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Turning on the Tap: Is Water the Next Oil?

Water, not petroleum, may emerge as this century’s most essential—and contested—product. Here’s how new, private enterprises are exploring the complexities of water delivery and treatment globally. From HBS Alumni Bulletin.

Flush, shower, rinse, swallow—fumbling through their first waking moments, most Americans are probably too groggy to see competitive advantage in their early morning routine. But there it is: All the H2O they need—cheap, clean, treated, pressurized, and home-delivered—available at the turn of a faucet.

Not so for 1 billion other residents of planet Earth, whose day begins quite differently. With their basic health already compromised for lack of water-based sanitation, those less fortunate must also worry that their drinking water—often requiring several hours each day to collect—may sicken or even kill them.

The ocean-dominated Earth is indeed the "blue planet," but only 1 percent of its water, the equivalent of one tablespoonful in a gallon, is fresh and accessible. Agriculture and industry are thirsty for that limited supply, too. They consume—often inefficiently—amounts that far exceed residential and personal use. And with the global population skyrocketing, the demand for water to sustain, feed, and employ the world’s people is projected to double by 2025.

By that date, nearly half of the estimated population of more than 6 billion will be living in "water-stressed" countries, where either the quantity or the quality of water supplies will have sunk to levels ranging from inadequate to economically crippling. At the same time, another valuable water-infrastructure system, the environment, is in steep decline because of human mismanagement. All these competing forces lead some experts to believe that water will replace petroleum as the twenty-first century’s core commodity, with nations rich in water enjoying enormous social and economic advantages over those that are not.

by Garry Emmons

Full Story: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5049&t=globalization&iss=y

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