Global Trends, Part 1: Projected Water Scarcity

Clean water is set to become the world’s scarcest—but most vitel—natural resource. Check out this global map of water scarcity.

Climate change will play a role in water scarcity. Demand will increase for water for domestic use, as well as for agriculture (including new biopharma and biofuel crops) and industry processes. And regions experiencing water scarcity will increase as the global population increases and as climate change induced droughts occur. Both developing and developed countries will be affected. Various industries such as agriculture, food, and beverage processing plants, as well as chemical, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor industries.

There is also discussion of clean water technology. This very general term is broadly defined as a range of potential technologies that enable faster and more energy efficient treatment of fresh water and waste water and desalination of brackish and sea water, with the goal to provide sustainable and diverse water sources useable for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. The technologies include advances in existing technologies such as membrane bioreactors, substitutions and advances in other separation and purification technologies, including the use of unique chemical and physical properties of nanoparticles and nanofibers to remove toxins, bacteria, and chemicals from water that is safe for human use in one way or another.

Countries that are the first to develop and deploy cheap energy-efficient clean-water technologies could gain huge geopolitical advantages. Without such technology, one of the greatest threats to the rising influence and power of India and China could be as basic as insufficient clean water.