Providing clean water globally remains one of the most vexing problems for humankind. In the United States and Europe, we accomplish this task by investing enormous sums of energy (for water treatment and distribution) and money (for infrastructure, pipes, and large, centralized water treatment plants). At the same time, the world’s biggest public health problem remains the more than a billion people worldwide who lack access to sufficient clean water. Solving this problem while also accounting for the energy and carbon implications raises of water important questions, all of which are relevant both globally and in the central Texas area:

• Will future water systems continue to be comprised of large, centralized water treatment plants and far-flung infrastructure, or will they follow the trend towards smaller, distributed systems in a similar fashion to the energy system?
• What role does renewable energy play for water (for example, can excess wind power in W. Texas be used for water treatment)?
• What technologies on the horizon will reduce the energy requirements of water?
• What innovations are needed?