Real plan: Ship Alaskan Drinking Water to India

Wow. Think beyond this one instance to resource shortages in the future and the need to ship our most basic necessities great distances. Scary.

Here's the story from Fast Company:

Talk about capitalizing on the resource shortages of the future: Texas-based S2C Global Systems plans to ship water from Sitka, a tiny water-rich town off Alaska's southeast coast, to India's west coast. Alaska Resource Management, a joint venture between S2C and True Alaska Bottling, holds the rights to export 2.9 billion gallons of water per year from Sitka’s Blue Lake Reservoir. If the deal succeeds, it will be the first bulk water export venture ever, potentially reaping $26 million to $90 million annually for the city of Sitka.

The shipping process won't be cheap. S2C's so-called "World Water Hub" in India will have room for two offloading vessels worth $41 million and $81 million, respectively. And during the bulk water's trip from Alaska to India, S2C plans to protect its liquid gold from bacterial growth with a pricey ozonation system.

As crazy as it initially sounds to those of us with readily accessible water in our faucets, S2C's plan kind of makes sense. The bulk water market may not be big yet, but Grail Research predicts that 3 billion people will live below the "water stress" threshold by 2025. Many of those people will live in India, China, and other rapidly developing countries.