Summary

Applying technology to water management is a win-win opportunity. Adoption by public and private utilities of Smart Water solutions from companies like AUG Signals, TaKaDu and Derceto will increase water quality while reducing energy usage and carbon emissions, improve national security and prevent tragedies, add momentum to a growing industry, creating jobs and exportable intellectual property, all while saving utilities billions of dollars now and tens of billions of dollars in the long run.

Analysis

Photo Credit: Pete Souza / White House
Say you caught an elevator ride with the President -- you've got 45 seconds to say something. What would it be?
I'd talk about water.
Failing water infrastructure causes more illnesses every year in the United States than H1N1 did worldwide in 2009.
Aging water infrastructure wastes billions of liters of drinking water, every day.
Inefficiency makes water utilities the single most energy-intensive industry: 13% of United States energy use originates from the water complex.
A 5% decrease in leaks in the United States would save 270 million gallons of water a day and 313 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually -- enough to power 31,000 homes. Not only that, but it'd keep 225,000 metric tons of Co2 emissions out of the air. For just 5% better efficiency. Imagine 20%.
However, the cost to overhaul the water complex would make the President balk: $335 billion is a tough number to swallow.
But doing nothing is betting human lives on a losing hand.
I'd offer the President a moderate alternative: make water infrastructure smarter.
Install sensors, from companies like AUG Signals, Ltd, an Artemis Top 50 company, to monitor water pressure, quality and demand. Integrate software from Artemis Top 50 companies like Derceto, Optimatics and TaKaDu to model water use in real time, dynamically adjusting water delivery to its highest possible efficiency.
The relatively small investment would pay for itself. Utilities could visualize weaknesses in infrastructure, enabling them to prioritize repairs instead of blindly replacing good pipe along with the bad. They would predict failures and plan intelligently, scheduling infrastructure upgrades and distributing costs over a period of years, thus increasing the affordability of each phase.
Smart water monitoring would continue to benefit new infrastructure: sensors would analyze water quality in real time. Utilities would identify toxins immediately, without the long feedback loops inherent in traditional laboratory testing. They'd be able to preempt bacterial outbreaks, industrial contamination and terrorist attacks -- saving lives while reducing costs.
It's a win-win opportunity: increase water quality while reducing energy usage and carbon emissions, improve national security and prevent tragedies, add momentum to a growing industry, creating jobs and exportable intellectual property, all while saving utilities billions of dollars now and tens of billions of dollars in the long run.
He'd have to say yes.

Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.