As the world’s population increases, so does the need for clean water, both for drinking and for crop irrigation. And this demand is fueling interest in developing improved purification and desalination techniques by large corporations and by start-up companies.
That behemoths such as Siemens and GE are adding water treatment assets to their portfolios is evidence that this is a burgeoning market. Recent developments include GE Water’s acquisition of ZENON and Siemens Water Technologies’ development agreement with Israeli national water company Mekorot.
Investment firms are also seeing a few dollar signs in the water treatment businesses. Suez’s former water child, Nalco, is now owned by Blackstone, Apollo, and Goldman Sachs. Small-time players like Israeli start-up Atlantium, which has developed an ultraviolet purification system, are also sparking interest in the investment community.
Chemical companies like Dow are also pumping up the water volume, and university researchers are finding water purification R&D a worthwhile pursuit.
These efforts, both large and small, are mostly aimed at reducing the cost of purifying water and solving problems in water-scarce areas. Most technologies treat or filter wastewater, but the desalination of salt water is also increasing in popularity.
While most of these processes involve large-scale treatment plants, my personal favorite is the Lifestraw, a small tube that filters bacteria and parasites out of water. The idea, which was developed by Vestergaard Frandsen, is to halt the spread of water-borne diseases in third-world countries.
With water consumption as well as water pollution on the rise around the world, avoiding future shortages of drinkable water should be a global priority. Investments in purification and desalination efforts could be all-around wins for savvy investors.
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