1. Where is the next big
opportunity in Water?
TechVenture 2013
flevinson@smallworldgroup.com +65 9118 2794
Frank Levinson
Small World Group Incubator PTE LTD
71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #07-05
www.smallworldgroup.com
Hint - It is not in just technology. There are nearly 1B people without simple access to
clean water. But serving them is more about details and less about one magic solution

2. “When the Rivers Run Dry:
Water - The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century”
Tanzania: national mapping shows
41% of 53,423 water points are not
functional -Improve International
failure rate for most water
points in Africa at
anywhere from 30-60%.
- Voss Foundation
The Aral Sea, once the world's fourth
largest inland water body with a
surface of 67,300 km2 is now gone due
to ineffective deployment of technology
- National Geographic
More than 3x more people
lack water than live in the
United StatesLack of community
involvement causes
50% of other projects
to fail

3. 5 Vignettes

4. What are the major uses of Water?

5. Major Uses
•Power generation uses nearly 50% of
water in industrialized economies
•Irrigation uses another ~30% of water to
grow food and fibers for clothing
•People use surprisingly little water for
personal use; more for cleaning things
and disposal of personal waste than for
drinking!
•This means that the value of low flow
shower heads, low flush toilets, more
efficient laundry machines - while helpful
- will not have a major impact on overall
water use around the world
49%
31%

6. Can large scale projects change things?
Hoover Dam on
the Colorado River
USA
Great Man Made
River project in
Libya

7. Giant Tech Projects
The Aral Sea, once the world's fourth
largest inland water body with a
surface of 67,300 km2 is now gone due
to ineffective deployment of technology
- National Geographic
The fossil aquifer from which this water is being supplied is
the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System. It accumulated
during the last ice age and is not currently being
replenished. Independent estimates indicate that the
aquifer could be depleted of water in as soon as 60 to 100
years.[7]
it is the largest underground network of pipes (2820 km) [2]
and aqueducts in the world. It consists of more than 1,300
wells, most more than 500 m deep, and supplies 6,500,000
m3 of fresh water per day to the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi,
Sirte and elsewhere.
- Wikipedia
Historically, Gulf salinity was
measured at between 35,000
and 37,000 parts per million
(ppm), but Dr Barghouti
quotes figures by the UAE
Ministry of Environment and
Water which show that 10
years ago salinity was at
42,000 ppm but in parts is
now close to 56,000 ppm.
- The National

8. Who Suffers the Most?

9. Its poor women and children
who are impacted the most.
These people not the target
customers for most of the high
tech developers in this room.

10. Why is Water Handling So Tough?

11. Bad things so small we cannot see them live, thrive and multiply
in water
Water is corrosive to many construction materials normally used
for pumps, electrical elements, sensors
Water expands when it freezes and can break system elements
from the pressure exerted from the transition from liquid to
solid
Many elements have ions that can be soluble in water; many of
these can be harmful to human life.

12. Why do many water projects fail?
When the solution becomes a problem:
50.000 water supply points failed in Africa
At the recent World Water Day, a report from the International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED) warned that an estimated 50,000 boreholes, wells and hand-pumps are
falling into disrepair across the African continent. The water supply points were in many
cases built recently with donor support, but are now failing as a result of poor planning and
lack of resources. Some 250 million US Dollars worth of aid may have been lost.

13. Many projects were turned over to village “elders” but it was the
village mothers who were most motivated and best able to
maintain and keep the local clean water working.
Too little studies were done on system and component lifetimes,
wear out mechanisms, inventory and replacement strategies and
supply chains to keep systems working. No overall system of
field data collection was implemented.
When failures occurred, systems delivered water that was bad
and this resulted in loss of trust in the system which was very
difficult to restore.
When failures occurred, systems delivered water that was bad
Tragedy of the commons - consider 2 carrot farms that share the same river. If
one farmer can use all of the water (even wastefully) what is best for him alone?
Use it all. Competitive access to water can drive failure mechanisms.

14. Why Is It So Hard To Invent
Great Water Products?
TechVenture 2013
flevinson@smallworldgroup.com +65 9118 2794
Frank Levinson
Small World Group Incubator PTE LTD
71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #07-05
www.smallworldgroup.com

15. We dream of things that are elegant, beautiful, full of features and
functionality.
But we forget the big picture - who will use it, how long should it
last, how will we verify it worked as designed and over long times?
And so instead of beautiful clean water we end up with this ...
worse yet ... we end up with water that looks great but still
degrades quality of life because the users cannot tell failure.

16. We can blame ...
Politics
Very long
term changes
Lack of Focus
Long product
cycles
Miscalculations
Tradegy of the
Commons
Regulations
Climate Change

17. Panel Discussion Points
• What are some of the
recent innovations in the
water technology space?
• How has the investment
landscape for the water
technology space evolved
over the last few years and
where is it lacking?
• How can startups take
advantage of this industry?
RO
OR ?
Find a Niche
Delight Customres
W
hySiem
ensisSelling
Its
W
aterProcessing
D
ivision
Some big players are leaving while startups
find it hard to identify defensible niches

18. Panel Members
• Dr Frank Levinson - MD, Small World Group
• Roger Rosche - CEO, WiseWater
• Prof Ng Wun Jern - Nanyang Environment &
Water Research Institute (NEWRI)
• Dr Andreas Hauser, TUV SUD
• Dr. Adil Dhalla, GE Singapore Water Technology
Center
VC
Startup
Research
Standards
Industry