Turning over a new leaf
Water Quality comes home…
On the one hand, Leaf Home Water Solutions doesn’t offer anything very new. Water softening and water purification have been available domestically for many years. On the other hand, the attempt to take them mainstream is surely a reaction to water quality issues experienced in the USA in Flint and other cities.
They’re offering “healthy, purified water” whether you’re supplied by the City or a well.
It will be interesting to see how they get on.
15 years ago, the electricity industry was panicked by the idea that generation would go local.
The analogy was the ice industry. It started in 1806 with the New England businessman Frederic Tudor cutting blocks of ice and shipping them to the Caribbean island of Martinique. The trade grew substantially and ice was shipped all around the world. Of course the refrigerator came along and killed the ice trade. Ice making went local.
Generation and storage of electricity have been going local, but not at the rate or to the extent that was feared. The centralised infrastructure for the generation and distribution of electricity remains economically viable.
Could the same happen with water? Will everyone have their own well and water treatment?
It seems unlikely. But it’s possible that local water supply will increase in places where water quality cannot be trusted but is expected to be trusted. Like the USA perhaps… as opposed to places where it isn’t expected to be trusted so people already use and accept the cost of bottled water.