Water: the Next "Oil"?

[Hootad Binky]

Thought-provoking article. Google "fresh water supply" or "fresh water shortage" and many hits come up; it appears the world, including the the US, is running out of fresh water. Not important? Try living one day without it!

If Water is the Next Oil... : Industrial Market Trends

January 22, 2008

If Water is the Next Oil...

By Fred White

The rapid rise in energy costs has been catching much of the media spotlight these days. But there is major concern over the global shortage of another critical resource: water.

Water abundance, or paucity, affects manufacturing factory location and expansion plans globally. In dry areas across the globe, though, various vested interests compete for ever scarcer water.

“The need to feed up to two billion more people by 2025, booming industrialization in developing countries like China, and a warming climate seen threatening the world’s most precious natural resource has investors serious about water,” according to Reuters in a report last summer. “The United Nations Human Development Report for 2006 said that by 2025, if current global water consumption continues, more than 3 billion of the world’s 7.9 billion people will be living in areas where water is scarce.”

The article added that fresh water supplies in the United States are shrinking. The author, Christine Stebbins, noted that water levels in the Great Lakes have fallen, and an aquifer that extends from Nebraska to Texas has dropped 30 feet in some areas.

The warmth (and beauty) of the Southwestern states has led to a huge influx of people from colder climes, leading to fierce competition and high demand for water. Simultaneously, a study last year that compared the most recent drought in the Southwest U.S. with other dry periods going back 508 years confirmed worries that water shortages will become more common and severe.

The study, detailed in the May 2007 issue of the journal Water Resources Research, examined growth rings in trees throughout the Colorado’s vast drainage basin from New Mexico to Wyoming, is the first to look at five-year periods such as the 2000-2004 drought, LiveScience reported of the study’s findings.

The researchers found that as many as eight droughts similar in severity to the most recent one have occurred since 1500.

In the face of looming shortages, companies and municipalities have taken action.

Outside the U.S., the water scarcity situation also demands attention. For some of us, this may seem incredulous.

“There is plenty of water, but it is too often in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in the wrong form,” Managing Automation pointed out in a July 2007 feature entitled This Thirsty World. “Only 1 percent of the earth’s fresh water is available for drinking.”

Looking abroad, we see another technological fix for a parched community in Western Australia. By 2010, around 86,746 acre feet (107 GL/year) of new water will be required to meet the rising demands of a growing population, which is already about 1.5 million.

“Although Perth sits on the Swan River, a growing population coupled with a climate becoming hotter and drier has put increasing pressure on the city’s water resources,” according to Water-Technology.Net:

With the official opening of the Perth Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant in November 2006, Western Australia became the first state in the country to use desalination as a major public water source... . Ultimately supplying 17 percent of Perth’s needs, the plant will be the largest single contributor to the area’s integrated water supply scheme and provide an annual 36,482 acre feet (45 GL), to help serve the 1.5 million population.

As water increasingly becomes a rarer resource, fierce competition will increase. In fact, in addition to Australia and the U.S. Southwest, “conflicts over water rights” are already taking place elsewhere around the globe, from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to India and eastern Asia, as Reuters noted. And with demand for water rising, investors will pour money into technology, equipment, project construction and research to help many nations’ dry regions cope with their water shortage.

“One expert estimates that in the next 25 years, trillions of dollars will be needed to upgrade fresh water and wastewater technology and build new infrastructure to deliver water, with the bulk of that money to be spent in Asia,” Reuters said.

As such, researchers have been experimenting with various media to produce new low-cost water filters. As a result, costs are coming down and effectiveness is rising. Investors still have plenty of opportunity to support further research because the range of water contaminants remains broad — arsenic, metals, pathogens, oil, nitrogen and much more.

Resources

Thirsty World Captures Investors’ Attention
by Christine Stebbins
Reuters, May 2, 2007

This Thirsty World
by Robert Malone
Managing Automation, July 16, 2007

Long History of Southwest Droughts Confirms Looming Water Shortage
by Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience, May 26, 2006

Underground Water Banking Projects
SRPnet.com

Perth Sewater Desalination Plant, Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO)
Water-Technology-Net.com

[Bung]

I have heard all wars in the future will be fought over water. I just built 2 x 4000 litre water tanks fed from my bore and am bulding another 1 rai dam. Can't have enough water.

[Hootad Binky]

The Okanagan, a drier area in central British Columbia, now routinely runs out of water every summer, and they now have to decide who needs the water most, the municipality, the orchards and vineyards, or the spawning salmon in nearby rivers.

[Thormaturge]

^
Do the Salmon get a vote?

This is what was behind my suggestion of desalination plants in the future. If we can produce cheap electricity from solar energy then desalination plants become more viable. Plenty of water in the oceans, we just have to process it.

[Hootad Binky]

^ They're trying that in Perth, as OP article mentions. Here's the Reuters article mentioned in the OP (money to be made!):

ANALYSIS-Thirsty world captures investors' attention

02 May 2007

The competition for clean water is heating up and the world's businesses have noticed. The need to feed up to two billion more people by 2025, booming industrialization in developing countries like China, and a warming climate seen threatening the world's most precious natural resource has investors serious about water.

"Regardless of what happens to the economy -- you can bet and bank on a predictable demand for water. It is a product that is essential to life," said Deane Dray, who analyzes water markets for Goldman Sachs in New York. "People will largely pay 'whatever' because it is life-sustaining and there is no substitute. You put all those together, it is very clear why companies are enthusiastic about water."

^

The United Nations Human Development Report for 2006 said that by 2025, if current global water consumption continues, more than 3 billion of the world's 7.9 billion people will be living in areas where water is scarce. Indeed, conflicts over water rights are already going on in dozens of areas from sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East to Australia, India, eastern Asia and the U.S. Southwest.

One expert estimates that in the next 25 years trillions of dollars will be needed to upgrade fresh water and waste water technology and build new infrastructure to deliver water, with the bulk of that money to be spent in Asia. "Infrastructure upgrades that are going to be required over the next 25 years on a global basis could be close to $20 trillion," said John Balbach, managing partner at Cleantech Group, a venture capital research firm in green technology based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Such huge costs mean a budget nightmare for governments, a reality check that water companies also factor in. Eventually, they say, people in all countries will have to ration water use by price and realize it is not a free resource for the world. "Governments globally are reaching a point where they're not able to finance the delivery of cheap water, which is why the private sector is getting more and more interested," said Balbach.

SKY'S THE LIMIT FOR REVENUES?

Global private industry sales in water-related sectors are estimated at $400 billion annually, including water infrastructure, treatment plants and new technologies to purify water. Of that total, $50 billion are bottled water sales. Big investors seem most focused now in higher-tech segments of water companies including filtration, desalination and purification systems.

But venture capital is also gravitating toward innovative solutions to costly problems. California-based Underground Solutions Inc. slips pipes underground to repair leaky pipes that were installed more than 100 years ago without ever digging up city streets. "Investments in water-related technology will go up by at least 50 percent this year," said Nick Parker, Cleantech's co-founder and chairman. A recent Goldman Sachs report said it was likely, though, that over the next five years water system solutions will continue to be dominated by global giants including GE, Danaher, ITT and Siemens. GE's objective is to grow revenues by 8 percent every year "and we will definitely be north of that," said Earl Jones, general manager of GE's water and process technologies.

Dow Chemical saw revenues from its water solutions group reach $450 million last year, more than double water revenues five years earlier. Dow also bought a Chinese engineering company, Zhejiang Omex Environmental Engineering Co., last summer in an acquisition aimed at water technology.

EVEN RICH GETTING POORER?

Agriculture and industry now account for roughly 80 percent of all water use, with the rest consumed by households. But as industries and agriculture expand, the fight for and cost of water is likely to escalate, with pressure points seen rising in Asia, Australia and the Middle East, experts say.

Even in the United States, traditionally the world's top food producer and exporter, is caught in the squeeze. U.S. plans to cut dependence on foreign oil by switching to "green" fuels has ignited an industrial boom in the Midwest as ethanol and soy diesel plants spring up. But biofuel production consumes a huge amount of water, as do crops. U.S. fresh water supplies are also shrinking.

The Ogallala, one of the largest underground U.S. aquifers, which runs from Nebraska to Texas, has seen water levels drop up to 30 feet in some spots in the last 10 years. A five-year old drought in the Corn Belt there also hasn't helped. Water levels in the U.S. Great Lakes, one of the largest pools of fresh water on the planet, are also dropping. "It's the most rapidly challenged critical resource in the world. It's now almost a cliche: the 20th century was the century of oil and the 21st century will be the century of water," said Henry Henderson of the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30455590.htm

[blackgang]

I pump no water up, but do store 30K liters of rain water in jars, and that sometimes isn't enough for a years household usage and have to buy a few thousand liters and have it delivered.

[raycarey]

for those looking to profit from the dwindling supply of fresh water, check out this global water ETF...

CGW: Summary for CLAYMORE S&P GLOBAL - Yahoo! Finance

[Bluecat]

I have heard all wars in the future will be fought over water.

2/3rd of the world is water.
Ok salt water but in case of need I'm sure we can remove the salt from the water...

[bkkandrew]

Well its bloody raining non-stop in the UK since I came over here! Floods, rain, snow. No sign of wars over water...

Next they will worry about the sky falling in!

[Mid]

Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging
Saturday 23 August 2008
Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service


Outside of Yangon, Myanmar, a girl drinks water while her homeless family eats donated food. Like in many developing countries, shortages of food and water have converged in Myanmar, exacerbated by the rising cost of fuel.
(Photo: AFP / Getty Images)

Stockholm - A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation.

"It's the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis," says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group.

"I believe we are at a tipping point," he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.

Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water is outpacing supply.

The world's current population of over 6.0 billion is expected to rise to about 9.0 billion by 2050, with more than 60 percent living in mega cities.

"Since water consumption goes up where there is development and improved lifestyles, we can expect even greater demands on fresh water," Thunell said.

The most water-intensive sector, agriculture, is expanding and industrialisation and energy production are further driving demand, he added.

The conference, which was attended by over 2,400 water experts and government officials, ended with an ominous warning: that water and sanitation are not far behind the food, energy and climate crises.

Summing up the weeklong proceedings, the Stockholm International Water Institute said that slow progress on sanitation will cause the world to badly fail the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the same time, weak policy, poor management, increasing waste and exploding water demands will push the planet towards the tipping point of a global water crisis.

According to U.N. estimates a little less than one billion people worldwide still don't have access to clean drinking water while over 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation.

The MDGs aim at a 50 percent reduction both in the number of people without drinking water and without basic sanitation. The deadline has been set at 2015. But most of the world's poorer nations are likely to miss the deadline.

Colin Chartres, director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said the causes of water scarcity are essentially identical to those of the food crisis.

"There are serious and extremely worrying factors that indicate that water supplies are close to exhaustion in some countries," he said.

He pointed out that current estimates indicate the world will not have enough water to feed itself in 40 years time, "by when the current food crisis may turn into a perpetual crisis."

Chartres said he and his water science colleagues have raised a warning flag that significant investments in both research and development and water infrastructure development are needed, "if dire consequences are to be avoided."

IFC's Thunell said providing clean water and sanitation services are not only business opportunities but also opportunities to improve lives. He said investors see an opportunity in the 450-billion-dollar global water sector, where stocks are performing strongly worldwide.

Private firms also regard water supply as a business risk and are tackling it as an integral part of their risk-management strategy.

"I believe the moment is right," Thunell said. "We can avert a crisis - as partners, working together."

He said IFC will do its part by investing in companies that pursue opportunities in water conservation and quality, and by fostering public-private partnerships in the water sector.

But Patti Lynn, campaigns director of Corporate Accountability International, has a different take on the role of the private sector.

"The crisis stems from a confluence of problems, but perhaps no contributing factor is more insidious and correctable than the privatisation of the resource," she told IPS. "When people's access to clean drinking water is reliant on the profit interests of a handful of transnationals, all of us pay a premium and because of this many of the world's poor go thirsty."

Asked if the international community will meet the MDGs relating to water and sanitation by 2015, she said: "Not if we don't change immediate course."

For one, she said, the World Bank needs to stop making water privatisation a condition for their loans.

"If the Bank is truly interested in alleviating poverty, its conditions should take a longer view," she said.

Keeping water under local, public and democratic control is the most just way to insure the greatest degree of water access for the greatest number of people, Lynn added.

truthout.org

[astasinim]

^^
Yep, I can safely say, I will never run out of water. We had a river running past my house the other day.

[ntuc1980]

Yup, unless we're living in the Sahara desert.

[Mid]

The Next Big Thing: H20

By Peter Brabeck-Letmathe

May/June 2009

As food prices skyrocketed over the last two years, countries and state-sponsored companies were quietly snapping up land around the world. Few noticed when South Korea began investing in farms in Madagascar, or when China, Japan, Libya, Egypt, and Persian Gulf countries acquired farmland in Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia, Brazil, Pakistan, Central Asia, and Russia. From what little has emerged publicly, the total land purchased since early 2007 adds up to at least twice the cereal cropland of Germany.

The purchases weren’t about land, but water. For with the land comes the right to withdraw the water linked to it, in most countries essentially a freebie that increasingly could be the most valuable part of the deal. Estimated on the basis of one crop per year, the land purchased represents 55 to 65 cubic kilometers of embedded freshwater, an amount equal to roughly 1½ times the water held by the Hoover Dam. And, because this water has no price, the investors can take it over virtually free. It’s not quite a scenario from a James Bond movie, but the rush to lock up scarce water resources in agricultural belts is nonetheless disturbing. It suggests another food crisis might not be too far away.

In a sense, the great water grab is only prudent: Some 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawn for human use goes into agriculture, but underground aquifers are falling—in some regions by several meters per year—and rivers are running dry due to overuse. The worst problems are in some of the world’s most important agricultural areas: eastern Spain, the U.S. Great Plains, the Middle East and North Africa, and parts of Pakistan, northwest India, and northeast China. As the former head of the International Water Management Institute warned, “We could be facing annual losses equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the U.S. combined” if current trends hold.

We’d better figure out water policies that work, and fast. In some parts of the world, such as Oman, water is not free. Farmers must pay for the infrastructure or contribute work, and because water rights are tradable, water does have a price. Oman’s system has been sustainable for 4,500 years. Obviously, pricing and tradability have their limits: We also need to guarantee enough water for drinking and basic hygiene for those unable to pay, and set aside quotas for nature.

Market mechanisms at both the local level (tradable water rights) and the international level (multilateral free trade in agriculture) will have to be part of the solution. But we need to get moving before the steady drip of events becomes a torrent.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is chairman of Nestlé.

foreignpolicy.com

[Jesus Jones]

'Codex alimentarius' is next where the bill will be passed sometime end of the year, although it's been implemented now slowly.

Yeah i know, just conspiricy bullshit.

[mikehunt]

Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging
Saturday 23 August 2008
Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service

The world's current population of over 6.0 billion is expected to rise to about 9.0 billion by 2050, with more than 60 percent living in mega cities.

The amount of water on earth is finite. So, where is it all going?

It is held in suspension in things like clouds & living things. The water in living things is given up to our world when the living thing dies.

Water used in industry & agriculture is basically returned to our world but is also ingested by living things.

How much water is held in suspemsion by humans? Generally, about 60% of human body weight. Do not forget that many humans live for about 50 to 80 years.

Assuming that 1 Litre of water weighs about 1kg & also assuming that the average weight of an adult is about 75kg, the average amount of water held in suspension in each human is about 45 Litres (45kg).
The current world population is currently estimated to be about 6 billion (6 000 000 000) people. It is expected to rise by 3 billion people by the year 2025 (according to the above info).

Using simple mathematics based on the estimation of the average weight of a human, a further 135 billion Litres of water will be held in suspension by human bodies by the year 2025. Of course, these extra humans also require food, which will add to the pressure of fresh water demand. We also can't forget consumerism, which requires water to supply our frivolous needs.

What is the solution?
First, we must address the problem. So, what is the obvious problem?

Some interesting reading. Specific questions on water quantities