Water, states the EnvironmentalIndicators.com, can cause environmental, thus economic, problems. “On the environmental side, high consumption places stress on rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers, and may require dams and flooding with serious ecological impacts. As well, the discharge of polluted water once it has been used damages aquatic ecosystems. (Meanwhile, on) the economic side, high levels of water use require ever- increasing and expensive investments in water system infrastructure needed to gather, deliver and dispose of water (dams, reservoirs, water treatment facilities, distribution networks and sewage treatment).”

This is why, just as it ranked 29 nations in their water consumption (See Figure 1), it stresses the need to take caution when using water. For example, “Canada uses 1,600 cubic meters of water per person per year – this is more than twice as much water as the average person from France, three times as much as the average German, almost four times as much as the average Swede, and more than eight times as much as the average Dane,” the Web site states. Only a “more conscious” approach to use of water can remedy this.

With this need, too, is why GE Water & Process Technologies (GEW&PT), one of GE’s (General Electric) diversified businesses, “spends millions of dollars to improve technological methods so that our supplies (of water) are stretched much further, promoting sustainability energy savings and the preservation of our freshwater habitats.” More specifically, it is “developing better ways for water reuse, waste water treatment, and process solutions for GEW&PT.” “GEW&PT incorporates a number of GE’s imagination breakthroughs,” says Willie Elumba, GEW&PT country manager for the Philippines. “From desalination to cooling water solutions, mobile water to petrochemical solutions, and water recovery boiler solutions, our company delivers a wide variety of products and services.”

Indeed, GEW&PT boasts a broad portfolio of water and process technologies, so that it is “the customers’ single source no matter what their water or process need,” Elumba adds.

Aside from protecting the environment, GEW&PT likewise helps improve their customers’ efficiency through the technologies they offer. As a full-service company, it takes charge of their clients’ water and process treatments, processes, drives down costs and boosts profits. Some of the industries GEW&PT serves include beverage, chemical processing, food processing, commercial and institutional, hydrocarbon processing, pharmaceutical and power. “Imagine if these industries weren’t using efficient water technologies – they would have used up a big chunk of the earth’s water resources. Our people at GEW&PT understand our customers; their businesses and the challenges that they face every day,” Elumba says. “This is why we constantly expand our list of water solutions.”

GEW&PT has a commitment to develop and bring to the market, technologies that promote energy efficiency, lower harmful emissions, increase supplies of water and reduce our use of fossil fuel. “We call these ecomagination. GE’s ecomagination technologies and solutions help customers solve water quality and water scarcity demands,” Elumba says.

GE Water Philippines has a total of 28 employees, from the sales team down to field service representatives, customer service staff and senior managers. Globally, GEW&PT has 8,000 employees, with revenues of over $2.5 billion per year, and still growing significantly.