“What are the new developments in water? Are there new technologies that developing countries could use to bypass expensive and cumbersome systems? What’s the next big thing that could solve the water crisis?” Politicians and the media often ask experts for new ideas to make water “interesting”. Yet, on the whole, water systems constructed today use much of the same technology they did 100 years ago.
Certainly, it’s not all about technology – appropriate demand, social structures and institutions have to be in place to make technology effective and sustainable. In the chapter on innovation in the WDR2010, we compare the share of revenues that private companies invest in research and development in the energy sector (0.5%) with that of electronics ( 8% ) and pharmaceuticals (15%), to show that the energy industry hasn’t exactly pushed the envelope in terms of innovation. We didn’t even think to find out how much private water companies invest in research. Yet I’d be surprised if it were as high as 1.5%. The water sector has not historically been a hothouse of new technology.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Innovation in water, part 3: necessity is the mother of invention | Making our future sustainable
Author: Julia Bucknall
