IBM has announced a series of large-scale computing projects aimed at using IT to help solve water management problems.

 

Each of the projects will tap into the World Community Grid, a network of 1.5 million PCs operated by 600,000 volunteers worldwide to perform online simulations and crunch numbers, IBM said.

 

One of the projects, run by University of Virginia, will model the effects of agricultural, commercial and industrial decisions on the Chesapeake Bay, a 64,000-square mile estuary on the US east coast.

 

Another by Tsinghua University in Beijing aims to develop ways to filter and scrub polluted water and to convert saltwater into drinkable freshwater, “with less expense, complexity, and energy than current techniques.”

 

Cameron Brooks, director, smarter water management in the IBM Public Sector group, said the company was working with water utilities around the world to set up information management systems to run their water delivery systems more efficiently.

 

“We would like to get to a situation where your pipe will tell you before it has failed,” Brooks told Green Channel. “We already believe that water issues are more critical right now than carbon. Unlike energy, there is no alternative to water, and there is a limited supply.”

 

A third initiative, based in Brazil, aims to find a cure for schistosomiasis, a parasite-based tropical disease transmitted by unclean water. The World Health Organization says the disease 11,000 to 200,000 people every year.