Point of View – by Mia Javier

[Cross posted at blog.cleantech.com]

Water quality management continues to draw the attention of industries most vulnerable to water contamination in their products. Unilever’s subsidiary, Slim-Fast, is a case in point with the company’s recent recall of their canned diet drinks due to possible bacterial contamination that could cause diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. I suppose that’s one, albeit uncomfortable, way of losing weight.

In fact, a quick google of “food recall” provides a wealth of data points that highlight the increasing need for water quality management across manufacturing processes.

• http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/health/la-residents-sickened-from-egg/
• http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/08/18/con-cheese-recall.html
• http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/article_2c239998-a60b-11df-83a9-001cc4c002e0.html
• http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/08/17/not-just-tylenol-and-motrin-drug-recalls-skyrocketing/

Israel-based, TACount, is developing a technology that will allow real-time bacterial process control to prevent such recall incidents from happening, according the company’s CEO, Isak Duenyas. Duenyas noted the grim reality of current quality control processes for both industry and water utilities as being fundamentally reactive.

The culture dish remains the standard method for contaminant detection but it takes two to three and in some extreme cases, 21 days for cultures to be counted and bacteria to be identified, according to Duenyas. During that time, contaminated drinking water and or products are distributed to end users and the rest, shall we say, is history.

TACount, however, has discovered a mechanism in the basic metabolism of bacteria to detect and count microorganisms within a window of five to 15 minutes. In other words, by detecting the culturable or colony forming microorganisms only, it provides a colony forming unit (CFU) equivalent to what would be obtained using plate count method in a fraction of the time.

According to Duenyas, there is an entire industry around rapid microbiology and at his last count, there are approximately 65 companies. TACount, however, has developed the fastest method with most other tests requiring six hours for results, Duenyas noted. The core cast of bacteria to be evaluated for drinking water includes:

• E.coli
• Total Coliforms
• Steptococus Fecalis
• Clostridia
• Fecal Coliforms
• Cryptosporidium

The company has a working prototype and is currently seeking a Series A round of funding.

[cross posted on blog.cleantech.com]

Why do countries fight over water resources? Because as nations manage economic growth, precious water resources become the clear conduit required to supply both energy and food to growing populations.

A recent article published by the New York Times featured the growing tensions between India and Pakistan over water – as if their relationship isn’t strained enough. Pakistan is concerned that the Indian hydroelectric dam currently under construction could divert water that flows from mountain glaciers to Pakistan’s agricultural industry. It is a story of two countries competing over a water source to achieve energy and food security.

The growth of any city or society is founded on human access to water. Without it, growth cannot occur. Should something or someone get in the way of these resources, it is likely to ruffle some feathers.

Consider Los Angeles. At the beginning of the twentieth century, we could point to one event that catalyzed the growth of this now, population of 4 million: the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct that diverted water from the Owens River Valley approximately 300 miles away. If members of the Owens River Valley ecosystem could wage a war, they surely would have as the growth of LA came at a great environmental cost.

If you care about energy security then you better care about water security. Our research here at the Cleantech Group looks at water technologies that assist efficiency in water distribution and use as well as innovation and market dynamics in water and wastewater treatment aspects of the urban water cycle. Management of water resources is not only critical for governments vis-à-vis other governments but vis-à-vis multinational corporations!

We cannot separate energy and water security. In this way, investments poured into alternative energy technologies should be a lesson to us, not mere fanfare.

[cross posted at blog.cleantech.com]

It’s so easy to get caught up in the comforts of life that at some point, we look up and realize how wasteful (or stupid) we are with such a precious resource. In my recently released report, Demand-based Water Use: Focus on Smart Irrigation, I came across several staggering data points that have underscored the critical need for better water resource management.

The first doozy: 58 percent of U.S. commercial and residential water is used for outdoor irrigation. Seriously? That’s a whole lot of water just to keep our landscapes looking pretty. At the very least, we should mitigate wasteful irrigation practices.

As I illustrate in this brief, there are five commercially available smart irrigation companies helping farmers, commercial building owners, corporations and homeowners conserve water, save energy and reduce pollution with a payback period of fewer than two years, to boot! Anything short of smart irrigation just seems…….criminal, if you want to get dramatic about it.

Investments in important supply-side solutions to water resource management like desalination cannot come at the cost of sensible demand-side conservation measures. Investors should look to the economic and water conservation breakthroughs smart irrigation has helped businesses achieve.

[cross posted on blog.cleantech.com]

Water systems typically espouse thoughts of boring, archaic, underground concrete and steel structures that mean little so long as clean water pours out the tap.

Indeed, most tax payers find the thought of water infrastructure investments puzzling when water prices are relatively low and proof of bad pipes are invisible (at least above ground).

But getting smart about water has suddenly become interesting.

As a global community, we know relatively little about a resource we rely so heavily upon. Governments are increasingly aware of their global water risk exposure and have engaged in various studies to get a grip on their water data. Just this week:

• The European Union (EU) released its 2009 follow-up report on water scarcity and droughts in the EU.
• The United States Geological Survey released a study on contaminants in groundwaterused for public supply.
• Sri Lanka released conference proceedings from its National Conference on Water, Food Security and Climate Change outlining various papers collecting water data.

The above illustrates how our water scarce world is in critical need of the deliberate collection and analysis of water. While the collection of some data sets will require significant investment (think data on everything from ocean temperature to air quality), there is plenty of existing data awaiting collection and analysis like SCADA, which stands for supervisory control and data acquisition.

While governments are getting a clue, so too is industry. To be sure, public-private partnerships will be critical in advancing sustainable, data driven smart water systems.

IBM, for example, is leading the charge with such projects including one with the Marine Institute in Galway Bay to collect data from a variety of sources aimed at informing a number of industries. The data collection is as impressive as it ambitious.

The project collects weather, water wave, tidal current and even seal floor mapping and topography data.

And according to Peter Williams, CTO of IBM’s Big Green Innovations, while IBM is developing the monitoring and control side of Smart Water, the company seeks partnerships with meters and sensor developers as well as companies addressing the networking and communications component.

SAP also offers enterprise level packages of software for water resource management and boasts 950+ customers globally.  While IBM competes with SAP in some areas, according to Williams, IBM also makes money implementing SAP.

The venture community is also paying attention smart water technologies including real-time water quality monitoring, leak detection technology, and SCADA driven software applications aimed at optimizing the water grid.

The technology geek and data wonk have certainly made this area of water sexy.

There is tremendous opportunity in this space – stay tuned for more!