Water is the next big commodity Guyana needs to take advantage of – Stanley Ming
March 26, 2015 | By KNews | By Nicholas Peters
Stanley Ming
Guyana should look at how it will position itself so that it can take advantage of the impending “water market” as water will be the next big commodity on the global market, says prominent businessman and retired politician Stanley Ming.
His statement was made at the presentation of a conceptual proposal to media operatives, entitled “An Overview of Options and Opportunities (O3) for National Development”. The proposal is a strategic plan composed by Ming, Supriya Singh, Dr Eric Phillips and Major General (retd) Joseph Singh. Ming believes, if implemented, the proposal can serve as a roadmap that will drastically transform the country’s economy and infrastructure for the better by 2030.
Ming was asked to provide further details of the term “water market”. The businessman cited the growing popularity of bottled water throughout the Caribbean in countries like Barbados, the Bahamas and St. Lucia. He related that in those countries, the market has seen an increase in the importation of international brands, which makes substantial sales not only in the Caribbean but the rest of the world.
“Throughout the Caribbean, everyone is into this bottled water thing,” said Ming, “In these places, water is imported all the way from countries like France, with brands like Perrier. Now why can’t we in Guyana do the same thing for the rest of the Caribbean? We have water here that is the same quality as the water they import.”Ming added that the key to the success of bottled water products, like Perrier, lies in how it is presented to the global market. He said that if Guyana were to invest in the “branding and marketing” of its own water products to the competitive global market, the country would see remarkable returns from it.
“Bottling water is the next big venture and Guyana needs to start looking at how it will approach this market,” said the business tycoon.
Moreover, the former Member of Parliament cited that Guyana needs to also look at advantageously positioning itself in exporting water on a large scale, to countries like the United States.
In the last few decades, states in the western US, like Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Southern California have been experiencing increased droughts. Reports published by the US Interior Department in 2011, stated that prominent river basins – the Colorado, Rio Grande and San Joaquin – could see decline as much as 8 percent to 14 percent in the coming decades.
Furthermore, according to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), continued population growth in these regions will see an increased strain on the already limited water supply. Future projections also suggest that demand in water will grow as rainfall and mountain snowpacks decrease as a result of Climate Change.
According to Ming the western US has already began rationing water supplies. As such, the entrepreneur predicts that within 10 years the US will need to import water in large quantities in order to supply demands.
“Latin America has 30 percent of the world’s fresh water. Within 10 years there will be tankards not fetching oil but fetching water to the United States West Coast,” said Ming. He also cited Caribbean states like Antigua and Barbuda as current viable export options since the island already imports all their water.
“We have to start looking at how we will position ourselves to take advantage of the water market of the future,” related Ming, “Just as the US and Australia are setting up for the rising demand of quinoa, we need to start setting up for water.”
Comments
And may I suggest a particular niche. The water from the Conservancies.
“Black water” “Back – dam” water etc.
I used to say that Guyana was one of the few places on earth where I could “bury my face in a stream and drink to my heart’s content – without fear of disease or parasites”. Indeed, field workers believed that it “opened the appetite”.
As far as I know, the water is a weak tea, brewed naturally and continuously from falling leaves and sunlight. It is too acid for the intermediate host (a freshwater snail) of the parasitic worm that causes bilharzia – the greatest health hazard in this kind of environment.
I have been following this for sometime, and the technology is now being used more often around the world. i.e.
SPRAGG has proposed to deliver water from the Manavgat River in Turkey across the Mediterranean Sea to Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has an extreme shortage of water, which presently is being reviewed by the World Bank. I remember the Essequibo had a deep water channel, right up to the parts where the water was almost crystal clear, after reading the Maj. Joseph Singh’s presentation, I felt we can fill the reservoirs of the Islands needing water. Since it will have to be filtered, the Caribbean will soon learn to love the taste of the water, and enjoy the extra benefits we knew about for years. This project can actually turn out to be a major source of revenue for the country.
Take a look for at a more in depth look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_barge
I am proud of you guys with these types of discussions. If you keep this up Guyaneseonline might begin thinking about charging fees for membership.
Its a smart idea for Guyana to start thinking about investing in pure water. THe last time (about 4 yrs ago) I was in Guyana one company was selling water in huge glass containers. I believe the water was treated with chlorine but there was no label with information as to the chemicals involved. We have lots of water but in a tropical country it means there would be need to remove a whole range of harmful microbes and bacteria.The study is worth an investigation however.
Even where water is in large supply in the US the pipes can become corroded inside. The water companies treat it with other chemicals without telling consumers anything much……thus increasing the need for bottle water.
One Israeli plant has been very successful in converting salty sea water into fresh water but I have not heard much of it…….this could be a major breakthrough if successful.
Desalination Plants? I think some where in the Caribbean, they also invested, been around for some time, very expensive process. I am sure our Essequibo water would taste better. Never tried theirs. Anyhow our water is famous for producing brilliant minds, of this I am sure
Water is a finite resource and a NATURAL HUMAN RIGHT! It should not be bottled and sold for profit!!! Why on earth would Guyanese citizens allow this precious resource to be depleted through privatization by some parasitic neoliberal entity seeking to suck all the water out of Guyana in the name of profit. And please, DO NOT bring us any spin about doing a moral good helping out thirsty people around the world. NO! Let them take back their water rights or do without. Go peddle this insidious scheme to the people in Africa. They seem to believe everything they are told by those fronting for corporations and foreign govts. Isn’t Ming PNC/APNU+AFC? The party that is sponsored by the neoliberal west that is responsible for all the carnage and mayhem taking place all over the world. A vote for this coalition of peons is a vote for the western piranha govts that want to covet Guyana’s resources.
The droughts and famine in Africa are a result of water being brazenly diverted/stolen from the people by rich white corporations and their western- backed govts. The droughts in America are a result of water being brazenly stolen from the people including the Native Americans by the likes of Nestle and other bottle water companies – rich white corporations and the govt of California – making mega profits from bottling the water that belongs to Californians and selling it back to the very same Californians and elsewhere. Funny thing is, most of California’s drinking water is recycled/purified raw sewage. Every time someone’s flushes, it goes straight into a gigantic vat that collects all this waste. Does this mean that Californians are so dehydrated that they are not excreting enough waste to recycle? Do the Guyanese people want to start drinking theirs and everyone’s waste water? Then say NO to this scheme!
Water is indeed a finite resource; moreso when one considers that only one percent of all the water on the planet is fit for human consumption and agriculture – freshwater.
I would guess that 70% of all the rain falls on the oceans – saltwater.
It is a renewable resource and our challenge should be to speed up the hydrological cycle and simultaneously, prevent losses from the freshwater system to the saltwater system.
And if that entails bottling it and selling it, I am for it.
Imagine you are driving up the East Bank Demerara road to the airport. You will pass Land Of Canaan; you will know it when you pass the “five door” relief sluice.
When the level of the East Demerara Water Conservancy gets to the point where breaches and floods become a danger, these doors are opened as a kind of safety valve.
At the height of the May-June rains, I stopped at the sluice one night; and felt some of the power of water. All five doors were fully opened and water, measured in ‘tons per minute’ was rushing into the Demerara river.
All that beautiful black water that was wholesome for human consumption and agriculture immediately lost to the saltwater system. Even if it all evaporated, condensed and precipitated as snow or rain, much of it (70% my estimate) will fall into the ocean.
As for recycled wastewater, here is a comment I read years ago.
“By the turn of the century, the good news is that recycled wastewater will be safe to drink. The bad news is that it will still be – not enough.
“By the turn of the century, the good news is that recycled wastewater will be safe to drink.
Could be 40-50 years ago Israel was already converting water from the sewage for agricultural usage. Maybe those folks are near to recycling it for human consumption. Their God gave them brains but He gave the Arabs the oil.
In my glance over these things I notice a company in Europe is buying up water resources in large quantities in anticipation of future shortage. Norway has invested much of its national funds to provide clean water for public use……..one of the best countries to live in Europe, but expensive.
I suspect your idea of bottling and selling water in Guyana is already in operation. Cannot be very profitable. Guyana market is too small. Have to think about exporting…..to who?……….then the question of container and transportation cost comes to bear. This has to be a large enough project and with Govt. help
40-50 years ago, Israel was the leader in ‘drip irrigation’. About that time, Dr. Dan Goldberg, the pioneer, discussed his experimental work with the Technical Staff of Bookers Sugar Estates. Grey water, reclaimed water etc. came later.
In China, “night soil” was used as fertilizer on vegetable crops. That must have been a long time ago; because “stir fry” was developed to kill any harmful organisms on vegetables so fertilized.
This happened before my time; the evidence is all hearsay.
“stir fry” was developed to kill any harmful organisms on vegetables so fertilized.
This is funny. I will remember this the next time my wife do her “stir fry”.
I am going to push the comments further north to the 2016 Elections USA: Billionaire Super PAC Donor to Punish GOP in 2016 – by Benjy Sarlin – MSNBC
NextGen Climate, the environmental super PAC founded by billionaire Tom Steyer, announced plans on Monday to punish Republican presidential candidates who reject the scientific consensus on climate change.
The group spent over $70 million in the 2014 midterms attacking Republican candidates in a number of high-profile Senate races, but were unable to stem the tide in what was ultimately a strong GOP year. On a call with reporters on Monday, NGC chief strategist Chris Lehane declined to provide a specific dollar pledge for the 2016 race, but said that Steyer and his allies would “spend what it takes” to make climate a damaging campaign issue for Republicans.
A huge effort will center on linking Republican attacks on climate science, where the overwhelming consensus points towards man-made emissions causing dangerous changes in the environment, to political spending by conservative billionaires David and Charles Koch. The Koch brothers have pledged to raise upwards of $889 million in the 2016 election cycle, rivalling spending by the two major parties in 2012.
“It is a party that is in essence acquired and purchased by the Koch brothers,” Lehane said.
A spokeswoman for Koch Industries did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Environmental group Greenpeace has accused the Koch network of spending tens of millions of dollars on organizations that work to undermine mainstream climate science. Koch Industries has said it promotes “sound science.”
President Obama has made climate change a top priority in his second term, presiding over a series of major new regulations on emissions as well as a landmark climate agreement with China. Scientists warn that immediate and further action is needed to stave off global warming of 2 degrees or higher by 2100, a tipping point that experts fear would have especially dangerous consequences.
Much of the likely GOP 2016 field has questioned or outright dismissed the idea that human activity is responsible for climate change. Establishment frontrunner Jeb Bush has called himself a “sceptic,” for example, while Senator Ted Cruz recently likened climate activists to “flat-earthers.”
As a result, Lehane said NGC viewed 2016 as a “crossroads election” that could determine whether “the window will close” on heading off the most worrying scenarios.
“If that happens, the horsemen of the climate change apocalypse will be unleashed by extreme weather,” he said.
According to Lehane, NGC will be headquartered in a “modern day 360-degree high tech war room” in San Francisco and will track GOP candidates, organize activists and protests, and run ads to raise the issue’s visibility. They will maintain “forward operating bases” in Washington, DC as well as early primary states and general election swing states. Part of the strategy will entail highlighting projected consequences of climate change in potential swing states, especially in coastal cities that could be affected by rising sea levels.
A “huge focus” of their campaign efforts will be courting young voters, who they see as most receptive to their message and who are poised to play a larger role in 2016 than they did in the lower turnout midterm elections.
Around the globe, cities went dark to reflect on our energy consumption’s environmental impact.
“It’s very difficult to see how the Republican math can work given where they are on this issue and given how young voters care about this issue,” Lehane said.
While Republicans largely avoided electoral consequences in 2014, Lehane claimed NGC had put GOP candidates on the defensive at points and shown that climate science could be used as a political wedge issue.
“It does raise basic competency questions in terms of whether people will be comfortable giving you the keys to the White House,” he said.
Be Afraid – Be Very Afraid – Check out this clip from United Nations University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4wjbSNZjkI