As the world approaches some global tipping points that will end in irreversible changes, paradigm shifts and innovative perspectives, especially regarding water technology, are necessary. Which of the tipping points will matter the most to your organisation or business? This article lists the foremost factors that are driving the urgent requirement for a much better world water efficiency.
1. Population trends mean bursting demand
The UN believes that one-fifth of the global population faces water scarcity challenges. ‘Economic water shortages’ have denied 1.6 billion people access to water. This means countries or communities do not have the infrastructure to provide clean water to their populations.
It’s estimated that by 2025, ‘absolute’ water scarcity will affect 1.8 billion people and about half will reside in water-stressed regions. The bottom line is; the availability of water will be a key investment consideration in global business expansion plans, thus the need for this technology.
2. Irrigation, sanitation requirements change wastewater treatment
In September 2013, the UNU-UIWEH predicted truly rapid growth in the utilisation of treated wastewater for irrigation and other varying needs. The water metrics that have been recently cited have served as ample justification for the prediction. But presently, most wastewater still gets wasted: the treatment rate in high-income nations is 70%, but that falls to as low as only 28% for lower-middle-income countries and just 8% for real low-income economies. This is a sure sign that there will be a corresponding rise in the demand for the services of a water technology companyin the last two classes of nations.
3. Utility costs are quickly rising
If humanitarian concerns do not excite your company’s upper management, what of saving funds as an argument? Commercial water rates have increased by an average of 30% through the last four years in the US, as shown by data that was collected by Ecova, from metrics that it tracked from over 700,000 facilities continuously.
4. Distribution networks are rapidly aging
In urban areas that are truly established, the pumps, pipes, and reservoirs are between 50 and 100 years old on the average – and their age is inadvertently showing in form of undetected leaks. In emerging economies, infrastructure might be younger, but they are just virtually undependable. Generally, the World Bank estimates that the yearly value of water that is lost by varying utilities around the globeis about 14 billion dollars. It’s no wonder then that yearly revenue from smart water meters is estimated by Navigant Research to surpass 3.3 billion dollars by 2023.
5. Data centres guzzle a lot more water
The majority of technology managers are quite familiar with the PUE (power usage effectiveness) concept, which is a measurement of the ratio of the electricity that is required to effectively cool IT infrastructure in comparison to the amount of power that it takes to run the technology itself. A lot fewer know anything about WUE (water usage effectiveness), the metric for looking at the number of litres of water that goes into running and cooling them, unfortunately.
These are the 5 foremost reasons why the thirst for water technology will significantly rise in 2020 and years into the future.
