!["[It] has already helped thousands in Japan — The Earthshot Prize can help us reach the rest of the world."](https://www.thecooldown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/uUcTgr5rCmSi.jpg?w=1920&h=800)
A Japanese startup billing itself as the maker of the world's first portable water recycling plant is hoping to spread its water-purifying technology all over the globe.
WOTA was founded in 2014 and was a finalist for the 2021 Earthshot Prize, a global environmental award.
Its product, the WOTA BOX, is reportedly able to purify more than 98% of wastewater into freshwater, and its inventors say that it is 50 times more efficient than a typical water treatment plant, per the Earthshot Prize description. It is also a fraction of the size and requires no additional infrastructure to set up and use.
According to the Earthshot Prize page, nearly 40% of the world could experience "water stress" — meaning the demand for water exceeds the available amount — by 2050, making the ability to purify unclean water more important than ever.
More than 20,000 people in Japan were able to access clean water from a WOTA BOX between 2016 and 2020, after floods, typhoons, and earthquakes disrupted water supplies.
"Whenever we use water, we produce wastewater. If we could convert wastewater to usable fresh water, we would reduce global water scarcity while also lessening the impact of wastewater pollution on oceans and rivers," WOTA CEO Yosuke Maeda said in a statement. "The WOTA BOX … has already helped thousands in Japan — The Earthshot Prize can help us reach the rest of the world."
According to the World Health Organization, in 2023, half of the world's population did not have access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, a problem that is expected to worsen thanks to the ever-increasing climate disasters that have resulted from global overheating due to human-caused pollution.
"With growing WASH-related health risks seen already today through conflicts, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, the re-emergence of cholera hotspots, and the long-term threats from climate change, the imperative to invest is stronger than ever," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of the WHO Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health.
WOTA is not the only company developing technology to combat water crises. One company has developed a method of turning saltwater into freshwater using waves, while Stanford University scientists have created a powder that can remove bacteria from water.
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