THE PARADOX OF INFRASTRUCTURE

All water is reused, having been recycled through plants, animals, evaporation, and precipitation for billions of years. Nature ensures the perpetual and infinite renewal of water on Earth, allowing it to be reused endlessly.

The concept of a ‘water shortage’ is misleading; it’s actually a shortage of usable water due to excessive ‘waste’ that Nature hasn’t been able to clear.

Eutrophication, caused by nutrient discharges from human activities, overwhelms the natural nutrient clearance cycle and leads to a shortage of ‘quality water’. To resolve this issue, we must assist Nature in coping with the additional nutrient load by developing solutions that work in harmony with natural processes.

By recognizing the importance of the natural water cycle and the role of natural water  infrastructure in renewing water quality, we can develop strategies that support and enhance Nature’s ability to clear excess nutrients and ensure a sustainable supply of usable water for all.

Our wastewater treatment plants are designed to mimic natural water renewal processes by taking up nutrients to produce microbial sludge biomass, which is then removed to leave treated wastewater. However, due to the enormous volumes discharged, the residual nutrients in the treated wastewater overload the natural ecosystem's capacity to process them and restore water quality.

The more water we use and treat, the more we degrade Nature's ability to renew water for reuse. Natural water bodies, once valuable assets that cleared nutrients and renewed water, have become liabilities because they now accumulate nutrients, degrade water quality, and promote harmful algal blooms due to eutrophication, a major driver of the Global Water Crisis.

The dichotomy between engineering and biology has created an antagonistic relationship between built and natural infrastructure, despite their shared goal of ensuring sustainable, renewable water for all. This conflict has become a battle between two scientific paradigms:

1. Newtonian science and engineering, which deal with inanimate objects and their interactions.
2. Systems Theory and biology, which explain the behavior of complex adaptive systems like ecosystems and living organisms.

To resolve this conflict, we must recognize the interconnectedness of built and natural infrastructure and develop solutions that bridge the gap between these two paradigms. By integrating and aligning engineering and biology, we can integrate and align manmade and natural water infrastructure to ensure sustainable renewal of water resources.

In his book “Water 4.0,” UC Berkeley Professor David Sedlak sheds light on the challenges faced by urban water quality and supply. He presents a 2,500-year timeline of urban water management systems, beginning with the Roman aqueducts, and emphasizes how factors like population growth and increasing drought frequency have strained current drinking water supplies.

As a solution, Sedlak proposes urban water reuse, including the use of reservoirs to support tertiary treatment – in other words, getting natural water infrastructure working again.

For thousands of years, natural ecological infrastructure acted as Nature’s primary wastewater treatment system. Sustainable water security for the future lies in reinstating natural water infrastructure.

Just as all water is reused water, all natural water bodies inherently function as water treatment infrastructure. However, instead of utilizing these resources and enhancing their capacity, we are destroying them. We must reactivate, restore, and revitalize the capacity and performance of this natural water treatment infrastructure.

Nature is pointing us towards the solution amidst the growing crisis of eutrophic waterways: natural infrastructure possesses more wastewater treatment capacity than all our built infrastructure combined. We must restore it.

To synergize engineering with Nature, we need to align and integrate two scientific paradigms: Newtonian science and engineering, and Systems Theory and biology. Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions' proven ONE Biotechnology delivers this synergy. We must use it.

Viewing built infrastructure as an alternative to Nature has created a battle to the death between the two, which we cannot win. Fortunately, we have a clear Roadmap to resolve this conflict by creating synergy between built and natural infrastructure. We must follow it.

To escape our mental Paradigm Prison, we must acknowledge, embrace, and integrate the new paradigm of Nature-based solutions and ONE Biotechnology for Renewable Water, establishing a new Integrated Water Resource Management paradigm.

By embracing this new paradigm and implementing ONE Biotechnology, we can break free from the Paradigm Prison and create a sustainable water management system that works in harmony with Nature. This approach not only addresses the current water crisis but also ensures a resilient and renewable water supply for future generations.

Our narrow perspective on water management and treatment has fundamentally shaped the disconnect between humankind and Nature. We have commdneered and transformed a sustainable, cyclical process of natural renewal and reuse into a linear supply chain that treats water as a disposable commodity, undermining our natural infrastructure and degrading our source water, pushing us to the brink of a Global Water Crisis.

To solve this problem of our own creation, we have tried to mimic natural water treatment processes within our built wastewater treatment infrastructure. However, we have failed to realize that in partially usurping Nature's role, we are exacerbating the issue of degraded source water quality by pitting our built and natural infrastructure against each other.

The only way to break free from the mental Paradigm Prison in which we have trapped ourselves is by turning to Nature to integrate our built infrastructure with natural infrastructure synergistically. The key to this mental paradigm shift lies in embracing Nature-based solutions and ONE Biotechnology, to harness the power of natural processes to restore balance and enhance the wastewater treatment capacity of our natural infrastructure.

Over the past decade, we have proven our SIS.BIO solutions in wastewater treatment plants, lakes, dams, and reservoirs around the world. In doing so, we have transformed the problem of vast eutrophic natural water bodies into a powerful solution: natural water infrastructure that complements our existing manmade infrastructure.

By adopting this new paradigm ONE Biotechnology can create a sustainable, resilient, and integrated water resource management system that works in harmony with Nature, ensuring a renewable water supply for future generations while addressing the urgent need for improved sanitation and water quality worldwide.