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Water's unclear future

Photo: Stig Stasig
Scarcity is raising prices and increasing the level of regulation and competition among stakeholders for access to water.
Water is expected to join energy, capital and labour as a key factor for the business sector
In the developed world, access to clean, inexpensive water is often taken for granted. But a number of international reports have warned that agriculture, industry and individual consumers face more difficult access and far higher prices in the future.

Management consulting firm McKinsey devoted its December 2009 quarterly report to water issues facing businesses. One of the conclusions was that water will play an important role in forming business strategies. The report finds that two of the factors causing water shortages are population growth and pollution, primarily stemming from agriculture and climate change.

Learn to do more with less “Scarcity is raising prices and increasing the level of regulation and competition among stakeholders for access to water. To continue operating, companies in most sectors must learn how to do more with less,” the report states.

COWI, according to R&D Director Stig P. Christensen, has already been in contact with international companies interested in assessing the risk of encountering problems with their access to water in the coming years. Demand for this type of analysis, he believes, will increase.
Measuring water footprint

Christensen points out that with water expected to become noticeably more expensive, even in countries which currently have low water prices, it will join energy, capital and labour as important factors when making decisions about production processes and where to place operations.

“Even at this stage there is money to be saved for companies that become more water efficient and reduce their ‘water footprint’,” he says.

Christensen says that it is a part of his job to point out that water and energy carry equal weight in discussions about the climate.

He also believes the area has major commercial potential.


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Af Kathrine Schmeichel 
Published: 19.05.2010

Water never dies

  • Broadly speaking, all the water that exists today is the same water that existed millions of years ago. The closed system of the water cycle prevents water from escaping.
  • Water is always at one of five stages in the cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration and runoff.
  • Three-quarters of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Some 97 per cent is found in the oceans. The remaining three per cent is fresh water stored in lakes and rivers or as groundwater.
  • Three-tenths of one per cent of all fresh water is suitable for drinking. More than threequarters of all freshwater is stored as polar ice.
  • Over the course of 100 years, a water molecule will spend 98 years as ocean water, 20 months as ice, two weeks in a river or lake, and less than a week in the atmosphere.

Source: University of Copenhagen

LAST UPDATED: 05.11.2012