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oday is UN World Water Day, and it is followed tomorrow by Earth Hour. As someone in the business of water, I hope that business leaders, government planners and infrastructure experts in Indonesia will think about water on Friday, about energy on Saturday and then about both for the rest of the year.

Given the worldwide focus on these pressing environmental concerns, it is important to note the inter-relationship of water and energy. Water is a fuel, vital for business and every bit as critical to moving our economy forward as energy.

Almost a quarter of the world’s limited water supply is already used by industry, and industrial use of water in Indonesia will only grow as the economy continues to develop.

A lot of consciousness around water use relates to direct use of water in our homes.

Yet, only 12 percent of water is consumed domestically in Indonesia. The remainder is used by agriculture and industry.

Efforts to extend the utility of each drop of water on the individual level should be applauded, but, speaking as a business leader, I believe there is an opportunity to make a difference by paying more attention to water that we use for industry.

By looking at the supply chain and industry’s total water impacts in a holistic manner, big gains, big savings, can be made by Indonesian businesses in years to come.

Fortunately, boardroom attitudes to water are changing globally. Water is serious business, especially if there’s too little (or too much). Many of tomorrow’s successful businesses will be those that can capitalize on changing water availability, measure and manage their water use and manage the risks that water shortage (or excess) can pose to their supply chains.

The Carbon Disclosure Project’s Global Water Report 2012 articulates the concerns and challenges facing many large, global companies: “When we view water as a shared resource that we do not own, and not as a compliance or efficiency issue, longer-term and more effective solutions are generated that solve a host of related issues for various stakeholders.”

One of those issues is that we as a world are getting thirstier. Water use is outpacing population growth, rapid in and of itself. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN-Water, we are using our water at more than twice the rate of population increase during the last century.

This thirst has been driven by global trends such as increased migration to cities and rising demand for more and varied goods and services.

As Asia’s manufacturing base swells to supply those goods and services, so does industry’s thirst for water. Columbia University estimated that industry’s use of water in Asia will increase by 65 percent by 2030, and we’re likely to see similar trends in Indonesia.

Electricity production also plays a major role. Large quantities of water are typically required in power
production.

But the goal of using more water efficient technologies at many of the conventional power plants already in operation, however, could produce significant gains for electricity producers in Indonesia. Seemingly trivial reductions in water use can multiply to substantial savings when aggregated.

Around the world, we’re seeing this happen. We helped Eskom, which generates approximately 95 percent of South Africa’s electricity, adopt air-cooled condensers as an alternative over traditional water-cooling techniques at its 4,800 megawatts Kusile power plant.

When completed, it will be one of the largest power plants in the world using air-cooling technology and save approximately 327,000 cubic meters per day of water — more than 130 Olympic-sized swimming pools — through this one innovation.

Reuse is another way the manufacturing sector could make a big impact on their water consumption. Many industrial players, including power producers, should look seriously at closed loop applications, where systems retain and reuse hot water, steam, or cold water for a variety of alternative uses.

Real, long-term operational savings can be reaped from limited capital investments.

Recent advances in membrane technology also mean high-quality recycled water could be an option for many future, specialized manufacturers in Indonesia.

The close connection between water and energy is also providing new ideas. The beverage industry is beginning to harness biogas, like many water utilities in the wastewater treatment process, to generate heat and energy to power the process from the process itself.

I believe it is useful to think of water as not just another resource that needs to be conserved but as another source of energy, a fuel, that can be developed. In the same way that wires can channel electricity efficiently, so water can channel energy.

So, after thinking about how we individually can conserve water and energy on World Water Day and Earth Hour, we should focus on how industry can harness the effective use of water to achieve energy benefits.

The writer is head of business development and strategy, South Asia Pacific for Black & Veatch’s global water business. The views expressed are personal.