A Customer-Focused Service Model
Our Water-as-a-Service® (WaaS®) partnerships address the many challenges customers face as they seek safe and reliable water: aging infrastructure, increasing regulation, rising demand, contaminants, and the heightened risk of climate change-associated drought.
WaaS® circumvents bureaucratic obstacles and guarantees delivery of the quality and quantity water you want at a price that satisfies the budget. We design, build, operate, update, and maintain infrastructure with the steadfast financial backing of EQT, a purpose-driven global investment organization that partners with companies worldwide through its Private Capital and Real Assets strategies. Our team is well-equipped to work with customers to design the perfect solution for any financial situation.
We cover all aspects of the water cycle through customized desalination, advanced water purification, wastewater treatment, and water reuse/recycling services. We guarantee capacity, quality, and cost for municipalities, developers, and industrial customers, freeing them to focus on their core missions. We also acquire and upgrade existing infrastructure, and operate it for customers.
Understanding WaaS®
Avoid the bureaucracy, cost, and years involved in arranging traditional financing.
Compare Water-as-a-Service® to older contract models to clearly identify the benefits.
Water-as-a-Service®
Conventional Design-Build Model
Invest NO upfront capital.
Invest or finance ALL upfront capital.
Pay only for the water you need.
Pay the fixed capital and O&M costs whether or not the plant is operating.
Get a guaranteed water supply managed by water professionals, eliminating the hassle, time, and expense of managing — and repairing — a water treatment plant.
No guarantees. Responsibilities include management of the plant, equipment repairs, labor relations, regulatory compliance, surprise invoices, and inconsistent operator performance.
We design, build, own, and operate a new plant, or acquire and upgrade an existing one, built for quality and reliability.
The equipment vendor’s goal is to maximize profit from equipment sales and walk away. Quality may suffer.
Planning is streamlined and negotiations are quick, to commission affordable infrastructure.
Coordinate with multiple parties involved in the planning stage, leading to protracted negotiations that waste time and money.
Take advantage of new legal frameworks that encourage public-private partnerships in many parts of the U.S. and other regions worldwide.
Lack of government assistance for traditional infrastructure projects.
We pay all operating costs, leaving you with no hidden costs or surprises.
Responsible for all operating costs, known and unknown, including surprises like emergency or out-of-scope repairs.
We are responsible for safety, environmental, and regulatory compliance.
Obligated to keep up with and enforce the latest rules and standards, or to motivate your O&M operator to do so.
We design and operate the plants in a way that ensures low, stable, and predictable life-cycle costs.
Life-cycle costs can be high and unpredictable.
Water-as-a-Service® in Action: Alice, Texas
The state’s first P3 infrastructure project is set to lower water cost and increase resilience with no taxpayer burden
- City of nearly 20,000 residents
- Plant designed to produce 2.7 million GPD
- City no longer dependent on piped-in water
Alice, a South Texas city with a population of 19,000, depends on nearby Corpus Christi for its water supply, which is pumped approximately 20 miles from Lake Corpus Christi to Lake Findley.
To improve drought resilience and become more water-independent, Alice is turning to a nontraditional source of drinking water, the brackish aquifer beneath residents’ feet. When the WaaS® desalination plant goes online, it will provide a guaranteed volume of raw water to the city’s purification plant at a guaranteed price per 1,000 gallons. The arrangement will add much-needed drought resilience with no capital investment.
“The Seven Seas Water Group WaaS® approach offers an all-inclusive service package with no upfront capital investment, removing the unnecessary burden on taxpayers. We are pleased with the final contract and the price and solution offered by Seven Seas Water Group to provide clean water for our community.”
Alice City Manager Michael Esparza
Flexible Contracts and Financing to Meet Customer Needs
Seven Seas offers variable-year arrangements and the ability to sell existing infrastructure, as well as ways to reduce operational costs. Customers have the option to renew contracts, potentially at an even lower rate. And, equipment can be scaled up or down to meet changing demand.
Cut through bureaucratic tape and get your water infrastructure project completed quickly with a number of funding options. Contact us to take advantage of new legal frameworks that encourage public-private agreements, and leverage our risk management capabilities with BOO and BOOT financing models.
Looking for smaller treatment capacities or a lease arrangement?
Contact our wastewater treatment team to discuss leasing options.
Water-as-a-Service® FAQ
Can WaaS® be used for residential developments?
Absolutely. WaaS® is especially beneficial for residential developers, master-planned communities, and homeowners’ associations (HOAs), particularly when infrastructure is not yet in place or utilities are slow to extend service.
WaaS® is also an excellent fit for communities pursuing septic-to-sewer conversions or seeking independence from municipal or regional systems in order to reduce costs or improve service quality and reliability.
What are the benefits of using WaaS® instead of the traditional design-bid-build process?
With WaaS®, all operations, maintenance, compliance, and repairs are included, with no surprise costs. Seven Seas ensures that plants run efficiently, helping customers avoid the build-neglect-rebuild cycle that plagues many self-managed systems. Additionally, WaaS® eliminates the headache of recruiting and retaining qualified staff, an ongoing challenge in the water sector.
Instead of juggling multiple vendors and maintenance schedules, customers receive a single, predictable bill each month. This lets communities, utilities, and businesses focus on other priorities while Seven Seas ensures that plants stay compliant, reliable, and safe. Explore more benefits of Water-as-a-Service®.
Who is Water-as-a-Service® best suited for?
WaaS® is a versatile model that meets the needs of a wide range of customers, including:
- Municipalities and water utilities looking to upgrade or expand infrastructure without taking on capital or operational burdens
- Industrial users requiring consistent, high-quality water for their processes
- Commercial buildings that demand reliable, tailored water and wastewater services
- Developers and HOAs who need scalable, cost-effective solutions in fast-growing areas
- Island or coastal communities, hotels, and resorts that face unique challenges in sourcing and managing water
Through customized, site-specific solutions, Seven Seas supports every customer segment with reliability, efficiency, and deep technical expertise.
In cases where WaaS® isn’t the right fit, Seven Seas also offers its Lease Plant Program, which provides treatment over the short or long term. Leasing allows customers to meet current needs without having to gamble on future demand — infrastructure can be added in phases to meet growing demand.
How quickly can a WaaS® solution be deployed?
WaaS® projects typically proceed much faster than traditional DBB projects, which are often delayed by permitting hurdles, financing complexity, and the coordination of multiple firms.
A prime example of Seven Seas’ responsiveness is an emergency water project in St. Thomas, USVI. When a local thermal desalination plant failed, Seven Seas delivered a temporary seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant producing 500,000 GPD of potable water in just 29 days, with the project reaching full capacity in only 48 days. This kind of agility is possible because Seven Seas handles design, financing, construction, and operations in-house.
Can Seven Seas Water Group provide both water and wastewater treatment?
With more than 200 plants in operation and a history of high plant availability and compliance, Seven Seas has the experience and infrastructure to deliver full water cycle solutions across residential, commercial, municipal, and industrial applications.
What happens at the end of a WaaS® contract?
At the end of a BOO contract term, customers can choose to renew their contract, negotiate a new one, or part ways. With a BOOT contract, the infrastructure is transferred to the customer at the end of the term in fully functioning condition, complete with necessary spare equipment for ongoing maintenance.
Today’s WaaS® contracts are typically performance-based and have lengthy terms, so water and wastewater treatment services remain in the hands of specialists over the long term at agreed prices, volumes, and quality. Customers generally have a decade or more before they need to decide how to proceed.
Have More Questions?
Whether you’re a city planner, builder, developer, industrial operator, or HOA leader, Water-as-a-Service® offers a smarter, faster, and more reliable way to secure water and wastewater infrastructure. By eliminating capital barriers, streamlining delivery, and ensuring long-term performance, WaaS® lets customers focus their attention on other needs while Seven Seas professionals keep the fresh, clean, safe water flowing.
Ready to explore a better way to build water infrastructure? Contact Seven Seas to discuss your project needs.
Connect With Seven Seas Water Group
Sign up for the latest news and trends in water production and wastewater treatment.