Finnish revolution in water technology promises to change lives globally

Finnish revolution in water technology promises to change lives globally
Population growth and climate change factors have pushed water quality and security to the top of policymakers’ global risk agenda. Water crises was one of the biggest societal risks identified by the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2017. It cited “a significant decline in the available quality and quantity of fresh water, resulting in harmful effects on human health and/or economic activity”.

Growing concern about water quality and security everywhere has transformed the sector into one of the world’s fastest-growing business areas – and Finland has taken a central role in pioneering revolutionary water quality management technologies. In fact, Finnish companies are now at the forefront of what can justifiably be described as a technological revolution. Conventional water quality control methods are cumbersome, labour intensive and expensive to maintain, and produce data which are difficult to interpret and slow to act upon.

Now, leveraging Finland’s famous expertise in mobile technology, a team of Finnish water experts have developed a completely new approach to water quality management. The new technology, which marries electrochemical profiling with advanced mobile telecommunications know-how, provides clear and reliable water quality information to support and augment established best practice in water quality management. The technology is robust, straightforward and low-maintenance; moreover, the cost is expected to be just a fraction of that of conventional tools.

We are entering a new era in whichwater will be distributed via intelligent water networks and in which water quality will be controlled using artificial intelligence and smart sensors. This new water tech revolution is set to be no less life-changing for the world’s communities than the rapid development of mobile communications was in the latter part of the twentieth century.

E-mail: richard.booth@liqum.com