Water summit opens the floodgates on reuse ideas

With the United Nations having projected that by 2025 approximately 2.8 billion people around the world will be living in water-scarce areas, the need to fast-track viable, cost-effective recycling strategies is gaining momentum. Today, at the “From Used to Useful” water summit, held at GE’s learning center in Crotonville, NY, a mix of water experts from academia, business and government have converged to tackle some of the obstacles that are currently blocking actions — and to discuss the way in which technology, economics and public policy intersect when solving the problems.

Bucket loads of ideas: As part of today’s summit, a “Used to Useful” online community is being launched for those directly involved in water reuse projects. The goal is to support the creation and adoption of innovative technologies and business models — and to reform policies as needed to help cities enact changes.

It’s not just a problem in developing countries, or those places in traditionally arid climates. As Heiner Markhoff, president and CEO of Water and Process Technologies for GE Power & Water, says: “It’s often said that an economy runs on oil, but it also could be said that it runs on water. It’s estimated that 15 percent of freshwater worldwide is used for industrial purposes, and in the United States the number is even higher — some 45 percent of freshwater withdrawals in the U.S. is used for industrial purposes such as cooling, as a solvent or in chemical processing.”

According to the WateReuse Association, the U.S. reclaims and reuses about 6 percent of its wastewater. But the level is much higher in some other countries. Israel is reusing 70 percent of its wastewater and Australia currently reuses about eight percent and has set a national target of 30 percent by 2015.

Another example of aggressive action can be seen in Singapore. One of the key speakers at today’s summit is Khoo Teng Chye, chief executive of the national water agency of Singapore. With water shortages, polluted rivers and widespread flooding, Singapore is taking the lead on reuse, having successfully restored 30 percent of its wastewater back into drinking water. Singapore has also created a Water Efficiency Fund that provides up to 50 percent of the capital cost of water recycling facilities.

As Steve Bolze, President and CEO of Power & Water for GE Energy, said in his recent Senate testimony: “Although energy gets a tremendous amount of attention, it seems like many people take clean water for granted. Perhaps that is because they have never been in a situation where quality water was not available when and where needed. The simple reality is that we need water for everything.”

* Watch videos showing GE’s technologies in use in Arizona and Mexico
* Try out GE’s interactive WaterExplorer
* Learn more about GE’s water technologies
* Read “Diving into access & scarcity at World Water Week” on GE Reports
* Read “Making a splash with water wins”
* Read GE Reports’ guest post about water sustainability issues
* Read “Tech’s on tap with new GE-Singapore water center”
* Read “GE’s “sustainable cities” road show tours Europe”