Coastal Water Resilience Using Constant Water Systems

Assuring Potable Water for Families, Businesses, and Healthcare Facilities During Disaster Events

THE PROBLEM:  More than 30% of the world’s population lives in coastal communities and is severely affected by various disaster scenarios resulting in frequent, sustained power and water loss or water contamination.  

Common to every disaster is the essential need for sufficient quantities of potable water for victims and for facilities serving victims until critical water infrastructures are restored or alternative water delivery can be accomplished in a timely, cost-effective way.

Planning for, storing, and timing distribution of potable water solutions just prior to an imminent disaster is inefficient, expensive, and can add additional levels of chaos conflicting with other preparation or evacuation efforts. 

Post disaster, providing potable water to victims will likely not be accomplished in time to meet critical early emergency requirements and will come at exorbitant costs for acquisition, transportation, and distribution.  Additionally, local conditions after the disaster can prevent first-responder distribution of water to those needing it most.

Beyond coastal threats, other natural disasters around the world, such
as wildfires, earthquakes, and flooding, also leave victims in dire need of emergency potable water.

THE SOLUTION:  The best solution is one that leverages the existing water infrastructures to the greatest extent and minimizes the requirement for immediate post-disaster intervention by external organizations—having potable emergency water in place before a disaster. 

We manufacture such a solution in Constant Water—a simple, reliable, easy to install means of ensuring a supply of potable water to a home or commercial building during any “water out” scenario.   Our system is on the market, installed in homes in several states, and has a record of success on both public and private water systems. 

Constant Water’s combination of a battery-powered control unit and flow-through water storage tank provides an assured quantity of potable emergency water for consumption and sanitation/hygiene, under pressure throughout the home or facility, during the most critical time of a disaster— when response may be days from arrival.

While designed for installation before a disaster event, our systems can also be deployed after the event, rapidly installed, and filled (or replenished) with bulk water delivery vehicles for pennies on the gallon. This is a significant capability where extensive water infrastructure damage or protracted water source contamination prevent the use of public and private water sources.

THE IMPACT: Our systems can assure victims of disaster events potable water when it is most needed—the immediate period after the event.  Using internationally accepted per person emergency water requirements, even our smallest system (40-gallon) can provide ten days of potable emergency water for a family of four and our larger 80- and 120-gallon systems can provide potable water for consumption and additional water for basic sanitation/hygiene to can help prevent the spread of disease and water-borne illnesses regularly accompanying disaster events. 

And our system, with its proven record, represents a low-risk solution than can begin providing water resilience to entire communities in months, not years.

Constant Water’s innovativeness is its ability to ensure the availability of potable water during any crisis scenario or recovery effort by leveraging the existing water infrastructure. 

This is a much more effective and cost-efficient approach than storing water or water systems for deployment prior to a crisis.  

Constant Water systems:

• activate automatically with the loss of power
• require no generator
• allow manual activation for non-power related water outages
• continually refresh the reserve water supply
• prevent airborne contamination of the water reserve supply
• connect to any filter/purification system

Disasters yield challenging conditions, and we developed Constant Water for reliability in the harshest environments. 

The control unit uses commercial-off-the-shelf components, and the tank is a common well system product only slightly modified to meet operational requirements.  

The tank is refillable via bulk potable water delivery at a cost of pennies per gallon and can accept the output of any filter/purification system.

Supplemental solar power extends the system's operation for protracted recovery efforts.

Future technologies could include smart phone apps monitoring tank water volume and for reporting to centralized databases monitoring disaster conditions and water needs.

Our near-term goals are to achieve sales of 350 units direct to end-users focusing on the states in the eastern U.S. and along the Gulf coast.

We are looking for opportunities to conduct a large scale proof-of-concept demonstration allowing us to highlight the effectiveness of this approach and the cost savings to local, state, and federal government emergency response departments and agencies. 

We are also seeking capital funding for marketing and sales staff
with experience and credibility in plumbing, well drilling, and disaster
planning/response fields.

Our vision is for Constant Water systems to be:

• a standard installation with new home construction
• integrated in the coastal community building codes as a required water resilience system
• recognized as the standard for disaster preparedness and disaster relief/recovery efforts
• recognized for contributions to increasing hygiene practices and disease reductions in developing countries

Most importantly, we want Constant Water to be recognized for improving and saving lives.

While we have employed significant print advertising, we found our customer acquisition approach best accomplished with a web-based, social media approach. 

Digital methods allow us to target our message in those areas that are disaster prone, at risk of a pending disaster, or in the recovery period after a disaster.  We will continue to advertise in key industry/trade journals focusing on disaster preparedness and response.  

Our web site has integrated e-commerce capability, and we employ a capable and respected logistics consolidator to coordinate product transportation to anywhere in the world.

We have system sales in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Utah, and Texas.  Constant Water systems are being used:

• by families on private water well systems at risk of power failure due to storms, flooding and wildfires
• on farms ensuring water for livestock
• by plumbing/well professionals as a source of water during extended system repairs
• as a supplement to low-flow water wells that run out of water during high demand periods
• in response to the loss of public water systems
• in homes caring for or preparing to care for aging parents or special needs children

We will focus on the U.S. market while exploring opportunities to support international efforts.  Fifty percent of the private water well market resides east of the Mississippi River, and more than 28 million homes reside in coastal counties along the eastern and Gulf coasts. 

Our goal is to expand our marketing and sales along the eastern/gulf coast states where hurricanes represent a significant and recurring risk. 

We are exploring options for additional capital that will be used primarily for sales and marketing staff with sales goals of 300 units by mid 2019 and 12,000 units by 2021.

The company is a member-managed LLC with three members.  We enhance the core team with a multidisciplinary team of specialty engineers and other support and logistical personnel as needed.

We are in a “just add financial water” state with a first-to-market position, a U.S. patent, inventory and sales, and solid back office processes.

We have established manufacturers that ensure product quality and reliability, and have supply chains that can support robust growth.

We have front-page coverage in two state-wide industry journals, tremendous coverage in local media, and have been highlighted in national/international periodicals.

Ours is a for-profit model with both on-line sales revenue and wholesale revenue via sales to plumbing and well drilling professionals.  Constant Water offers discounts to plumbing and well drilling professionals as incentive to actively promote the system to their customers. We are also being closely monitored by a number of national/international industry distributors.

We have a solid group of manufacturers with the expertise and capacity to scale that will allow us to grow quickly and with minimal risk.  These manufacturers, both in the U.S. and China, have been solid partners during the development of Constant Water and have offered significant discounts with larger order quantities.

The U.S. manufacturer of our system tanks also has manufacturing facilities in Asia which will reduce transportation costs for opportunities overseas.

We partner with a strong and respected logistics coordinator capable of handling shipments to anywhere in the world.

Our systems currently qualify for a Medical Home Improvement Tax Deduction, and we see a solid path to placement on the Medicare Durable Medical Equipment List.

The challenges associated with Coastal regions and communities are significant, and Constant Water is in a solid position to enhance the resilience of these communities. While sales to individual homes is encouraging, our approach is more effective and cost-efficient when deployed in a community-wide approach.

Recognition by Solve, and Solve's willingness to assist and promote more effective resilience approaches, will open the doors to large, community-wide, proof-of-concept projects that will validate the life-saving benefits to families and the cost benefits to those tasked with disaster relief and recovery.   

Our greatest barrier has been access to both government entities and national/international non-profits whose goals could be enhanced by the awareness of the availability and capability of innovative approaches and products.  

Additionally, media coverage that can reach broad stakeholder audiences is difficult for small companies to penetrate.  Solve can help expose our system and capabilities much more broadly.

We are confident that selection by Solve would allow critical access to operational decision makers and to capital resource entities with which we can deploy our systems in support of water/disaster resilience activities.