Insituform Ready To Respond To Global Water Crisis, Industry Survey Says

Survey Cites Years of Neglect and Underinvestment Driving "Tidal Wave of Demand" for Water Infrastructure Technology

Chesterfield, MO — Insituform Technologies, Inc. ranks No. 2 in the world among infrastructure companies positioned to respond to a growing clean water crisis, according to a survey of industry professionals conducted by the ChangeWave Alliance.

ChangeWave reported that the survey ranked Insituform only behind GE as "best positioned in the marketplace over the next 12 months." ChangeWave quoted one survey response as saying, "Demand for [Insituform's] product continues to grow as cities have to repair aging systems and want to minimize the impact on streets."

"A combination of global economic growth and years of neglect are leading to a tidal wave of demand for water infrastructure and various technologies," ChangeWave analyst Joshua Levine concluded. It reported that 81 percent of water industry respondents surveyed predicted that spending on water infrastructure would increase in the next 12 months. "Based on what we learned, the looming water crisis will provide infrastructure companies with huge opportunities due to decades of underinvestment."

The report also cited forecasts "that by 2025 almost two-thirds of the world‘s population will live in countries where water will be a scarce commodity. Climate change could further exacerbate the problem."

"This survey supports what we've been saying for a long time about the need to focus more attention and resources globally to protect clean water and rehabilitate water and sewer lines," said Al Woods, Insituform interim chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Directors. "The universal deterioration of water and sewer lines threatens a worldwide clean water catastrophe that could explode at almost any time. We're seeing more and more incidents ranging from water main breaks that flood streets and neighborhoods to sewage leaks that contaminate drinking water and recreational water sources to vast sinkholes that swallow buildings and people. Reports like this can't help but increase awareness of the problem and hopefully will contribute to efforts to address the problem before it becomes a full-blown crisis."

Insituform is the global leader in water, sewer, and pipeline rehabilitation. The company invented no-dig rehabilitation technology more than 30 years ago. The company's purpose is to enable clean water for the world, and it recently launched a new division, Insituform Blue™, to focus on water products and services.

Among all water-related projects, the survey ranked infrastructure repair and replacement as attracting the most spending over the next two years. In the U.S., survey participants pointed "to the many years of neglect and under-funding, as well as the increasing shortages of potable water and dwindling supplies of groundwater" as creating the need for water spending." More than one in two (52 percent) industry respondents confirm this, reporting that a lack of funding is the biggest barrier to bringing U.S. water grids up to Clean Water Act standards. Another 36 percent cited aging infrastructure as the biggest barrier," ChangeWave reported.

The survey ranked North America and Asia as the top geographical regions for increases in water spending over the next 12 months, with the Middle East a close third.

China ranked as the top country set to experience the largest increase in water spending. One response said, "China is moving into the 21st century very rapidly and expanded cities are sprouting, which require new water and wastewater infrastructure." Another said, "China has the most need, with heavy pollution problems – and wants to improve their image for the 2008 Olympics."

Insituform already has international operations in Asia and plans to continue to expand those operations.

The ChangeWave Alliance describes itself as "a research network of 11,000 business, technology, and medical professionals who spend their everyday lives working on the front line of technological change. ChangeWave surveys its members on targeted research and intelligence topics, collects feedback from them electronically, and converts the information into proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports."

SOURCE: Insituform Technologies