Presentation by Mike Depledge, Exeter University, Smart Villages Technology Workshop, Cambridge 14 January 2014 The purpose of the workshop was to bring together leading UK researchers to discuss emerging technologies for the sustainable production and use of energy in rural communities in developing countries, and to take a ‘look ahead’ at scientific developments and technologies that might be influential over the next 10 - 20 years. It was held under the auspices of the ‘smart villages’ initiative, a three - year project to advance sustain able energy provision for development in off - grid villages in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

1. Water for All: Technological and
Cultural Implications
Professor Michael Depledge DSc FSB FRSA

3. The Global Population

10. Contaminants of Water

11. Benefits of
New Technologies
Nanotechnology & the Life Straw

12. The Lifestraw

13. Nanomaterials: Regulatory Challenges
• Exposure ? - too small to detect
• Toxicity ? - altered chemistry, nano-
toxicology)
• Persistence ? – lack of monitoring tools
• Current regulatory protection - do production
volumes trigger action ?
• Regulation ?- who is responsible for
regulating and monitoring nano-materials in
the environment ?

14. What kind of studies are required
to demonstrate the benefits of
clean water technologies?

15. Solar powered water purifiers

17. Energy for moving water around

18. Smart Villages: Combined Approaches?
Clean Water
Light Energy
Communication

19. Does access to
clean water fuel
demand?

20. Unintended consequences of
providing clean water.
• Increased demand for consumer products
• Increased production of waste (with lack
of waste disposal infrastructure).
• Loss of cultural practices and local
lifestyles
• Increased dependence on technologies
and loss of resilience.
• Marked increase in carbon and water
footprints.

21. Unexpected challenges associated
with providing clean water.
• Unwillingness to adopt new technologies
• Ownership
• Theft of equipment
• Corruption
• Competing demands
• Conflict

22. May, 2009.

23. “We are the healthiest, wealthiest,
longest-lived people in history” “Risk” by Dan Gardner