Meeting Water Supply Challenges

Water-as-a-Service® provides a new financial approach to a sustainable water supply

Public water providers and large commercial users face numerous challenges in meeting their current and future water needs, as many water systems in the United States and around the world have reached their intended lifespans and urgently require upgrades for optimal efficiency. Aging systems not only operate inefficiently, they often require costly maintenance and pose potential contamination risks due to inadequate treatment or leaching of harmful contaminants, such as lead from old pipes.

Population growth has increased the demand for limited supplies of fresh water, and in many places, there is a struggle to keep supplies up. Sources of fresh water are becoming depleted due to factors such as climate-related drought, overextraction of groundwater, and intrusion of salt water into aquifers, which threatens water security in many regions of the world.

There is a growing need to turn to more sustainable alternative water sources to ensure an uninterrupted water supply. In addition to dealing with aging water infrastructure and trying to balance supply and demand, water utilities and businesses also have to comply with increasingly stricter environmental regulations and water quality standards, which can strain finances and operations. Many don’t have the budget to upgrade treatment processes to ensure compliance, while others may lack the technical capacity.

While these are common challenges faced by water providers and businesses, they all may be complicated by a lack of capital to address the issues. When traditional financing and operational models fail to keep up with these challenges, a new approach is required.

How WaaS® Eliminates Water Supply Barriers

The Seven Seas Water-as-a-Service® (WaaS®) financing model was developed specifically to help water utilities and businesses with limited resources overcome these financing hurdles. Here are some of the ways WaaS® removes barriers to a secure water supply.

1. No upfront capital investment: WaaS® offers build-own-operate (BOO) and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contracts to provide and maintain water infrastructure with no upfront cost to the customer. With WaaS®, public water providers and businesses can access modern water treatment services without requiring a significant capital investment. And because Seven Seas is paid only for water provided to customers, it builds quality into its infrastructure.
2. Reliable and sustainable water treatment: One critical method of ensuring the sustainability of water supplies is desalination, which can transform seawater or brackish groundwater into drinking water. Advances in technology have reduced the cost of desalinated water while the cost of scarce fresh water has risen, making desalination more affordable as a long-term solution. And, technological advances have also made desalination practical on a smaller scale than previously possible. WaaS® gives water managers access to state-of-the-art water treatment technologies, such as seawater desalination and brackish water treatment, that allow them to tap into more sustainable alternative water sources, ensuring a secure water supply even in drought-prone regions.
    Another aspect of sustainability is compliance with current and future governmental regulations, including proactive contaminant management and testing, which provides customers with peace of mind and reduces the risk of non-compliance issues. With WaaS®, our team of experts takes responsibility for ensuring that water complies with quality standards. Because Seven Seas uses advanced treatment technologies and has extensive experience in managing plants, it can efficiently meet all regulatory requirements.
3. Decentralized and scalable solutions: Small-scale decentralized treatment systems, located near the point of use, offer a sustainable alternative to large centralized plants. Decentralized treatment reduces the major expense associated with building and maintaining an extensive network of pipes to link treatment plants to users. It also gives businesses and municipalities the freedom to plan new developments without the restriction of having to connect to existing utilities. By spreading water treatment services across a broader area, decentralized treatment can help build resilience to survive disruptions and outages. WaaS® provides the flexibility to start with a small plant and scale up as demand increases, offering the flexibility to grow alongside communities.
4. Water reuse: Decentralized treatment can promote the sustainable use of water by incorporating water reuse. Treating wastewater on-site for reuse in nonpotable applications (such as irrigation or cooling) can reduce the demand for supplies of fresh water, increasing sustainability and cutting costs. With WaaS®, water utilities and businesses can get access to modern treatment technologies such as membrane biorector (MBR), which facilitate water reuse without a large capital investment.

Water-as-a-Service® saves money and makes sustainable water supplies accessible.

Overcoming Financial Hurdles

One of the biggest challenges to building and operating sustainable public water systems is funding, which falls primarily on state and local governments in the U.S.

Budget cuts leave many municipalities operating with limited finances, restricting their ability to access much needed water infrastructure. As municipalities grapple with financing water infrastructure, public-private partnerships (P3s) offer an increasingly popular solution. By partnering with Seven Seas — a multinational developer, owner, and operator of water and wastewater treatment plants — our customers get access to affordable water treatment services backed by a team of experienced water professionals. Water-as-a-Service® provides both BOO and BOOT contracts, freeing municipalities of the capital cost typically associated with building, upgrading, or refurbishing plants.

With WaaS®, it’s possible to solve infrastructure needs with no upfront investment, maintenance requirements, or workforce development. And it’s not limited to P3s. The contracts can be equally beneficial to commercial and industrial customers, removing financial and operational barriers to affordable and sustainable water supplies that comply with regulatory standards.

Contact our team to learn more about Water-as-a-Service® and how this approach can solve your water supply challenges to ensure long-term water security for your business or community.