The Future & Economics of Clean Water

According to the World Health Organization, at the start of the decade there were over a 1 billion people in the world that didn't have sufficient access to clean, unpolluted drinking water. To put in perspective, that's the same number of people on the internet. comScore recently published their estimation that world wide internet users passed the 1 billion mark in 2009. The dirty water epidemic isn't getting cleaner either. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that number will grow to over 2 billion by 2050.

We don't usually think of clean water being a problem, maybe because 98% of people who suffer from inadequate clean water supplies are in developing countries. But, it's not only in developing countries. At any given time, it's estimated that half of people in hospital beds are suffering from a water related illness. Every 15 seconds someone dies because that person had to resort to drinking polluted water.

There are companies, not for profits, and existing solutions that are making a difference. However, there are larger fundamental issues that make it difficult for individuals and these movements to produce long lasting results. Some of these issues stem from a debate of whether the water industry should be privatized. (It's a $16 billion dollar industry.) More generally, we believe there are fundamental issues within our societal infrastructure, economy, corporate mentality, polluted water, and lack of broad understanding that need to change.

At Clean Economies, we hope to shed light on these issues, exemplify the most innovative approaches, and mobilize people to take action and affect change. The Future & Economies of Clean Water event will be Clean Economies first event of many and we invite you to attend.

We're stilling working out speakers, panelists, and presentations so if you know of interesting experts on the topic, startups that are focused on this area, or anyone you believe we should speak to - please shoot us a message. If you're interested in attending - then follow Clean Economies on Twitter and subscribe to our bi-monthly email newsletters.

We'll likely charge $5-10 dollars and all proceeds will go towards a clean water related initiative. At the end of the panel discussion, we'll provide a handful of organizations (as recommendations) that we're helping to raise money. The audience then gets to decide where the donations go to.

Water facts in this post are provided by Water.org.