The importance of deep tech startups in the water agenda

We want to achieve a sustainable and fair future for water. This requires transforming the economy and restructuring its governance at national, regional and global level.

The United Nations Water Conference, which took place in New York last March, was the first of its kind in almost 50 years and aimed to mobilise global action for water resilience and security, considered an issue of essential importance for the sustainable development agenda.

The world is currently facing a water crisis caused by excessive demand, poor management and the impacts of the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. This crisis is fundamentally global and systemic in nature. For the first time in history, human activity and practices have put the global water cycle, on which all life depends, on an unsustainable trajectory.

Science has shown how communities and nations are hydrologically interconnected - not only through rivers and surface water, but also through atmospheric moisture flows. Practices in one region have an impact on precipitation in other regions.

Water, a vital natural resource, is being depleted, polluted and poorly managed. We know that 40 per cent of the world's population lives in areas affected by water stress, that 2.2 billion people still don't have access to drinking water, that more than half the world's population doesn't have access to safe sanitation and that 80 per cent of the world's wastewater is discharged untreated directly into the environment. The pressure on the quality and quantity of water is increasing.

On the other hand, this pressure will disproportionately affect women, vulnerable and marginalised groups in indigenous communities, young people, farmers, workers and small and medium-sized enterprises, contributing to an increased risk of conflict and instability.

It is desirable to achieve a sustainable and fair future in the field of water. To achieve this, we need to transform the economy and restructure its governance, implementing more integrated, cross-sectoral and networked practices at national, regional and global level.

This is where technology plays a crucial role! Especially technology related to adapting to climate change. The issue of water, in all its different dimensions, cuts across the whole of society. Technological innovations are needed to help society adapt to our new climate reality, which mainly stems from the way we deal with risks related to water quality and quantity.

It is important to support and invest in startups that come up with technological innovations that help us adapt to an uncertain climate future, that help industry and society see, understand and face the myriad of water risks induced by climate change and that enable everyone to have access to this technology, allowing applications in agriculture, aquaculture, buildings, climate, conservation, industry and energy production, among others.

It is important to support and invest in start-ups and companies with intellectual property anchored in chemistry, materials science, genomics, microbiology, diagnostics and process engineering, as well as data science, computer engineering and information and communication technologies, which develop innovations in monitoring, software and analysis that reduce barriers, allowing everyone, individuals, companies and governments, to access the data and tools they need to minimise the impact of our changing water reality.

This is the real challenge for the coming years!

Read article in portuguese here.