MARKETS
agriclture
the challenge
69% of the world’s fresh water consumption is used in agriculture and so smarter technologies and methods in that area are key to sustainable food production.
Agriculture is the biggest global consumer of fresh water, this is partly because it takes at least 2000 litres to produce enough food for one person for one day.
Agricultural runoff is water leaving farm fields because of rain, melted snow, or irrigation. As runoff moves, it picks up and carries pollution, which it can deposit into ponds, lakes, coastal waters, and underground sources of drinking water.
Agricultural runoff can include pollution from soil erosion, feeding operations, grazing, ploughing, animal waste, application of pesticides, irrigation water, and fertiliser. Pollutants from farming include soil particles, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, salts, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. High levels of nitrates from fertilisers in runoff can contaminate drinking water and cause potentially fatal "blue baby" syndrome in very young infants by disrupting oxygen flow in the blood.
Polluted agricultural runoff is the leading source of water pollution in rivers and lakes, according to an American federal report. It can also trigger algae blooms in coastal waters, and produce "dead zones" in the ocean where there is no oxygen and few fish or wildlife can survive.
Agricultural runoff can create a bad taste and odour in drinking water and contaminate drinking water, well water, and food sources. The pesticides in runoff can accumulate in fish, which can expose people who eat the fish to high levels of these chemicals.
There are 2M working farms in the US, 16,000 in the UK and millions more across the rest of the world. Due to the large portion of fresh water consumed through agriculture, smarter irrigation technology is urgently required and is set to reduce this figure. As the global population grows farmers will be under pressure to use more chemicals and water to increase the yield of their crops, toxic runoff containing many man-made compounds is the result.
triton cleantech’s solution
Our product will kill the bacteria and remove organic and man-made compounds, thus preventing any further contamination entering the water system. As a potential customer, each farm can play its part by installing our system to deal with any runoff from their operation which can be recycled and sent back clean for re-use as irrigation. If it doesn't reach the rivers – it cannot poison them.