Climate change and population growth are already driving shortages across the world. WOTA, a Japanese start-up, wants to improve water security for everyone, everywhere. By improving circulation and reducing waste, it can ease global water stress.
Founded in 2014, WOTA’s unique water recycling system turns more than 98 percent of wastewater into fresh water. A fraction of the size of a typical water treatment plant, WOTA BOX is over 50 times more efficient and can be delivered at scale. Plus, installation requires no existing infrastructure.
The result means less wastewater pollution in lakes, rivers and other freshwater ecosystems, as well as reduced water scarcity in times of drought. The only invention of its kind, WOTA BOX could change the world.
It has already had an enormous impact. In Japan, between 2016 and 2020, more than 20,000 used the technology after floods, typhoons, and earthquakes cut off water supplies.
The company’s long term hope is to develop products that are lower cost than existing water infrastructure, so they can be reasonably implemented in any region, including developing countries. The WOTA team hopes to make its technology as common as power generators. If it succeeds, it could help save the world from a water stressed future.
In the time since becoming an Earthshot Prize Finalist, the team have enjoyed inbound requests from around the world, begun a new partnership with Antigua & Barbuda and are on track to launch pilot projects in multiple countries.
They are also in ongoing discussions with their home government in Japan about introducing WOTA to rural parts of the country, with some projects already underway this year.
By 2030, we choose to ensure that, for the first time in human history, the natural world is growing – not shrinking – on our planet.
This Earthshot focuses on three main areas of interest:
By 2030 we choose to ensure that everyone in the world breathes clean, healthy air – at World Health Organization standard or better.
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By 2030, we choose to build a world where nothing goes to waste, where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next – just like they do in nature.
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We choose to fix the world’s climate by cutting out carbon: building a carbon neutral economy that lets every culture, community and country thrive.
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