IceDream: The Iceberg project

Turning iceberg into drinking water

Water shortages plague a fifth of southern Europe. And with temperatures in the region forecast to rise several degrees this century — reducing rainfall another 30% — things will only get worse. Several thousand miles to the northwest, however, global warming is increasing the number of icebergs calving off Greenland; they now number about 15,000 a year. "An iceberg is a floating reservoir. And water from icebergs is the purest water ... It was formed some 10,000 years ago," explains French engineer and eco-entrepreneur Georges Mougin. All those bergs eventually dissolve in the ocean's brine. Such a waste, he says. Why not capture and haul some of them to Europe's arid south?

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It’s a common mistake to confuse ice fields, which are composed of frozen seawater and populated with polar bears, with icebergs, our floating mountains composed of frozen drinking water.

And did you know that, each year, the equivalent of the world’s supply in drinking water melts away into the ocean?

Why should just sit by and let this happen? Why not use icebergs as an alternative source for drinking water?

This is French Arts & Métiers Engineer Georges Mougin’s dream since 40 years!

At first this idea may seem too outlandish, but perhaps Mougin is a visionary? Today while the most pessimist prospectors predict a worldwide conflict based on ‘blue gold’ in 2050, Dassault Systèmes has decided to help Mougin reexamine his project with the help of 21st Century technology.

And what if 3D scientific simulation and virtual worlds can give life to an idea that died down last century? Perhaps this was due to technology-linked obstacles and limited knowledge of our oceans and weather. Perhaps Mougin was ahead of his times . . .

A documentary under the direction of Jean-Michel Corillion is being made to tell this story. It’s called Ice Dream and in a few months will be broadcast in various countries.

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Sourcing water

Drinkable water is essential for human survival, but in many parts of the world people have no immediate access to it and must work to get it. In the deserts of Africa, for example, Samburu herders rely on wild elephants to find waterholes for them, while people living in the Andes have come up with a remarkable way to trap the water in the air – nets.

As anyone who has done a survival course can tell you, we can survive weeks without food but only a matter of days without water. Of course, many of us are lucky enough to have water on tap, but according to the UN, only 42% of people in rural areas had access to clean water in 2004. For those people, sourcing water can take a great deal of effort and ingenuity.
The Hamar of Ethiopia, for example, must walk long distances in grueling temperatures to get water from their nearest wells. And that’s not the hardest part. The hardest part is carrying the water back for the other villagers since water is anything but light.
In fact, water is so heavy that carrying it any great distance is often a very inefficient way to keep yourself topped up. When women and children from the Tubu tribe set off across the desert for market, they know that the walk will take them eight days in temperatures that can exceed 45C. They also know that the only way to survive is by remembering the location of a single well along the way, their only lifeline in a sea of emptiness.
Relying on the navigational skills passed down by their mothers, the women must take their bearings from the stars and read the shapes of the sand dunes. But take one wrong turn in these ever-shifting sands and death may be just around the corner.
In Kenya, the Samburu people don’t rely on themselves to find water when the river runs dry, but on the skills of wild elephants. Since the elephants have an amazing ability to detect underground water, the Sumburu keep close tabs on them and then take their water from the shallow wells that the elephants leave open for them. Back in their village, the Samburu thanks the elephants by filling troughs which they leave out for thirsty animals. It is part of their belief system that no living thing should suffer the agony of dying from lack of water, especially those animals who help to keep the herdsmen and their families alive.
But while some people must go in search of water, others like the Chileans of the Atacama Desert have learned to wait for it to come to them. As the wind blows across the Pacific, it draws up water from the sea until it becomes a thick fog. When the fog then hits the desert coastline it is trapped by lichen on cacti and condenses into water that is drunk by the local animals. Inspired by this, local people now set down huge nets that line the hills and trap the fog as it rolls across the desert. As the fog condenses, the precious liquid runs through pipes that lead down to the grateful villages below. As usual, Mother Nature has all the best tricks.

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Read, learn and know about water!

What You Should Know about Water


Water is an incredibly important aspect of our daily lives. Every day we drink water, cook with water, bathe in water, and participate in many other activities involving water.

However, even with all of the importance water holds in our lives, many of us know very little about the water we use each day. We drink tap water, enjoying the convenience and cost-effectiveness of this practice, yet, we fail to recognize the serious threat this water may pose to our health. Those who are willing to forgo the convenience of tap water and indulge in bottled water often know very little about the contents of that water and simply trust that bottled water must be better than tap water. Even conscientious consumers, who wisely attempt to treat their own water in an effort to ensure the healthfulness of that water, often know little about the many home water treatment options now available.

In this age of information, with so many resources immediately available, there is no reason why anyone should remain so ill informed about water. It is the goal of this site to offer comprehensive yet accessible information about the water with which we live and work every day, including a brief summary of water treatment alternatives, an exposé on the truth about bottled water, and a fact listing about drinking water and water filtration products. Read, learn, and enjoy!


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