If you're looking for ways to invest your money in 2010, you'll get a return on companies building wastewater treatment plants, according to United Nations (UN) experts speaking to journalists gathered today at UN offices in Nairobi, Kenya.
Satinder Bindra, director of communications for the UN Environment Program (UNEP), said his financial advisor told him this week that "one of the best investments this year is water quality improvement."
The theme of the 17th annual World Water Day, on Monday, is "Water Quality" with an emphasis on water pollution caused by human sewage, often dumped directly into rivers, lakes, and the ocean in the developing world, where treatment plants can be few and far between.
According to the UN Environment Program (UNEP), more people die every year from exposure to polluted water than in all wars and conflicts around the globe. And most of that pollution is in the form of pathogens from human and animal waste.
As populations and economic development climb, and water resource are spread even more thin, we are reaching a tipping point at which wastewater issues can no longer be ignored, according to the experts. One of the results: wastewater-treatment and sanitation projects becomes a entry point for larger-scale, and often well-funded, development projects. Engineering, and water treatment and supply companies that will be contracted for these projects stand to make profit.
While the corporate world and investors capitalize on cleaning water, taxpayers and governments could also find financial reward. For every dollar invested in wastewater treatment, it is estimated that society gets a $3-34 return when you consider medical and environmental costs, according to Nancy Ross, communications director at the California-based Pacific Institute, which specializes in global water issues.
The Value of Water, Wetlands, and Forests
If you're personally not looking for insider trading tips, there is another angle on water economics that may be of interest--the value of green infrastructure, including wetlands that provide natural filtration, fisheries support, and flood control, and forests that protect water quality.
Wetlands alone are valued at $400 billion globally, according to the Pacific Institute.
A paper issued yesterday by the Convention on Biological Diversity, cites an analysis of Chinese forests that puts a $1-tillion pricetag on the water storage and filtration functions of these trees. Soil and vegetation store, and to some degree keep clean, nearly 60 percent of the world's renewable freshwater. That water, when returned to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, or water vapor, eventually falls back to the ground through precipitation, providing a generally reliable water source for drinking, agriculture, and business.
Intact forests also help reduce the amount of sediment--considered a pollutant--that ends up in the water supply through erosion, a common result of deforestation. The Convention on Biological Diversity values the water storage capacity of the trees in China at nearly three times what they are worth as lumber.
On the other side of the world, the Amazon rain forest, according to Pavan Sukdev of UNEP, is a similar water pump that sends nearly 20 billion tons of water daily into the atmosphere and generates rain for a nearly $1-trillion, primarily agricultural-based economy in the region.
Yet, deforestation continues.
In an attempt to curb the cutting and protect freshwater sources, the World Bank and environmental nonprofits are funding forest protection projects in Costa Rica, Nicaraqua, South Africa, and elsewhere. But the challenge remains putting a pricetag on some of these ecosystem services in a market where they have traditionally been unaccounted for, according to the Convention report.
Business Constraints
Companies, especially beverage companies, are feeling the immediate effects of water pollution. According to UNEP's Sukdev, bottled water producers Evian and Vittel are now paying upstream farmers $280 a hectare (2.5 acres) to protect forests, reduce sediment loads to the river, as well as the use of chemical herbicides and gross amounts of nitrogen-rich fertilizers--in essence to keep the water cleaner.
Scarcity sounds alarm bells too, for business. A 2009 Citigroup report said that unsustainable water usage has caused water scarcity to become a limiting factor in the growth of China, India, Indonesia, Australia, and the western U.S. A sister survey of Fortune 1000 companies found that 40 percent said water shortages would have a severe, if not catastrophic, impact on their business.
Citi concluded that we are on the verge of water bankruptcy.
For more on clean water and water conservation, visit National Geographic's freshwater website.
--Tasha Eichenseher
Photograph by UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi
What Others Had to Say
Added by The Window Man on April 21, 2010
"bottled water producers Evian and Vittel are now paying upstream farmers $280 a hectare (2.5 acres) to protect forests, reduce sediment loads to the river...in essence to keep the water cleaner."
This is smart. Well worth the investment...in business, people, and mother earth.
"I am here to serve."
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Added by Viru on May 6, 2010
'Water Banckruptcy', what a great term! Quite appropriate actually seing as though this seems to be happeing to most of the worlds natural resources.
Look as long as there is 'money in it' we as a people will always be strugling to get governments and authorities to make a REAL effort in finding alternative power sources. I mean just look at the disaster happening in the Gulf region right now withh all that oil in the sea. We've been hearing record profit results from B.P. for a number of years now.... well why don't they use that profit to clean up their mess quicker? Why don't they invest more hevily in trying to find alternative fuels/power sources? Because theres too much money in oil and it isn't running out any time soon for them to be worried.
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Added by leo12 on May 18, 2010
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Added by Linda on May 28, 2010
As the author’s view, this would be a better movement. Serving our Mother Nature meanwhile getting good returns. Guess lot of people would be interested as me!!
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Added by bartodeo on June 16, 2010
Look as long as there is 'money in it' we as a people will always be strugling to get governments and authorities to make a REAL effort in finding alternative power sources. I mean just look at the disaster happening in the Gulf region right now withh all that oil in the sea.
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According to the UN Environment Program,more people die every year from exposure to polluted water than in all wars and conflicts around the globe. And most of that pollution is in the form of pathogens from human and animal waste.
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We have to understand that water pollution has always been a major problem to the environment. With industrialization in major areas and urban cities growing the water around them just keeps getting polluted. The sad part about the whole ordeal.
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is there any way to treat the loss of water today? i guess almost 20% of water is gone since i was born. here in the Philippines, because of water deficiency we are having black out 2 hours everyday
Hope Scientists will find a cure for this phenomenon.
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'Water Bankruptcy' Is the cause of many of the problems out west. I can remember a time when we use to climb up to the wells and marvel at the vast water supply. It a shame those days are over.
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