Kamakshi Sharma, director of marketing and strategy for water technology company Aquatech International, shares her views on data-driven decision making, sustaining sustainability and turning water technology into a service.

Q: What are the biggest issues driving the need for change in water management today?

A: Water scarcity and increasing water-related issues have been major challenges for industries and municipalities, driving the need to do more with less. At the same time, wastewater is becoming more challenging to treat with the emergence of new materials.

However, what is changing is the conversation around implementing ESG — environmental, social and governance — goals. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are helping guide the conversation on corporate sustainability and bringing water to the forefront as a critical resource — enabling companies to find a balance between operational and sustainability goals.

As such, the conversation is moving away from just reducing water consumption towards becoming water positive by finding ways in which organizations can "generate" water to put back into the ecosystem or into their processes.

Now is an opportunity to change. We can create something great; we can look for solutions and be more sustainable as a result. 

Q: With customers on this sustainability journey, what kind of solutions are they looking for?

A: As customers look to reduce their water footprint, they want to use minimal or zero liquid discharge (MLD/ZLD), desalination, wastewater treatment and other innovative technologies to help reduce freshwater usage.

Chemicals can stress the environment and cause harm downstream, putting pressure on customers to reduce their chemical consumption. So, we are also working with our customers to provide technologies that help reduce this chemical consumption too.

For example, our FEDI fractional electrodeionization technology, used to produce high purity water, replaces the need for mixed bed deionization, eliminating the need to use and handle hazardous chemicals typically required for resin regeneration.

Customers also want to make empowered, smart, decisions that benefit their operations and the environment. That comes through data-driven decision-making that can optimize their operations and resource use.

This enables more reliability, sustainability, understanding, prediction and peace of mind. (责任编辑：Alice Lee)