Megatrends

A world thirsty for water

Water covers around 70 percent of the earth’s surface. Yet despite its apparent abundance, it is one of our most precious resources. Experts warn of life-threatening shortages, but innovative processes could help to improve matters. A closer look

By Karoline Amon, Katarina Baric and Christian Brunschede

Prologue

Why we are in deep with water in everything to do with water

January 2014: A record drought hits the US state of California. For the first time in the Golden State’s history, water is rationed. Residents are called upon to save 25 per cent of their water usage. Farmers and manufacturers are forbidden to draw water from the Sacramento River.

The bliss of water – a finite pleasure? There are good reasons to deal more wisely with this scarce resource in the future.

One year later: Lake Baikal in Russia is officially declared an emergency zone. The water level of the world’s largest fresh water lake has dropped dramatically. To preserve the supply of water to cities, the water volume flowing through the hydropower plants’ dams has to be decreased.

August 2017: The Italian government declares a state of emergency in the drought-stricken provinces of Parma, Piacenza, Latium, and Umbria. In the south of Tuscany, it’s only rained a few drops since March; in parts of Campania, no rain has fallen for 18 months. The situation is so serious that in many places, all non-essential household water use is banned between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

The world is drying up. Africa has long stopped being the only afflicted region: In industry nations such as the United States and China, water emergencies are no longer a rarity. Experts at the World Resources Institute estimate the risk of water shortages in Spain and Greece to be “extremely high”. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has forecast that by 2030, almost 50 percent of the world’s population will live in high-stress areas, that is, regions where more water is needed than is available.

Did you know, that the ocean is our gratest reservoir of heat

Did you know… …that the ocean is our greatest reservoir of heat?

People who live on the coast know: compared to inland areas, the days are warmer by the sea, and the nights colder. The reason: water absorbs heat during the day and then releases it little by little. And by the by: the oceans don’t just absorb sun from the energy; they also absorb carbon dioxide. Researchers have discovered that half of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming are stored in the world’s sees.

33

billion cubic meters of drinking water are lost through leaks each year – enough to supply New York City for 20 years.

17.196

liters of water are needed to produce one kilo of chocolate.

1

per cent of the world’s water supply has drinking water quality.

Challenges

Why the basis of life is a rare commodity

In 2010, the United Nations declared that access to clean water was a fundamental human right – an important signal considering that around 900 million people have no access to safe drinking water. Almost 1,000 children under five years die daily from diarrhea caused by germ-infested water. This shows just how quickly deprivation can lead to health risks.

We estimate the need for investment in the world water market to be around €400 to €500 billion a year.

Eric Heymann, Deutsche Bank

Just because water is a basic need, it is taken for granted in many areas of the world where it is often wasted: the amount of clean water that is lost through leakage alone could cover the needs of a metropolis for a quarter of a century, according to World Bank estimates.

Millions of liters of drinking water seep through leaky pipes in this way. And even when the water arrives at its destination, its intended use is not always uncontroversial. The evergreen golf turf or the daily carwash testify to the disregard many people have for a resource that seems to flow indefinitely and cheaply out of a tap. In the United States, for example, water consumption is charged at a flat rate, and water meters are a rarity.

Without this elixir of life, humans can only survive a few days – even though they themselves consists of 80 per cent water.

In Ireland, protests erupted in 2015 when the government decided to charge for water- and waste-water-consumption for the first time. In many other countries, needs-based billing is not the norm – even though it could be a useful tool to distinguish between consumption and waste.

Did you know… …that the clearest fresh water lake in the world is in the New Zealand Alps?

The Blue Lake has a clear visibility of up to 80 meters making it as optically clear as the purest distilled water. Passionate divers consider a water visibility of up to 40 meters outstanding. The secret of the clear water lies in the lake’s origin. The Blue Lake feeds from an even higher lake, Lake Constance, where water is filtered through several layers of rock. The water of the Blue Lak is thus naturally renewed every 24 hours.

The United Nations General Assembly (…) recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights…

Resolution 64/292. The human right to water and sanitation

Taking Stock

How are we dealing with the world's water shortage?

One thing is clear: consumers are not the biggest consumers of water. Industrial agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of global water usage. Germany’s figures look good by comparison. According to statistics from the country’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA), German agriculture, industry, and households use only 25.1 billion cubic meters of fresh water from the total 188 billion cubic meters supplied by nature each year. Private consumption is also at a record low of 123 liters per person per day, thanks to water-saving faucets, showers, and domestic appliances. But the figures are misleading.

Rice terraces like these in Yuanyang, China, are flooded by sophisticated water systems when they are under cultivation.

Aguateros is the name of thirst-quenchers like this in the sprawling outskirts of Lima. Without the Aguateros, residents are left high and dry.

Every step in textile production involves water – from the silk thread to the finished garment.

Industry has the biggest thirst for water. Refineries for example need double the amount of water for every liter of oil produced.

„Our actual daily water consumption per capita is around 3,500 liters, which is a much higher figure,” says Martin Geiger, head of the sustainability department at the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG). The DEG is a subsidiary of the KfW Banking Group, and finances investments made by private companies in developing and emerging economies.

Because water is too cheap, we are wasting it.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, former CEO of Nesté

5,300 liters per person per day: that is the amount of water needed to produce all the goods we consume daily – from a cup of coffee to the microchip in a smart phone. According to calculations by the Water Footprint Network, it takes almost 2,500 liters of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt. One kilo of beef needs 15,000 liters of water and four slabs of chocolate weighing the same amount need a good 17,000 liters. If Germany’s water footprint is based on these figures, then it becomes one of the biggest importers of water in the world.

Water shortage worldwide

Thirty-three countries around the world face extreme water scarcity by the year 2014 – and that includes countries in Europe. The risks per country:

Risk of water shortage in 2040
Low (< 10%)
Low to moderate (10-20%)
Moderate to high (20-40%)
High (40-80%)
Extremely high (> 80%)

Did you know… …that the oldest water in the world is two billion years old?

Scientists found this liquid treasure in a three-kilometer-deep ore-mine in northern Ontario, Canada in 2016. They believe water will give us clues about the origin of life on earth, as well as about water on other planets. The water was trapped in rock that has also been found on Mars, showing signs of the existence of water there. The age of groundwater is determined by the degree of decay of certain radioactive materials found in the water, an indication of how long they have been in the water.

Drop by drop

By 2050, the global demand for water will have increased by at least 50 percent. This forecast is broken down by consumers and regions (in cubic kilometers):

Solutions

What innovations will supply enough clean water?

The world is still quenching its thirst from freshwater sources, accelerating a shortage of this natural resource. Experts believe the problem is now so serious that in the medium term, it could even overshadow CO2 issues. It is no surprise, therefore, that there is growing public interest in technologies for reducing resource use, protecting water supplies, and treating water. The main showcase for innovations of this kind is IFAT, the world’s leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste, and raw materials management. “Our partner exhibitions in China, India, Turkey, and South Africa have turned IFAT into a worldwide event,” says Stefan Rummel, Managing Director of Messe München, one of the world’s leading trade fair organizations.

The availability of clean water is not a problem for individual countries; it is a global challenge.

Stefan Rummel, Messe München

German companies are managing the water problem relatively well within their own manufacturing plants, both at home and abroad. It’s hard to find a DAX-listed company that does not give protecting this valuable resource an important role in its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. For example, the total worldwide water consumption of the Bayer Group fell by 4.8 percent in 2016 to 87 trillion gallons. Compared with the 2012 figure, this represents a savings of over 14 percent. Henkel has reported a reduction in water use of 23 percent for the last financial year, calculated using the figure for the base year of 2010 for one metric ton of products.

Mist collectors filter water from the morning air in the Atacama Desert. The nets capture some 170 liters of water daily.

Desalination plants, such as the Jabal Ali complex in Dubai, are stripping the sea of billions of liters of drinking water.

The company Huber SE exports clean water solutions worldwide. Remaining sewage sludge is recycled.

Floodwaters from the Colorado River green the desert of California. A canal system transports the water to the fields.

“The key consideration for us is not only how much water we save overall, but at which of our sites we succeed in saving it,” says Uwe Bergmann, Head of Sustainability Management at the Düsseldorf-based consumer goods company. “Unlike reductions in CO2 emissions, which benefit the climate as a whole, water management is always a local and seasonal challenge. We need to save water, particularly in areas in which there is already a shortage.”

For example: in Egypt. Henkel will soon be opening a new smart factory for liquid detergents near Cairo. In addition to using a traditional process engineering approach (involving a 47 percent reduction in the consumption of fresh water per metric ton of products within ten years), the company aims to exploit the potential for further savings. “By installing the latest measurement systems, we can monitor our water consumption there in real time,” says Bergmann. “That will guarantee us a more detailed view of the situation, which will make it possible for us to compare our different production sites more effectively and to save even more water in future.”

Did you know …that the dead sea is not the saltiest water on earth?

The Don-Juan pond lies in the East Antarctic. The comparative puddle is a mere 30,000 square meters but has a salt concentration of 40 per cent. Evaporation in Africa has also caused enormous salt concentrations in waters, for example Lake Assal in East Africa. One liter of lake water contains an impressive 350 grams of salt. No wonder: the temperature in the region seldom sinks below 25° Celsius.

Another example is Huber, a company from Berching in southern Germany, which specializes in wastewater solutions. With more than 40,000 systems installed worldwide, Huber is one of the world’s leading suppliers of water, wastewater, and sludge treatment systems. At the company’s headquarters, around 700 employees develop customized products and system solutions for industry and the public sector.

In Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellín, with a population of around 2.5 million people, Huber is currently installing one of the world’s largest sewage sludge utilization plants. It has a daily capacity of 440 million tons. In the German city of Regensburg, the company is constructing a system known as ThermWinR for the Museum of Bavarian History, which will allow the museum’s building in the heart of the city to be heated and cooled using wastewater.

“Our aim is always to provide an intelligent overall solution,” says CEO Georg Huber. “We use the heat in sewage sludge and the energy that it generates to dry the sludge itself, which means that the process is largely self-sufficient in energy. And we also treat the wastewater so thoroughly that it can be reused as high-quality process water.”

A closer look therefore shows that not everything is flowing as smoothly as it should when it comes to holistic, responsible and sustainable use of water. However, there are important players in the economy and society who have long since identified the key challenges – and see them as opportunities.