The Waterly
"The Waterly" is a weekly all-things-water newsletter we share with our community covering the latest innovations and investment deal flow in the water sector and recent news on climate change and water-related crises.
This $4 desalination system could provide clean drinking water to your family. Research shows that we spend every year $1.8T on subsidies harming the environment. The "megadrought" in the western US is the worst in 12 centuries. A new bill banning the use of PFAS was passed by the House Environment Committee. Guillaume Féry is this week's highlighted WELL member.
Your weekly Bonus - Norway won the Winter Olympics, congrats! But at what cost? Find out.
This week's water fact:
The Olympics' artificial snow is equivalent to a day's worth of drinking water for 900 million people
Tech & Innovation
Scientists think they've found the source of Earth's water
According to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the abundance of water on Earth was either here in the first place or deposited by an extremely wet (nearly pure H2O) object in the past.
A $4 desalination system provides continuous clean drinking water for a family
A team of scientists developed a new affordable method for solar-powered desalination that stops the build-up of salt seen in similar devices, a blog post from MIT reveals.
'Blue blob' near Iceland could slow glacial melting
A region of cooling water in the North Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, nicknamed the "Blue blob," has likely slowed the melting of the island's glaciers since 2011 and may continue to stymie ice loss until about 2050, according to new research.
Corporate & Deals
Billions Flow to Water Systems from Federal Pandemic Relief Funds
To complete the sewer work, the district will receive $5.7 million in federal grants channeled through state and parish governments. “It’s huge,” Cradeur told Circle of Blue. “It really allows us to do monumental overhauling that we’d have to budget for years to do.”
World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds
Research prompts warnings humanity is ‘financing its own extinction’ through subsidies damaging to the climate and wildlife.
Exclusive-EQT readies $3.4 billion sale of French water services firm Saur – sources
European buyout firm EQT is working with advisers to prepare the sale of French water management firm Saur in a deal that could value France’s third-biggest water firm at about 3 billion euros ($3.43 billion), people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Brief: USDA commits $1bn to ‘climate-smart commodities’
‘Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities’ is the latest in a string of big-ticket initiatives aimed at boosting sustainable food production — including through tech-enabled methods and models — that the USDA has launched since the Biden administration came to power in January 2021.
Water & the Environment
Natural disasters hit roughly 1 in 10 American homes in 2021
About 1 in 10 homes were impacted by natural disasters, according to a study released Thursday by CoreLogic, a property research organization. That’s over 14.5 million homes, totaling nearly $57 billion in property damage.
US west ‘megadrought’ is worst in at least 1,200 years, new study says
Human-caused climate change significant driver of destructive conditions as even drier decades lie ahead, researchers say.
Somalis in crowded camps on ‘brink of death’ as drought worsens
Somalia’s displacement camps are coming under intense pressure with more than 300,000 people leaving their homes in search of food and water so far this year as the country experiences its worst drought in decades.
US could see a century's worth of sea rise in just 30 years
America's coastline will see sea levels rise in the next 30 years by as much as they did in the entire 20th century, with major Eastern cities hit regularly with costly floods even on sunny days, a government report warns.
PFAS and Chemicals
Great Lakes tributary rivers play important role in bringing PFAS to the drinking water source of millions
The world's largest source of fresh water, the Great Lakes, provides drinking water to more than 40 million people in the U.S. and Canada.
Bills Banning Use Of PFAS Approved By House Environment Committee
Rep. Ami Wazlawik (DFL-White Bear Township) sponsors three bills to ban the manufacturing, distribution and sale of products in cosmetics, cookware and ski wax that contain PFAS, beginning Jan. 1, 2024. All were approved Thursday and referred to the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee.
Guillaume Féry is an expert in water utilities and natural resources management. He has more than 20 years of experience working at the crossroads of technology and water management. After having spent 10 years in water operations, he became a technology expert in the fields of data analytics, digital innovation and emerging tech for the water sector.
He comes with robust experience with utility giants: Suez, Veolia, Thames Water, global consultancies: PWC, IBM, Accenture and international institutions: the World Bank, UNEP, AFD. Guillaume is passionate about finding new ways of addressing the water and sanitation challenges and speeding-up actions collaborating with a variety of stakeholders for the achievement of the UN's SDG 6.
Thank you Guillaume for your passion and expertise creating global clean drinking water solutions and your contribution to the WELL community.
Sport & the Environment
Fake snow and downed trees: Evidence of Beijing Olympics' unsustainability
These were both done to prepare for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, measures Brock researchers say harm local ecosystems and contribute to global climate change.
