With the rising uncertainty about water availability, a free online tool has been made available to help businesses find out how water scarcity and quality impact their business and bottom lines, enabling them to better prepare for water-related challenges in the future.

The Water Risk Monetizer can help firms quantify the “true value” of water beyond what businesses pay for water consumption, according to Engr. Albert Samuela, director of marketing for Thailand, Indo-China and Philippines of NALCO Water, an Ecolab company.

The easy-to-use tool can help businesses assess water-related risks in financial terms based on readily available information about current water use and production projections at individual facility and enterprise levels, Samuela added.

Samuela, who spoke at a water security forum held recently, said the tool, accessible on www.waterriskmonetizer.com, was developed by Ecolab and powered by Microsoft and Trucost.

“The relatively low price of water often means the risks associated with its use are overlooked. The Water Risk Monetizer helps you assess water-related business risks in order to understand the gap between what your business pays for water and the potential costs of water risks to your business,” according to the website.

“The tool provides valuable information to drive informed, long-term business strategy for companies that rely on freshwater resources. Applying principles of water risk assessment to investment decisions will help ensure that companies are ahead of the curve,” the website further explained.

Specifically, the tool can be used to calculate incoming water risks. That is, it calculates the monetary value of the impacts of incoming water use on human health and ecosystems and the future costs of incoming water treatment.

It also calculates outgoing water risk, putting a monetary value on the impacts of outgoing water pollution on human health and ecosystems and the future costs of water treatment.

At the same time, it can calculate the potential revenue at risk by assessing the monetary value of the impacts of water availability based on water required to do business.

To use the tool, the user first needs to create a user profile and enter certain required information.

The resulting data can then be utilized to assess the impact of declining water quantity and quality on operations, providing companies “actionable information” they can factor into their business decisions to reduce the potential impact of such risks and enable growth.

“The information provided by the Water Risk Monetizer can be used to help businesses around the world better understand water risks and the potential cost implications of water quantity and quality at a particular facility. The data provides valuable information to help assess different business models, determine how water costs or scarcity may affect growth plans and help inform business goals,” Samuela said.