“比石油更昂贵的将是水”？

“比石油更昂贵的将是水”？

别以为这是玩笑，在不久的将来水资源将会成为比石油更加昂贵的大宗商品？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

agriculture农业；农耕['ægrɪkʌltʃə]

scarcity不足；缺乏['skeəsɪtɪ]

cite引用；传讯[saɪt]

fossil化石的；陈腐的['fɒs(ə)l; -sɪl]

municipal市政的，市的[mjʊ'nɪsɪp(ə)l]

Water set to become more valuable than oil（429 words）

By Andrew Ward in London

Water will become more valuable than oil as rising demand from people,industries and agriculture puts pressure on supplies,according to the chief executive of French utility Suez.

Jean-Louis Chaussade,whose company this month agreed to buy General Electric’s water unit for $3.4bn,said water scarcity posed one of the biggest challenges facing industries such as chemicals,drugs,mining and energy.

Asked whether water would one day be a more valuable commodity than oil,Mr Chaussade told the Financial Times:“In future,probably yes.”

He cited projections that by 2035 some 40 per cent of the world population will live in areas facing water scarcity. This would put companies in competition with people and farming for supplies.

“Governments are saying to industries:‘you can operate here but you can’t take water from underground’,”Mr Chaussade said.“Companies will have to rely on waste water recycling or desalination plants to meet their needs.”

Mr Chaussade said the €95bn market for industrial water services was set to expand at an annual rate of 5 per cent over the long term — outpacing global economic growth of about 3 per cent.

Suez’s investment in the industrial water market contrasts with efforts by its biggest investor,Engie,the French energy group,to exit oil and gas production and coal-fired power generation as the world shifts beyond fossil fuels.

Industrial water provides a bigger opportunity for Suez than its traditional municipal business,he added,as industries account for a fifth of global water use compared with 5 per cent for humans. The rest is used by agriculture.

GE Water helps companies including ExxonMobil,Pfizer and Nestlé manage treatment and consumption of water.

About half of the US company’s revenues come from the US but Mr Chaussade said the strongest growth potential was in developing economies,especially China.“The Chinese people and government will no longer accept new plants being built without proper treatment of waste water,”he added.

GE decided to sell its water unit as part of efforts to head off potential objections from competition regulators to the merger of its oil and gas division with Baker Hughes,a rival oilfield services group which has its own water business serving the energy industry.

Suez agreed to buy the GE unit in partnership with Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec,a Canadian pension fund manager. The French group will own 70 per cent of the joint venture and fold its existing industrial water activities into the business. The JV will have annual revenues of about €2bn,compared with Suez’s 2016 sales of €15.3bn.