The World Economic Forum recently released a draft report on the world’s water supply situation. It is pretty grim reading, with the focus being on the water-food nexus and the water-energy nexus. There are plenty of indicators in here of where water businesses should be focusing their efforts though.
If you look at the water inputs to produce the amount of food consumed by people on certain income levels, then extrapolate according to income/population growth forecasts, then you find we don’t have close to enough water to produce the food we will need. In fact by 2025 30% of the global cereal crop could be lost through lack of water.
Energy production is also highly dependent on water supply for cooling power stations and in some parts of the world this has already become a limiting factor.
Finally there is the demand for water for cities, which are rapidly drawing down water available in their catchments.
In this post I try and focus on opportunities, rather than dwell on the negative, and this is where there seems to be an obvious role for business.
Food: Irrigation efficiency is an obvious target, with around 50% of water drawn for irrigation being lost to leaks and evaporation. Demand for pipes should continue! Innovative irrigation systems and low water consumption crops will be another growth area.
Energy: There has to be a market for retrofitting power stations with non-consumptive cooling systems. I have seen a presentation on this, and while it is expensive, it is possible to replace evaporative systems with closed-system cooling. It looks a bit tricky though, so the engineering firm that takes the first-movers advantage in this area should do well. Of course wind-power has almost zero water consumption, which is great, but I would not be putting my money into hydro in many places. Australia’s hydro power schemes have already reduced output due to lack of water.
Cities: As well as the obvious desalination and blackwater reuse option, which is becoming cheaper and more energy efficient every day (particularly with Forward Osmosis on the way), increasing water prices may begin to make stormwater capture, treatment and reuse cost effective in more locations. There is already a big shortage of professionals with experience and knowledge of ecological engineering that is required to do this well however. Increasing pollution levels also mean that innovative advanced treatment solutions should also gain ground.
The mega-trend will be the movement of populations, agriculture and business to areas with good water security, so set up your water supply businesses there!
Posted by Andrew 
