The western half of the United States has experienced severe drought conditions for several years.
While 2022 is starting out as a “wet” year, our problems are from over.
According to Klaus Reichardt, CEO and Founder of Waterless Co Inc., “long-term, most water experts predict parts of the country will have chronic water scarcity issues for decades to come. We welcome the moisture, but it’s probably transitory.”
However, water scarcity has produced a silver lining, according to a new study just released by Pennsylvania State University on January 10, 2022.
According to the researchers, companies that use large amounts of water, for instance, in manufacturing, are becoming much more water efficient.
Water efficiency refers to long-term water reduction, often by eliminating water waste.
Plus, they are releasing lower amounts of toxic emissions into wastewater, which typically ends up waterways, potentially harming marine life and vegetation.
“Most of the prior research has been focused on how companies are negatively affecting the environment,” says Suvrat Dhanorkar, one of the researchers.
“We flipped that around to see how companies [are responding] to climate change. It opens a new area of research… looking at how… climate change-induced events affect innovation and other economic factors like unemployment.”
The study involved more than three thousand manufacturing facilities in Texas from 2000 to 2016.
Texas was selected because the state has many manufacturing facilities but frequently suffers from long-term dry periods resulting in water scarcity.
“We found that water scarcity can induce manufacturing facilities…to improve their environmental performance by lowering toxic releases into water,” reported the researchers.
“These effects extended into the facilities reducing emissions in other ways, such as into the land and air, too.”
According to Reichardt, this research is one of many indicating how some industries are becoming not only more water-efficient due to water scarcity but reducing their impact on the environment.
“Fortunately, when it comes to water, new technologies and innovation are helping us reduce water consumption dramatically, all of which benefits our planet.”
