Water Efficiency: Examining cross-industry solutions to the world’s water issue

This piece is developed from the notes of a social innovation lab I was to give at the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit 2017 in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on December 12th, 2017. I do not claim to provide a solution to the issue of water scarcity or inefficient use, but rather to paint a picture of the current landscape, and share my own background and opinion on the issue.

Topic Summary: Climate change, an ever-increasing population, soil and land contamination, loss of resources, are just a few factors which are creating additional strain on the world’s most valuable commodity: water. As with many instances of resource scarcity, this is also leading to growing disparity between those with and those without. In this lab, participants should work together to identify novel partnerships or technologies which can benefit two or more industries to use water more effectively and sustainably while meeting one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Desired Lab Outcome: Mobilize or inspire a group of strategic partners from governments, industry players, startups, and NGOs to establish cross-industry solutions to the growing need for sustainable water usage.

California — America’s unlikely salad bowl

To talk about water, I first want to talk about fire. I was born in the small town of Twentynine Palms, California in the Mojave Desert which is famous for a Robert Plant song, its proximity to the Joshua Tree National Park, and a large military training base. Outside of this, it is known for its dry and arid climate which has led to many brush fires in the area. In middle school, I moved to San Diego, California, which by comparison, is more like a rainforest. It looked like paradise to me due to the amount of water imported to support a large number of parks and beautifully landscaped homes. However, in reality, the natural vegetation of San Diego is very dry brush or chaparral, which is highly prone to fires during drought, which we have many of. The local government regularly instituted water usage education commercials in an attempt to regulate the area’s water consumption, with ideas such as only doing laundry once a week and in the evening, limiting showers to 10 minutes, and giving subsidies for homes which planted water-saving succulents and cacti instead of grass and other greenery.

It was in 2003 when San Diego saw its largest fire to date. I was a freshman in high school at this time, and nearly all schools in the county were closed during the week of the fire. I remember driving with my mother to a viewpoint on nearby Mt. Helix to get a better look at the fire. I could see it coming over the mountain pass towards the city, and it really put the severity of the fire into perspective. The sky was an intense hazy orange due to the amount of smoke blocking the sun and I distinctly remember seeing the silhouette of downtown San Diego looking ominously apocalyptic. The fire remains one of California’s largest, costing 1.24 billion USD in damages. By size, it was only surpassed by the recent fires this last October.

In university, we had another firestorm caused by the blustery Santa Ana winds, which when combined with a drought make for very high probability fire conditions. While my university was not in the immediate area of danger, it was used as a shelter for those who had been evacuated, many of whom had lost homes.

The reason these fires are so prevalent come back to the droughts. The cause of these droughts could be global warming, or it could simply be due to the dry nature of the climate. But the fact remains, California has a severe water issue which has been particularly bad in recent years, though sometimes worse than others.

California’s main source of renewable water is the snowpack in the Sierra Mountains, a typically reliable source, which has been getting less snow than usual. This has led to drilling into the aquifers underground which is being consumed at an astounding rate. A 2011 study indicated that the aquifer under the central valley, the region where the majority of California’s crops are grown, is losing the equivalent of the nation’s largest surface reservoir per year. The last major source of water to California and nearby states is the Colorado River, which has been in a drought for nearly 10 years. All of this has led to the first mandatory water restrictions in the state’s history. While these may help to achieve the desired effect, I believe companies operating in water-intensive industries should continue to pursue water-efficient technologies and business practices.

Water Efficiency: examining cross-industry solutions to the world’s water issue

Climate change, an ever-increasing population, soil and land contamination and loss of resources — all of these factors and more are putting additional strain on the world’s most valuable commodity, water. As with many instances of resource scarcity, this is also leading to a growing disparity between those with and those without.

Population

The world’s population is currently around 7.6 billion people. By 2050, the United Nations expects that number to reach nearly 10 billion. Without a doubt, the population is the number one driver of water resource scarcity, because it impacts everything else on this list and increases water demand not just for basic consumption but for most necessities.

Alongside the increase in population, the middle class is also rising. While great in terms of economic support and people moving out of poverty, this increase in wealth comes with an increase in water-intensive activities and lifestyles. The most important factor is the water burden of their diet; middle-class people overwhelmingly eat animal-based protein diets as compared with those in poverty who typically rely on grain. A simple statistic to show the chasm between water resource intensity is that raising a pound of beef uses seventeen times more water than growing a pound of corn. The additional usage of operating vehicles and computers and other appliance strain water resources as well.

Climate Change

Climate change, or rising global temperatures, accelerates evaporation, causing lakes and rivers to dry up faster than before. Shifting weather patterns such as longer summers also play a role as crucial snow packs or regular rainfall does not replenish water sources in time with the consumption as we see in California. These dry periods or drought harden the soil which causes water to sit on the surface and either evaporate or drain off into sewers or rivers instead of replenishing the underground aquifers as usual.

Water Pollution (Chemical Pesticides & Fertilizers)

Water pollution is also a major issue in today’s world, as more and more agricultural and industrial chemicals contaminate water supplies. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers, in particular, brought great improvements to the agriculture industry; however, the unintended consequences of soil and water contamination make these obsolete and unsustainable products. But due to the growing population higher quantities of the chemicals are being used, which end up in lakes and rivers but also in the aquifers themselves.

Potential Solutions

There may be some solutions to these issues already out there of course. To make it easy, we will focus on agriculture, since that is the world’s primary user of water and a major contributor towards contamination as we just examined.

Using Less Water

Of course, we can simply try to reduce the amount of water used in agriculture or the water wasted. This is the goal of many companies, including my own. But without these technological innovations, the only real way would be to simply grow less food. This could be a real alternative as there is a massive amount of food wasted — 1.3 billion tons per year according to the World Wildlife Fund. But growing less food is not always going to be a realistic option for the increasing population. The major solution here comes with water efficiency or limiting the water wasted while farming.

Vertical & Smart Farms

Vertical and urban farms, smart farms, and hydro or aquaponic systems have shown to reduce water requirements and land usages which are both effective ways to reduce the strain on our water resources to produce food. While this is a promising industry, there are still limitations in the variety of crops which can be grown, the amounts which can be grown, the technical knowledge required, high capital cost and long return on investment, and high energy requirements. It is absolutely a step in the right direction but as of yet an industry still to be proven.

Precision Agriculture

Precision agriculture is another promising innovation space, with many new technologies focused on water savings by measuring the exact amount of water a plant needs, or examining the soil content to know the optimal amount of water for each area of the field. This is an area of innovation which has a lot of promise in water efficiency. Many of these breakthroughs may transfer across industries as well. However, there may still be limitations in precision agriculture as there are still high capital costs and sometimes a large data set may be necessary to reach optimal performance, so the time commitment and data collection requirements may be an issue for many of their consumers, which are typically those producing the crops.

Key Industries

There are many industries that either utilize a large amount of water to produce something, whether it be energy or a physical product, and then there are industries which help to treat that water that is being used, as in the case of wastewater management, and of course there is desalinization which aims to simply provide a more renewable source of fresh water for consumption, or to supply those industries. These are all interrelated and as such must be examined briefly in order to kick-start some thoughts around how these industries can be disrupted in a water resource-conscious way.

Agriculture

Agriculture accounts for around 70% of the world’s water usage and as mentioned earlier leads to water pollution due to the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. This water pollution carries a high cost and effects many other industries or resources downstream or underground as the water makes its way. As the primary consumer of water, agriculture is a prime industry for change in terms of water use or efficiency, especially due to the additional damage agriculture may inflict on water resources.

Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater treatment aims to provide a renewable source of water from that waster which is unclean to drink or utilize after being processed through various industries. While this endeavor is certainly a vital part of our overall water supply, it is not without flaw and there is still room for improvement.

Seawater Desalinization

Seawater desalinization is another exciting industry for water management. Some countries have really embraced this technology, with Israel being a prime example. In this region, Hyflux is a major player and I believe handles the almost all of Singapore’s water management and desalination projects. Desalinization has been around for quite some time, and there has been major efficiency and yield improvements over the last 30 years or so, but not much since then. Even adding another 5% — 10% in increased yields or energy savings, depending on how you look at it, will result in massive economic benefits.

UN Global Compact & Sustainable Development Goals

The UN Global Compact is a set of principles and guidelines which acts as a framework for businesses. This compact aims to bring businesses together to mainstream the ten principles into business activities, but also to bring broader action towards larger goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. The SDGs are a collection of 17 broad but interrelated goals with specific targets within each. These targets are to be met by 2030, and water efficiency has a direct relation to a number of these goals.

The seven goals which are the most directly water-related are Zero Hunger, Clean Water and Sanitation, Reduced Inequalities, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, and of course Partnership for the Goals. However, all of the SDGs are critical in advancing businesses to act as responsible social leaders.

Desired Outcome

What is left to be done is continuous innovation, collaboration, and conversation. I believe it is now up to the stakeholders, which when discussing water means everyone on the planet, but more specifically those consumers working in governments, corporations, and NGOs. Water scarcity is absolutely a business issue alongside a human issue and will take a large-scale movement through cross-industry innovation, support, and collaboration to secure a sustainable future.

If you would like to continue this conversation please feel free to send me a message here on LinkedIn and I’ll respond as soon as possible.