Nobody needs me to tell them howvital a clean, reliable and secure water supply is for… well, everything. Thenecessity of water has been old news at least since the King of Uruk chiseledhis fascinating thought leadership piece “Irrigation: Why the Gods Let Us LiveHere” on clay tablets (which have since been lost, probably because theyweren’t digitally recorded or even put on blockchain). It is the fabric of lifeitself and new innovations that protect our water supply have helped to drivecivilization and keep us healthy and hydrated. In these fraught times ofpollution and climate change, we require these innovations to make sure ourwater is pure and traceable more than ever before.
Water purification has come a long way since those firstirrigation ditches, just like information technology has advanced dramaticallysince clay tablets. Today, we have the means to monitor our water fornearly any chemical or contaminant, and to monitor the rise and fall in saturationlevels.
We can even use analytics to crunch all this data todetermine trends in our water purity, and we use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tosuggest viable solutions to problems. Sadly, pollution and climate changearen’t our only problems, so how can we safeguard the wealth of data that theinformation age brings if it also brings with it margin for human error andeven the potential for malicious tampering?
Blockchain is how.
Blockwhat?
Blockchain has become a bit of a buzzword these days, alongwith cryptocurrency and NFTs — two innovations the blockchain was created toprotect. But under all this noise there’s an important signal that you may havecaught if you understand the primary vulnerabilities of NFTs and crypto — andeven more so if you understand how those digital commodities are not that muchdifferent than water. Like water, NFTs and cryptocurrency are complex to masterand at once tempting and dangerous to tamper with, plus they require anironclad system to protect against inaccuracies of all sorts. If blockchaintechnology can protect these online investments, then perhaps it can be just asuseful for keeping our water pure.
A digital ledger that arranges information in a sequence(chain) of hashed and encrypted clusters (blocks), blockchain is unique in howit records and shares information. Every piece of data appears in its block inthe exact order in which it happened, and cannot be altered in any way withouta record being made of that alteration. And a blockchain is shared entirely andin real time to all systems involved — everyone with a copy of the blockchainknows everything going on with the blockchain at all times.
Because everyone in the chain has a copy, no single copy ismore authoritative than any other, and a problem with one stakeholder need notaffect anyone else’s copy. This gives the blockchain the kind of peerlessredundancy, transparency and security ideal for securing our waterpurification data.
Efficiency and emergency
Water purification teams are always working to furtherimprove techniques, technologies and best practices for ensuring thewholesomeness of our water supply. Blockchain allows these teams to share datawith any stakeholders without concern for security or version control. Anytimesomeone working on a project anywhere in the world has a new idea or makes abreakthrough, up-to-the-moment data on the efficacy of the technique isavailable to everyone else involved.
As we develop AI-regulated water purification systems andmachine learning, this tested and secure data could go right to the controllingAI to make immediate adjustments to water treatment and replicate results fromelsewhere.
On the other hand, imagine a purity crisis such as achemical spill that puts dangerous particles in a local watersupply. Whether it poisons crops, livestock or people, containing andcleansing the compromised water becomes an all-consuming priority, especiallysince water can so quickly travel through an entire area, compromising thewater table and local supply for years to come.
If purity testing technology is attached to blockchain, notonly is everyone involved informed the second the impurity is detected, thereis no opportunity for error or malice to compromise the data along with the water.Everyone with the power to help understands the situation at once and can eventake steps to stop or minimize the flow of the contaminated water until it canbe purified, or at worst, quickly warn the authorities.
Industrial applications
Blockchain is already making appearances in the waterpurification industry, especially regarding reusing water for industrialpurposes. Genesis Research & Technology Group of Houston, Texas, ispurifying the wastewater created by fracking plants — up to 10 barrels of waterper barrel of crude oil. Genesis hopes its mobile treatment plants can make thewater usable for multiple rounds of fracking, drastically reducing waste,consumption and cost.
To make sure its treatment data is accurate and reliable,Genesis uses the blockchain to store all its data and is even leveraging thesystem to mint Water Token cryptocurrency with which investors can financethese new innovations.
All tomorrow’s water
Technological advancement in any field is an inspiringsource of speculation, and you don’t need to be a science fiction author toimagine the future of water conservation and purification. In the future, wecould reuse all our graywater in agriculture or industry, vastly reducingwaste. We could desalinate massive amounts of seawater, then replenish it withpurified and treated wastewater.
Future purification technologies could even break down andfilter plastic solids from our oceans. AI and machine learning are alreadyhelping to regulate purification systems and coupled with robotics, could fullyremove human labor from the process on an all-but-intellectual level. Theserobots could be everything from massive, automated purification facilities to microscopicnanites scrubbing the slightest trace of foreign particles from water oncommand.
No matter what form the future of purification takes,blockchain is the keystone technology that makes it all possible. Without areliable, transparent and secure system to record minute changes to somethingas sensitive and precious as the water supply, these technologies go frombeneficial to frightening.
Blockchain allows systems to be accurately monitored forchanges and discrepancies across multiple points, and to create and reinforceredundancies in sensitive programs. Entered into the blockchain, theseredundancies create barriers between error and disaster, and keep manystakeholders at once informed of any changes. Even without a one of these futuristicinnovations, blockchain could provide these services now.
Critical solutions
Just like nobody reading this needs to be remined howvaluable technology can be to humankind’s use of water, there’s no reason tobelabor the precarious state of our water supply. Climate change and waterwaste are both endangering the human race’s continued access to the mostprecious and essential of Earth’s natural resources.
If we are to preserve our way of life, let alone prosper, wewill need the most effective and precise tools to handle the management andpurification of water. Those precise tools require a secure and dependablesystem to moderate their function, and there is no more secure or dependablesystem than blockchain.
Robert Galarza is chief executive officer of TruTraceTechnologies, developer of the first integrated blockchain platform thatregisters and tracks intellectual property from genome to sale for the cannabisindustry.
