Last year, the German water industry succeeded in boosting its exports again. "The industry is in an excellent position to profit from the globally rising demand for sustainable solutions in this area", said Astrid Klug, the parliamentary secretary of state in the Federal Ministry of the Environment, at a conference of the German water industry in Berlin. The industry used the event to take stock of the success achieved by the Innovation and Export Initiative – established one year ago - under the branding name "German Water Partnership".

"Last year showed that it was right to bundle the activities of the export-oriented water industry in the German Water Partnership", said Astrid Klug. "The growth in exports is the result of long years of effort. However, the German Water Partnership will also help to stabilise and augment this result in today's economic crisis."

The water sector is an international market of the future. Experts estimate today's global turnover in the area of water supply and wastewater disposal to be in the range of 250 billion euros. In the coming decade, it is expected to double to around 500 billion euros. In spite of the dramatic decreases in many other sectors, the economic recovery programs implemented all round the world are generating excellent opportunities, especially for medium-sized German companies, to open up new markets even during the crisis.

Not only the industrial nations but also many threshold and developing countries are making enormous sums of money available in order to stimulate their national economies. Immense amounts of finance are to be used, particularly for the expansion and renewal of infrastructure. The United Nations have set themselves the millennium goal of halving the number of people without access to clean drinking water by 2015. To achieve this, facilities for supplying potable water without any health risk have to be created every year for over 80 million people.

The German Water Partnership is a joint initiative of the public and private sector in Germany and now has around 200 members. Industrial companies, government organisations and non-government organisations as well as professional associations are bundling their activities with the aim of making German expertise into a byword all over the world.

Author: Astrid Klug for the German Water Partnership