The start of Leg 9, Newport to Cardiff, of the Volvo Ocean Race on May 20, 2018 in Newport, Rhode ... [+]
“We always think the world is getting worse,” says Bengt Rittri, CEO and founder of Bluewater, “yet it’s actually getting better. We have fewer diseases, more people get vaccinations, more people can read. It’s a better world. But there are side effects – we have pollutants, plastics. People have food, cars and phones but much of the world still doesn’t have the most basic thing of all – water.”
According to the WHO and UNICEF, as recently as 2015, 2.1 billion people still lacked access to safely managed drinking water services and 4.5 billion lacked access to sanitation compatible with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.
The Organisation for Development (OECD) estimates that 4 billion people could be living in water- scarce areas by 2050. According to the World Water Council, 80% to 90% of the scarce water in many of the world’s arid and semi-arid river basins is already being used.
In the archipelago outside Stockholm in Sweden. (Photo by: Carl Simon/United Archives/Universal ... [+]
Back in 2013 Rittri, the founder and former CEO of BlueAir, noticed several dead fish in the water around his summer house on the island of Dalarö in the Stockholm archipelago.
The Baltic Sea is almost completely surrounded by land, and one of the most endangered by pollution. In 2018, oxygen levels were reported to be at a 1500 year low, mainly as a consequence of agriculture and urban sewerage.
Rittri ascertained that micro plastics in the water could also have been responsible for the fish dying. He vowed to make his island plastic free.
He set up a new business, Bluewater, to use technology to purify drinking water from the sea. But he didn't stop there. He wanted to make the world as free from single-use plastic bottles as possible. Only nine per cent of single use plastic bottles are recycled, he says, and too many end up in our rivers and oceans.
It’s not particularly good to drink water from plastic containers; plastic is a good absorber, so it easily absorbs pollutants. Moreover, as Rittri says, “It’s crazy that we live in a world where we import water in plastic bottles from one country to another.”
Since 2016, when BlueAir was sold to Unilever, Rittri has been free to concentrate on Bluewater and other environmental projects, including an investment business.
Bluewater has provided free water stations at the America’s Cup in Bermuda and at the Royal Yacht Club in Sandhamn, Sweden, as well as at the Open Championship at Portrush. In South Africa, Bluewater operates touring hydration stations with I-Drop Water, a not-for-profit social impact company.
A diver with a flashlight descends into the water and flash a plastic bottle up at the Samandag ... [+]
This summer, Bluewater will be providing drinking water to islanders in the southern part of the Stockholm archipelago as part of a contract with the local authority, and at the 149th Open in Royal St George in Kent. Next year, Bluewater will be providing water stations at all the ports across the 2021 Ocean Race.
Rittri’s vision, however, goes much further. “We have a working solution that works across the world, “ he says. “We can help around the world, we would like to. What is good for us, is good for you, and good for the planet and mankind. It comes out of happiness.”
After over two hours’ interview, Bluewater’s PR was fretting about the rest of the day’s schedule. But before we could say goodbye, Rittri insisted on showing me how how rainwater and snow from his roof provided his office’s drinking water supply. Then he took me out onto a busy street in Stockholm to explain how the city authorities had redesigned the pavement to collect rainwater as a water reservoir for the trees by the roadside.
Rittri’s hopeful message has stayed with me. The water Bluewater generates may be just a drop in the ocean, but it takes several drops to make an ocean.
