探索水的世界

Equity ResearchIndustrial Technology August 4, 2025Industry Report Brian Drab, CFA+1 312 364 8280bdrab@williamblair.com Tapping Into the World ofWaterTechnologies and Solutions fora Thirsty World Trevor Sahr+1 312 364 5104tsahr@williamblair.com ContentsContents Executive Summary...........................................................................................................3Introduction and Overview...............................................................................................3The Water Problems..........................................................................................................4Water Scarcity................................................................................................................4Aging Water Infrastructure..........................................................................................10Water Quality and Contamination...............................................................................19Solutions to the Water Problems....................................................................................24Regulatory Environment Overview.................................................................................37The Economics of Water..................................................................................................38Highlighted Industry: Agricultural Irrigation................................................................41Introduction.................................................................................................................41Overview of Agricultural Irrigation Industry..............................................................44Overview of Major Agricultural Irrigation Methods...................................................47Conclusion.......................................................................................................................65 Executive Summary The Water ProblemsThe world continues to contend with widespread problems related to water. In this report, we or- ganize the problems into three categories: water scarcity, aging infrastructure, and water qualityand contamination. The world’s water problems are not new, but they are becoming more urgentwith every passing year—exacerbated by population growth and climate change. UNESCO esti-mates that over 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Trillions of gallons of water leakout of water systems in the United States every year. Water systems servicing about 50% of theU.S. population have detectable levels of PFAS “forever chemicals.” As the global population grows,climate change puts increasing stress on the water supply, and infrastructure continues to age, theneed for solutions to these issues becomes even more pressing. The Potential SolutionsGlobal water problems are being addressed with many different systems and technologies. Solu- tions to water scarcity include converting sea water into drinkable water and collecting condensa-tion from the atmosphere. Companies are using an array of solutions to identify and repair waterinfrastructure. Complex systems are used to purify the most contaminated water. We discuss po-tential solutions in detail and highlight the challenges to implementing them in a highly fragment-ed global industry. We believe the market for water industry solutions exceeds $500 billion andis growing at a mid- to high-single-digit rate. We provide more detailed market size and growthestimates for subsegments of the industry throughout the report. Agricultural IrrigationBecause agricultural irrigation accounts for about 70% of freshwater use globally, we provide a detailed overview of this industry. Public companies in this industry include Lindsay, Orbia, andValmont. Lindsay has the greatest exposure to agricultural irrigation in terms of revenue mix. Relevant Public CompaniesOutside agricultural irrigation, select public companies that generate a significant portion of rev- enue through the provision of solutions to the water problems discussed in this report include Ad-vanced Drainage Systems, A.O. Smith, Badger Meter, Ecolab, Franklin Electric, Itron, Mueller WaterProducts, Pentair, Tetra Tech, Veolia, Veralto, Watts Water, Xylem, and Zurn Elkay Water. Introduction and Overview In this report, we highlight three major and urgent global problems related to water: water scarcity,aging infrastructure, and water quality and contamination. We then discuss potential solutions forthese problems, including a range of methods, products, and technologies. The report also identifiescompanies developing or already providing these solutions. We also outline some of the more signifi-cant regulatory and governance challenges in the water industry. Later, we dedicate a section of thereport to the agricultural irrigation industry, which uses more freshwater than any other industry. Every day, the average American uses about 80 gallons of water, which translates t