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Autonomous decentralized water infrastructure creates urban life of the future
Water infrastructure supports our lives. Every day, we can drink clean water by turning on the tap, thanks to the water and sewer pipes laid underground and the efforts of many people who work hard to manage water quality. But now, it is facing a crisis due to ever-increasing maintenance costs. In order for a shrinking Japan to continue to "maintain" its water infrastructure, which was built to suit a growing society, a fundamental change in thinking is necessary. But how can they do this? WOTA's answer is a portable, mobile water reclamation plant that is 1/100,000th the size. We spoke to CEO Yosuke Maeda about the future they are aiming for.
Text: Kentaro Nakamura
Photo: Kana Tarumi
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PROIFILE
- Yosuke Maeda
- Born in Tokushima. Majored in architecture at the University of Tokyo and its graduate school. While still a student, participated in a development project for an IoT-type plumbing system unit for a major housing equipment manufacturer. Worked as a PM/engineer at teamLab and other companies, planning and developing works and products using sensing and physical simulations. After developing and selling an algorithm for predicting electricity demand for buildings, joined WOTA. Special skills include Awa Odori and competitive dancing. Received the University of Tokyo President's Award. Master's degree (Engineering).
- Kentaro Nakamura
- Programmer / Architecture and design theory researcher. Born in Osaka in 1993. Graduated from Keio University SFC in 2016. Specializes in algorithmic design. Has been involved in the criticism and media project Rhetorica since his student days. Engaged in architectural design and web service development at the NPO Mokuchin Planning. Academic support specialist at the University of Tokyo.
- Kana Tarumi
- He started self-taught photography at the age of 20. He began taking photos of live performances at the live music venue where he was working at the time, and is now the official photographer for music festivals such as SUMMER SONIC and SYNCHRONICITY, and is responsible for photographing many artists. Since 2016, he has reexamined his own photography through solo exhibitions and has expanded the scope of his activities to include portraits for web media, magazines, fashion, and advertising.
The 21st century will be the "Century of Water," in which water resources will be more important than ever before.
On February 8, 2020, a column of water over 10 meters high appeared in Asahi Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, causing chaos in the surrounding area. The cause was said to be a "work error" that occurred during the replacement work of an aging water pipe. On January 9, 2020, water also leaked from an aging water pipe in Isogo Ward, Yokohama City, and according to the city's waterworks bureau, three houses were flooded (one of which was flooded above the floor level).
In recent years, it has been widely pointed out that various infrastructures built during the period of high economic growth are now reaching the limits of their useful life. These incidents, early in the new year, reminded us that the water infrastructure that supports our lives is also in a difficult situation. What if, one day, maintenance efforts can no longer keep up with the speed at which infrastructure deteriorates? What choices do we, the working generation, need to make now? And what choices are even possible for us to make?
WOTA is a company that is trying to bring "options" to this problem with "next-generation distributed water infrastructure using water circulation." The "WOTA BOX" provided by WOTA uses AI-based water treatment technology to recycle and recycle shower water on the spot, achieving over 98% water savings. WOTA has already built up a strong track record in supporting disaster-stricken areas, but what is the future that they envision through their system? We spoke to CEO Yosuke Maeda.
Thank you for joining us today. First of all, could you tell us about the background of WOTA's efforts and the benefits of "autonomous decentralized water infrastructure"?
Maeda:
Thank you. As the World Bank has warned about the global water shortage and water stress problem, it is said that the 21st century will be the "century of water" in which water resources will be more important than ever before. However, even if we say water stress in a general sense, there are various patterns, such as a pattern where there is little water to begin with, a pattern where water runs out due to human or natural factors, or a pattern where there is water but it is polluted and cannot be used.
WOTA is working on the field of "water treatment," which removes impurities from dirty water to purify it. The solution that humanity has had to date to provide water treatment to everyone has been a "large-scale centralized water infrastructure consisting of water treatment plants and pipeline networks." In other words, water supply and sewerage. However, there is a fundamental problem in that more than 70% of the cost is spent on pipelines that simply transport water. Because the construction of these pipelines requires huge costs and decades of time, there will be a long period of time when supply cannot keep up with demand. Moreover, when demand decreases due to a declining population, as in Japan, there will be cases where the cost per person increases due to oversupply. The current water infrastructure is a system in which demand and supply do not match structurally.
Maeda: To solve these problems, WOTA wants to replace the supply and demand of water infrastructure with a one-to-one relationship. For example, we can provide water treatment on a household-by-house basis using mass-produced equipment similar to residential facilities such as water heaters. This will shorten the installation period that took 50 years for water supply and sewerage systems to a day anywhere once the equipment is delivered. At the same time, we can have flexibility in response to population changes and increase the resilience of the entire system. The WOTA BOX that we created is, so to speak, a project to "create an autonomously controlled water reclamation treatment plant at 1/100,000th the size."
The "WOTA BOX" refers to the mass-produced model that was released in November 2019. What strategic role does this product play for WOTA?
Maeda: Firstly, it is a proof of concept for the business. It tells the world that compact water circulation is possible. It also has a symbolic meaning in the sense of gathering partners to work on the business together. Secondly, it plays a role in advancing the business. The WOTA BOX itself is a product that meets the needs of the market. It proves that the business has the legs to expand in scale when it is developed.
It felt like 2019 was a year with more disasters than ever before. I understand that you provided a lot of support to evacuation shelters, but what role did WOTA BOX play there?
Maeda: For example, in the case of Typhoon Hagibis last year, we delivered 14 WOTA BOXes to evacuation centers in Nagano City and provided bathing services for 45 days, providing showers to a total of more than 9,000 people. At the time, a nearby sewage treatment plant was flooded, causing the sewage treatment system in the entire area to go down. I think this was a symbolic example of how, in a situation where the centralized water supply and sewerage infrastructure had malfunctioned, our decentralized water infrastructure was used to cover the water demand of the entire city.
We have learned a lot from these disaster sites. What was interesting was that, beyond the feedback on water quality, it made us think about the "value" of the spaces in which water is used. For example, what is the significance of providing a booth where men and women of all ages can take a shower with a sense of security? To begin with, evacuation shelters are spaces where there is almost no privacy. They are spaces where happy and sad stories tend to be whispered, and we discovered that shower booths are places with complete privacy, a space just for family and ourselves, a space where we can release our emotions.
Furthermore, the current evacuation shelters are, so to speak, places for survival until temporary housing is available. They are barely able to last two months with a management system that is limited in people, materials, and money. It is often said that many evacuation shelters fall below the "Sphere Standard," a standard of living for refugee camps set by the United Nations. I think this is directly linked to the issue of how we should think about the nature of evacuation shelters themselves, from survival to humanity.
I see, so responding to sudden water demand means more than just "using water." On the other hand, it may also be related to longer-term areas such as architectural planning, urban planning, and town development. What role can WOTA play in these areas?
Maeda: Recently, we have been working on project-based collaborations with people who want to use our technology to work on new architectural projects or new urban planning.
For example, one mayor contacted us via social media to ask about cleaning up the wastewater from beach huts on the coast. Extending existing water infrastructure to deal with the sudden surge in tourism demand during the summer would raise issues of profitability and ownership, so we wondered if WOTA's technology could be used to solve the problem. Cases like this are issues that have not been addressed much in the field of urban development until now.
For example, it may be difficult to imagine "living in the middle of the desert" because we don't know how to make it happen in the first place. I think that in the case of water treatment, it would be easier to move the discussion forward if we could stimulate people's imagination about the problem and show a unified basis for decision-making, such as disaster prevention and BCP (business continuity plan).
In other words, let's try to create an autonomous water reclamation plant, but at 1/100,000th the size of the original.
Maeda:
Creating a future where people have full control over the state of their cities
What was the trigger that made you realize this problem of a "lack of imagination regarding water"?
Maeda: Actually, the 10th of March, the year of the earthquake, was the day the university entrance exam results were announced. I stayed at a senior's house in Shinjuku that night, but the next day the earthquake happened. At that time, most of the infrastructure stopped working. However, the strange feeling I felt at that time was something other than the fact that the infrastructure had stopped working.
Actually, my hometown is in the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture, where there is no water supply or sewerage system. For example, it often snows suddenly and I get trapped, but I can manage it somehow. Everyone knows where the springs are, and even more so, they know what kind of water quality each one has. But in Tokyo, no one knows. For example, you might be able to judge that it's difficult to drink the water from the Kanda River. But what about whether you can bathe in it? Or there's this story. In my hometown, we pump spring water, but the water often stops. But in most cases, the pump is clogged with leaves, and if you call someone who lives near the pump and ask them to clean it, the water will be restored in about 10 minutes. But in Tokyo, you don't even know where the water is stopped in the first place.
When something happens with water, people can make the right decisions based on the information and wisdom they have and resolve the discomfort or inconvenience themselves. That's one of the things I essentially want to create through WOTA. I think we need to regain some kind of skill that everyone needs in life.
I see. So you're concerned about how we can regain skills and control in the current situation where we have entrusted our lives to a system that is no longer within our control as individuals or groups?
Maeda: Yes. For example, I can relate to the movement of iFixit, which is making repair methods open source. To be honest, I've always thought that all open source-related talks are amazing. I'm sure there are many members in the company who think the same way. Autonomous decentralization, open source, the fact that the Android OS is more extensible than iOS, etc. I want to cherish that as a company philosophy.
I think it's wonderful. It seems like a value system that the post-internet generation can share. On the other hand, the WOTA BOX can also be seen as an IoT device that indirectly handles biometric data. Criticism of surveillance is growing worldwide, but what are your thoughts on this issue, Mr. Maeda?
Maeda: There are industrial and consumer IoT. I think one of the evaluation criteria for industrial IoT is how much it can reduce social costs, but when you look at it in the water treatment industry, a very serious issue comes to mind. The reality is that water treatment facilities are supported by a small number of "craftsmen." Even at a certain size of sewage treatment plant, several contracted craftsmen are on-site all year round to check the color of the microbial tank, the way bubbles come out, and adjust the amount of oxygen to be pumped in, balancing various conditions. Someone is doing this work without anyone knowing. On the other hand, what is the current social cost of such a system? In Japan as a whole, the water and sewerage business is facing a problem of deficit compensation in the trillions of yen.
As I have already said, as the population declines, the deficit will continue to grow, so should we raise the fees as is, or should we reconsider the costs? But of course, it's not as if we can just have money and get by. That's why I want to realize "autonomous control" of the parts that craftsmen currently manage using their eyes, noses, and experience.
Maeda: On the other hand, as you know, there are some issues that have been pointed out with consumer IoT, for example home IoT devices. In fact, our products have both industrial and consumer aspects. WOTA BOX handles several types of data, such as biometric data and behavioral data, and we set security levels for each. Regarding these, we assume that the users are an unspecified number of people, and we set individual settings such as up to this point, let's process it on the edge (terminal side). Then upload it to the cloud here. But to be honest, these are just specific solutions for an unspecified number of people, and they cannot be used as a "general solution" to answer your questions.
Rather than being limited to our system, I think we will continue to discover many issues in the future that are both technology problems and social system problems. Given that there is no way around data and costs being required to make society sustainable, rather than a zero-one debate of "should we do it or not," I think we will need to have in-depth discussions of "how should power be distributed if we do it?" and "how should we deal with the trade-offs if we don't do it?"
I see, that makes sense. It seems that WOTA itself can be a player in opening up the political context of modern science and technology. Now, my last question. Based on what we've discussed so far, what kind of future do you want to create beyond WOTA's activities?
Maeda: In a word, I want to answer the question, "What is an ideal city?" My current hypothesis is that the answer is "for each person to have an identity in their own city." A state in which people can understand and control the city in which they live. I think a city should be one in which people can have as much sense of security and belonging as they need.
At that time, it would be best for the physical city not to get in the way of this as much as possible. I think the key word in thinking about such things is the concept of "climate". This is an abstract idea, but the physical state of the city should be freely controlled by the people who live there. Until now, a system that could only be achieved by everyone coming together over a period of 30 to 40 years, or even tens of thousands of people, can now be made possible in a short period of time, at the individual or community level. As a result, the city's climate will be more likely to emerge. I hope that, not only socially but also spatially, people will be able to express themselves freely without having to hide away, making it easier for the climate of each city to be cultivated.
So you are imagining a future where people can freely control not only water infrastructure, but all the manmade things that surround our lives, and even cities themselves. Thank you for sharing your valuable insights with us today.
A city should be one in which people understand and have control over the city they live in. It should be one in which people can have as much of a sense of security and belonging as they need.
Maeda:
| What is "POP UP SOCIETY"? | "POP UP SOCIETY" is an irregularly published magazine that ASNOVA ran from March 2020 to March 2022 with the aim of getting the general public interested in the industry and contributing to the mid-to-long term shortage of young talent in the temporary construction industry. It introduces unique and experimental initiatives from Japan and abroad through interviews with people and companies, experience reports, and more, focusing on temporary construction. |
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