White House Announces Public-Private Innovation Strategy to Build a Sustainable Water Future
On December 15th, the White House announced a new public-private water innovation strategy. This strategy includes a two-part approach by EPA and other federal agencies to address the impacts of climate change on the use and supply of the nation’s water resources and calls on private sector and other stakeholder groups to help significantly scale up research and investment in water efficiency solutions. The Administration’s new water innovation strategy calls for:
- Boosting water sustainability and long-term water security by increasing use of water-efficient and -reuse technologies; and
- Promoting and investing in breakthrough research and development that will reduce the price, energy costs, and emissions requirements of new water supply technology to achieve “pipe parity” in the next decade.
The strategy was announced at a Roundtable on Water Innovation held to engage with industry and public leaders to start building broader consensus on a path forward. The roundtable provided an opportunity for leaders from industry, academia, and federal, state, and local governments to discuss how an aggressive innovation agenda can help America meet the challenge of a constrained water supply and increase the resilience of businesses and communities in regions that will be affected by increasingly severe and lengthy droughts.
