Description:
Currently, global water supply is 740 billion m3 and by 2030 this is forecasted to be 1.5 trillion m3. Moreover, Asia has the highest rate of water withdrawal and consumption in the world. By 2025, its total water consumption would be 1750 km3. In addition to demand increase caused by population growth, the effects of climate change, disaster impacts and non-revenue water losses in cities exacerbate this problem. This presentation highlighted the key mega trends that are shaping the water and wastewater market during the next decade and explores the investment opportunities that are arising from these trends. Market opportunities related to the water sector are expected to reach USD 1 trillion by 2025. Companies that are early to respond and take steps to exploit the market opportunities associated with these water-related challenges are more likely to gain a competitive advantage and achieve commercial success. One of the fastest growing water business at the moment is purified bottle water service. Since the home-based water purification systems require considerable initial investment and constant servicing, the purified bottle water as an ideal alternative. Similarly, point-of-use water dispensing machines are increasingly deployed in south and south east Asia. They offer purified water in every location and IoT will help in increasing its visibility. Due to climate change scenarios such as severe storms, floods and longer periods of droughts, the necessity of climate resilient water and wastewater treatment plants have emerged. Thereby, the social and economic impacts due to disturbed water and wastewater treatment processes will be minimum. Other emerging problems related to water and wastewater treatment such as; algae bloom, saltwater intrusion, raw water pollution, inorganic water pollution, less space in urban areas, increasing energy costs and micropollutants in water are also getting more focus at present more than in the past. Carbon neutral wastewater treatment, membrane bioreactors and RO systems, concept of co-location of membrane desalination plants with power generation plants, decentralized treatment systems, and IoT in water sector are increasingly becoming popular in every part of the world which may dominate the next decade.

Live Webinar Held: 18 August 2020 (Tuesday)

Speaker:
Dr. C. Visvanathan, is a Professor of the Environmental Engineering and Management Program, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology. He has a Ph.D. (Chemical /Environmental Engineering) from Institute National Polytechnique, Toulouse, France. His main areas of research interests include: Membrane technologies for water and wastewater treatment, Cleaner production and solid waste disposal and management. In the field of solid waste, his main research interests focus around waste recycling and reuse, landfill pre-treatment technologies, plus anaerobic digestion of food waste. He has published more than 150 international journal papers. He has more than 30 years of experiences teaching environmental engineering and management related courses at graduate level at AIT. His professional experiences include: Project Engineer, Asia Division, International Training Center for Water Resources Management, Sophia Antipolis, France, and short term consultant to UNEP Industry and Environment Office, Paris, France. He was coordinating the ADB – AIT – UNEP joint project on 3R – Knowledge Hub from the AIT side.