Rasmussen said that the business marks a welcome shift in export profile for Greenland – population 56,653 in 2021 – which currently depends on Denmark for 55% of its budget. He added:
“In Greenland, we make all our money from fish and from tourism. For a long time, I have wanted to find something else that we can profit from.”
Desalination nation?
One way in which clean drinking water can be provided in countries where it isn’t readily available is through desalination, or the removal of salt from saltwater. Yet desalination poses environmental problems, as brine removed from saltwater is returned back to the ocean, increasing salinity and potentially harming marine life.
One solution proposed last year by Thomas Schumann, CEO of Thomas Schumann Capital, in conversation with Delano last year also centred around Greenland’s water supplies.
Schumann is investing in exports of Greenland’s water as it is “very pure water, 100,000 years old, [with] no microplastics, no pesticides, no herbicides”. His firm is not the only one investing, as the Geological Society of Denmark and Greenland has granted licences to over 10 private companies to explore Greenland’s freshwater – 10% of the world’s supply – over the next 20 years.
Glacier water ambitions
Kazakhstan prime minister, Akylbek Zhaparov signalled his country’s ambitions to export its own premium water to China last year.
Reported by Firstpost, discussions between Zhaparov and the head of Chinese water firm Qingdao Laoshan Mineral Water Company, Wang Da, were positive on the prospect of Chinese import of Kazakhstani glacier water.
“We are positioned at the very origins of glaciers and stand ready to supply pure drinking water to China, as well as to countries across Europe and Asia,” said Zhaparov. China has access to only 6% of the world’s freshwater reserves, despite being the world’s second most populous nation and experiencing a 9% increase in its water consumption from 2000–2015.
Around 3.3% of Kazakhstan’s land area is covered by glaciers, estimated to hold 600bn cubic metres of water. Climate change is, however, anticipated to exacerbate Kazakhstan’s ongoing issues with its water distribution infrastructure.
Denmark wastewater import
Denmark’s government conceded earlier this year that it allowed waste treatment firm RGS Nordic, now IWS, to break EU rules by importing oil-laden wastewater from Norway, following a previous claim by environment minister Magnus Heunicke that the imports did not breach the law. The imports were then discharged into Agersø Sund in the Danish region of Zealand.
The import of oil wastewater is “is a significant violation of EU law, which aims to ensure a high level of environmental protection”, according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
The granting of permits to IWS to import and dispose of the water was not illegal, but based on a misinterpretation of EU law. Heunicke has said there would be “review [of] each and every import licence” for wastewater.