Cleanwaterforum : A forum to discuss how to achieve universal access to safe, physically accessible, sufficient and affordable, clean water.

We set up this blog to discuss issues surrounding universal access to safe, physically accessible, sufficient and affordable clean water. These issues include, but are not limited to: 1) whether access to clean water should be enshrined as a fundamental human right; 2) how to respond to the increasingly prevalent treatment of water as a commodity rather than a public good (corporate social responsibility and water); 3) clean water as global health issue; 4) clean water as a poverty issue; 5) clean water as a global security issue; 6) clean water as a gender issue.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

US water market expected to grow after credit crunch

With recent cutbacks in investment in tech sector, major infrastructure capital improvements, the business of water in the US has declined lately.  However, the new adminsitration has already emphasized that they will focus on repairing crumbling infrastructure and investing in green technologies.   The damage to the enviroment and rising water scarcity within the US will, unfortunately, also be a strong motivator.

According to WaterMarket USA, 

"The biggest area of expenditure will be rehabilitating the sewer network - attracting a total of $46 billion of expenditure between 2009 and 2016. Up-grading wastewater treatment plants is also a priority - attracting $41.1 billion over the same period. The fastest growing market will be seawater desalination, which is currently not much more than a cottage industry in the US, attracting total capital expenditure of around $130 million in 2008. This will grow to over $1 billion by 2015."

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1739634.htm

Other findings from Water Market USA include:

  • Water tariffs will need to rise steeply: currently US consumers pay between a third and a half the amount that European consumers pay for water, but they use two to three times the amount of water.
  • The challenge of recruiting skilled staff will drive investment in automation among larger utilities and as well as encourage outsourcing among smaller utilities
  • The fastest growing water technology markets over the period between 2008 and 2016 will be ultrafiltration and microfiltration membranes (+280%), UV disinfection (+227%), Ozone disinfection systems (+233%) and membrane bioreactors (+180%), and reverse osmosis membrane systems (+165%).
  • Capital expenditure on water reuse will top $10 billion between 2009 and 2016; whereas seawater desalination will attract investment of $5.5 billion over the same period.

The main beneficiaries of long term growth in the sector will be engineering firms such as Black & Veatch, CH2M Hill, AECOM Technologies (NYSE:ACM), and Jacobs Engineering (JEC); solutions providers such as General Electric (NYSE: GE), Siemens (NYSE:SI), Veolia Environnement (ADRs: NYSE: VE); and equipment suppliers such as ITT (NYSE:ITT), Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and Energy Recovery Inc (NASDAQ: ERI). The growth rate of investor owned utilities is expected to be more modest, although they are expected to provide a safe haven for investors during the crunch period.

Christopher Gasson, co-author of Water Market USA commented: "The cost of the cutbacks during 2009 will be borne by the environment. We will see more pollution in rivers and lakes and further degradation of freshwater resources.

"From 2010 onwards the outlook looks much better. With Obama's big infrastructure spend feeding through, and utilities catching up with the projects that they were forced to delay in 2008 and 2009 because of the financial crisis.

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