Dear reader,
In the words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his poem The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner –“Water, water every where, nor any
drop to drink.” He of course was speaking of being stuck in the
middle of the ocean without any wind, but many people across
the world are now facing this dilemma on solid land and in their
own cities. Population growth, industrialization of the developing
world and climate change are converging to make this century
quite challenging when it comes to managing both our supplies of
fresh water and the treatment of wastewater. Different coun-
tries have different challenges and large countries even experi-
ence many extremes. In the US, population growth coupled
with climate change in the southwest and west is causing severe
water shortages. While in the northeast flooding is overloading
wastewater treatment plants and disposal systems. South
America, Canada and Mexico face similar problems.
In this issue we look at all these predicaments as well as the
technologies to overcome some of them. But technology alone
will not suffice. Many of the technologies needed to produce
food and supply new sources of water are extremely energy in-
tensive. Agriculture in its own right uses far more water than
most of us realize. This edition provides some statistics on virtual
water usage that are truly mind-blowing. In addition to innov­
ations we have to change our habits. We need to use water more
than once, treat it more effectively with less energy and make
secondary or even tertiary use of that treated water.
We interview the water bearer, Dr Cornel, who discusses the
complexities of megacities like those in China. We examine how
South Africa is coping with its water needs and we explore
how automation technology plays a pivotal role in solving this
complex problem.
Furthermore, Festo is looking at a variety of ways to make smart
choices when determining which technologies are more efficient
in certain applications and how to combine them to maximize
productivity. As usual you will also find a number of interesting
applications that Festo together with our customers created
for new products and process improvements. We continue our
never ending observation of nature as a source for elegant
solutions, this time adhesion in the reptile world, gets a mention.
So please join me in reading this edition of trends in auto­
mation as we consider the challenges of preserving our most
precious natural resource – water.
Regards,
Rich Huss
Rich Huss,
President and CEO USA
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