The World has been experiencing a huge expedition and an Epic is being started writing in the name of Race for Water Odyssey, known as R4WO, without major media attention.
Not the Greek hero Odysseus, a Swiss based Ocean Enthusiast Marco Simeoni is the hero of this Epic.
In view to draw the first global assessment of plastic pollutions in the oceans, the race for water Odyssey sailed for complete an oceanic adventure mid of the March. The sailors started this brave journey for noble cause from Bordeaux, France for traveling over 40,000 nautical miles in 300 days. Race for Water Foundation launched the action program with the colorations of IUCN, UNESCO & UNEP to preserve global water.
When this article is being written, six sailors are still in the deep sea heading towards Hawai passing behind more than 17,000 nautical miles in 88 days. Only stopovers were in the New York City, Val Paraiso, Easter Island and French Polynesian Island in the pacific for a few days.
Ultimately sailors will touch 11 scientific stopovers in the oceans and nine outreach stopovers involving 13 countries. Odyssey team has been facing tough weather conditions with their Oceanic sporty experience, team sprits and adventitious mindset. Thank God, now it is Information Communication Technology Age and whole world can follow the boat live. Obviously we are getting updates time to time from their communications.
The goal of this scientific sailing expedition is to reach the beaches of islands located in the ocean’s 5 vortexes of trash, in order to conduct the first global assessment of plastic pollution in oceans, and highlight its consequences on the populations so that measures can be taken near future to save Ocean water for betterment of future.
Race for water foundation’s main aim is to preserve fresh water for human civilization. The very first focus area of foundation is share water footprint formula. This formula calculates the quantity of water required to manufactures a product. People consume a lot of water for drinking, cooking, washing, but they use even more for the production of food, paper, cotton, clothing etc. So water footprint is the total volume of water an individual, community, or business consumes. Only 10 percent of water consumption is used for household purposes. The largest water footprint comes from the products we consume every day. For example, it takes about 16,000 liters of water to produce 1kg of beef, and about 1,000 liters of water to produce 1 liter of milk.
The demand for water is being increased day by day. The worldwide consumption of products requiring elevated use of water is increasing quickly. Competition for water is growing as well for industry, urbanization. These days, more than 70 percent of available water is used for agriculture and food production, and 22 percent is used for industrial purposes.
At this rapid pace, global humans will need 40 percent more water within the next 20 years. Unlike fossil fuels, there are no alternative resources to substitute water. The worldwide population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050. This increased population implies an increased demand on available resources, especially when it comes to agriculture and food supply. The United Nation’s report on World Water Development showed that on average, more than 70 percent of clean water is used for these purposes.
Furthermore, a sixth of the world’s population depends on water resources from glaciers and snowmelt, which is affected by climate change. As a consequence the sea level is rising, bringing with it the salinization of the earth, and significantly affecting local ecology and biodiversity. The water problem has already had dramatic consequences for approximately 1.1 billion people, who do not have access to clean water. The Water Project reported that in developing countries, about 80 percent of diseases are due to insufficient water and poor sanitary conditions. Certain NGOs have already rung the alarm, predicting mass migration in areas affected by water scarcity, mainly in Africa and Asia. The Global water scenario demands learning, sharing and acting on the matter without wasting time, which Race for water Foundation has already taken.
The sailors of R4WO will soon enter the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for a new phase of scientific analyses. Marine Plastic pollution is now becomes an area of great concern for the Global water. As described in the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Yearbook 2011, to date, more than 260 species are reported to have been entangled in, or to have ingested, marine debris.
A recent study revealed that each edible fishes from the North Pacific gyre have gorged 2.1 plastic items in an average. Fact says, 225 million tones of plastics are produced each year and 10 percent plastic waste ends up in the oceans.
UNEP Estimated that in 2006, every square miles of oceans contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. The large zone of waste in the Pacific, also known as the “Pacific Trash Vortex” is comprised of 100 million tons of trash concentrated in the Northern Pacific Ocean. This concentration is higher than the average.
The concentration of pollution includes waste of all kinds, like fishing nets or plastic bottles, the largest part of these vortexes consists of microscopic plastic debris that are difficult to see with the open eye. The macro-debris is a huge danger for marine and terrestrial ecosystems as well as human health. How come? The micro-plastics floating in the oceans are eaten by the phytoplankton and the zooplankton, which are then eaten by other organisms: turtles, birds, and fish. This way, micro-plastics climb up the food chain and find themselves in our plates!
BDST: 2029 HRS, JUN 10, 2015
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