Published as “Manager to Manager” column in Journal AWWA (November 2011)

A high-level “Water Pressures” workshop at Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2011, organized in partnership with Black & Veatch and SIWW as part of the Water Leaders Summit, featured approximately 110 global leaders from more than 20 countries. Twelve internationally renowned chairpersons led delegates through 25 rapid-fire conversations focused on three types of pressures the water sector is facing today: policy pressures, innovation pressures, and public pressures.

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By Black & Veatch  for The Business Times (Singapore), 5 July 2011

WATER is no longer ignored by business leaders. Pressures resulting from either too little or too much water are being felt in boardrooms all around the world. Big business is finally taking water seriously.

This is what a survey of Fortune 500 companies found as part of the CDP Water Disclosure Project 2010. Of those surveyed, 39 per cent had experienced a detrimental impact to operations as a result of water-related issues – everything from drought to pollution to increased water tariffs.

It’s not merely an operational matter, but it’s also of strategic concern. Two-thirds of these businesses claimed that responsibility for water-related issues lay firmly at the board or executive committee level.

Despite the increased awareness within these large organisations of the seriousness of water issues, gaps and concerns remain surrounding water risks and water usage throughout their supply chains.

Nowhere is this question more relevant than in Asia. Despite continuing struggles in the United States and Europe following the 2008-2009 financial crisis, signs clearly point to hope for business growth in Asia. Yet, is this growth sustainable when the Water Resources Group research shows that water shortages are expected to increase 40 per cent in developing Asia by 2030?

I don’t think that 10 years ago CEOs around the world would have posed the question of water’s impact on sustainable growth. And I don’t think many would have appreciated, as they do now, the fact that water is the new fuel.

Energy needs water – for cooling, extraction, and other uses. It takes considerable amounts of water to produce energy. For example, even a Google search consumes the equivalent of 1/16th a teaspoon of water, according to one of our engineers. This nexus of water and energy has serious implications that could limit economic development in Asia in years to come.

In China, for instance, intensive industrial energy demands, in particular, are in direct conflict with the supply challenges where serious water scarcity challenges are being faced. One problem is that the Chinese don’t have enough water to mine, process, and consume available coal reserves and still rapidly develop their modern cities and manufacturing centres.

This same dynamic of economic growth in water-stressed areas is a phenomenon most developing nations in the Asia region are facing, too, and it’s no stranger to parts of the United States either – the southwest in particular.

Alongside energy’s thirst for water, industry and agriculture are rabid consumers of our finite resource. In fact, given the growing scarcity of available and treatable freshwater across Asia in the coming years, what’s required is a greater focus on managing the demand for water. We can no longer rely on supply-type solutions as there will simply not be enough projected supply.

To sustain Asia’s economic growth, industry, agriculture, and government all need to come together and figure out how, in simple terms, we can urgently do ‘more with less’.

Approximately 80 percent of Asia’s freshwater is used by irrigated agriculture. Shifting demographics in Asia mean that emerging middle classes in developing Asia’s new cities are demanding more water-intensive farmed products.

In China, appetites for meat doubled in the last two decades and are forecast to double again by 2030. As a result, food production in developing Asia has increased manifold, but irrigation efficiencies have reportedly increased by less than one per cent per year since 1990.

This can be better managed, yielding more crops per drop. Great strides were made in Australia as it battled through its recent water-scarcity challenges. The country has sustained continued economic growth with only 30 per cent of the water it had 10 years ago and has improved its irrigation efficiencies to 85 to 90 per cent.

With an increased awareness around the real costs of water (tariffs and implications of too little or too much water), industry is also beginning to see the demand side of the water equation addressed. This needs to continue as the next generation of businesses emerges in the region.

The good news is that technology solutions today are becoming increasingly available to illustrate long-term operational savings from limited capital investments. Indeed, a huge leap forward in membrane technology makes reusing water a no-brainer option for some closed- loop industrial applications.

Another acceptable alternative is to recycle water provided by the local utilities or municipal government, as is the case with NEWater, Singapore’s own brand of reclaimed water. Technological advances, such as improved germplasms for irrigated and rain-fed areas, as well as more integrated plant stress management, could also help to improve future irrigation efficiencies.

Investors play a critical role in stimulating these advances. There are encouraging signs that global financiers are also focusing on water. Although only approximately 3 per cent of cleantech investments are in water-related companies, this has grown significantly.

In 2010, US$257 million went into water-related start-ups, up from a record high of US$140 million in 2009. The number of institutional investors signing the Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2010 annual request for water information to over 400 companies has also risen more than 150 per cent from 137 in 2010 to 354 with US$43 trillion in assets.

Water means business. Singapore’s successful WaterHub and its Singapore International Water Week, which is taking place at Suntec Convention Centre this week, are encouraging greater understanding of the water issues we face.

They not only offer industry leaders the opportunity to discuss how we can overcome these issues, but also offer businesses and financiers sage advice about how they can make a return on their investments on this critical resource.

It is easy to skim the surface of water issues. However, just below the surface are some real threats to sustainable growth around our planet. This can only be solved by coming together, and I’m looking forward to learning more about Singapore’s leadership in tackling its own water challenges and setting examples for others to emulate.

Black & Veatch has been partnering with Singapore since 1922.

This article was published on 21 June 2011 on WorkingWithWater.net.

 Black & Veatch and Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) are to host an interactive workshop at the event at this year’s Water Leaders Summit at SIWW 2011.
The Water pressures – how to adapt and lead in a changing urban environment workshop, open to Water Leaders Summit delegates, focuses on managing future challenges related to changing urban environments. It forms part of Black & Veatch’s WaterDialogue.com series and takes place at 10.50 am on Wednesday 6 July.
The workshop includes three short roundtable discussions of best practices for dealing with challenges in a changing urban environment. The three topics will be innovation pressures, policy pressures and public pressures.
There will also be 27 roundtable discussions during which delegates can share insights and best practices. The findings will be used to form a white paper that will articulate the sector’s most current and pressing challenges, and will be made available to the public later this year.
Black & Veatch will also be involved in other aspects of SIWW, which takes place from 4-8 July in Suntec, Singapore. Len Rodman, Black & Veatch chairman, president and CEO, will chair the Middle East & North Africa Business Forum on 7 July, while Dan McCarthy, president and CEO of Black & Veatch’s global water business, will be a panellist in the Australia Business Forum on 1 July for the second year running. Black & Veatch water/wastewater technology leaders presenting at the water convention include Cindy Wallis-Lage, senior vice president and executive managing director of technical solutions, Black & Veatch and Bob Hulsey, director of water treatment technology, Black & Veatch. There will also be a number of Black & Veatch technical posters from leaders throughout the company’s global network presented at the event.

According to a Google search, hundreds of media outlets have picked up the news release about the final white paper that came out of the year-long series of roundtable discussions on water reuse.

Check out the list!