In the coming decades, humanity will face a projected water deficit of up to 40% by 2030 if decisive action is not taken. Each prolonged drought exposes the fragility of systems based on surface water sources, and every year millions of cubic meters are lost due to a lack of resilient infrastructure. In the United States, Texas symbolizes this urgency: more than half of its counties suffer severe or extreme drought, and the cost of water has risen by more than 30% in the last decade. In this scenario, Alice, in Jim Wells County, chose not to wait for the crisis to reach it but to lead the transition toward water independence and long-term security.
The opportunity arises from an abundant but underutilized resource: brackish aquifers. These reservoirs, with a storage potential equivalent to decades of urban demand, become a strategic source when reverse osmosis technology transforms otherwise unusable water into a safe and constant supply. With an initial investment of USD 5.5 million from the State Revolving Fund, the city launched the first phase of the desalination project. The second phase raises the stakes through the adoption of a Water-as-a-Service® model under a public-private partnership, transferring construction, operation, and maintenance risks to the private sector while ensuring a stable price per thousand gallons produced.
This will be the first brackish water desalination project under a P3 Model in Texas, a precedent that redefines how municipalities confront climate change. The plant, with a capacity of 2.7 MGD (≈10,220 m³/day) using BWRO (Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis) technology, will generate a volume equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 20,000 people, or the supply of an entire medium-sized city in South Texas. This impact not only ensures safe and affordable water but also positions Alice as a benchmark for water resilience and Water Positive management, with volumetric benefits verifiable under the VWBA methodology and aligned with the principles of additionality, traceability, and intentionality required globally. Digital traceability and external verification will ensure that every cubic meter accounted for directly contributes to reducing the local water deficit, while also supporting the SDGs and strengthening collaborative governance in the basin.
Beyond water security, Alice positions itself as an example of how municipalities can innovate in the face of the climate crisis, integrating technology, financing, and sustainable management.
The project in Alice, Texas, responds to an unprecedented technical and strategic opportunity: converting previously unusable brackish aquifers into a safe and constant source of drinking water through a BWRO plant. The facility, with a capacity of 2.7 MGD (≈10,220 m³/day), produces volumes equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 20,000 people, reducing the need to import costly water and easing pressure on freshwater aquifers. The immediate impact is continuity of urban service, reduced health risks associated with poor-quality water, and substitution of vulnerable sources with a stable and resilient supply.
The initiative moves forward thanks to initial public financing and an innovative public-private partnership model with specialized operators, who assume construction, operation, and maintenance risks. This scheme not only ensures technical efficiency and cost stability but also creates a replicable precedent for other arid cities in the southern U.S. and globally. In the short term, the benefit is guaranteed affordable and reliable water; in the medium term, municipal water independence; and in the long term, strengthened climate resilience and public health.
The underlying problem, the growing salinity and overexploitation of conventional aquifers, stems from the lack of resilient infrastructure, rising demand, and regulatory limitations for diversifying sources. This project offers the solution by transforming an environmental liability into a strategic asset. Companies with ambitious sustainability and ESG goals can lead this model, gaining not only visibility and competitive differentiation but also alignment with emerging water stewardship regulations and the Water Positive principles of additionality, traceability, and intentionality
The implementation of the solution is structured to address both risks and technical and strategic objectives. The chosen technology is a BWRO plant equipped with next-generation membranes, advanced pretreatment systems, and online digital monitoring, selected after evaluating alternatives such as new surface water intakes or conventional treatment plants, which were discarded due to lower efficiency and greater vulnerability to droughts. With a capacity of 2.7 MGD (≈10,220 m³/day), the plant represents a hybrid gray-digital solution that combines physical and chemical processes with digital control, ensuring stable production of potable water under EPA and WHO standards.
The project addresses the growing salinity and overexploitation of conventional aquifers, providing resilience against the climatic variability of the Nueces River basin. This solution was chosen for its energy efficiency, competitive cost per m³ produced, replicability, and regulatory compliance. Quantifiable benefits include the regeneration of millions of cubic meters of potable water per year, reduced use of pretreatment chemicals, lower emissions associated with water transportation, and substantial improvements in distributed water quality. It also provides social benefits such as public health assurance, supply security, and skilled job creation, and economic benefits such as reduced supply costs and access to ESG certifications and recognition.
Identified risks include technological failures, hydrological variability, social acceptance, and saline intrusion risks. To mitigate them, the plant will incorporate operational redundancies, contingency plans, shared governance with the community, and strict protocols to prevent critical failures, including saline intrusion monitoring and continuous quality control. In the long term, resilience is ensured through an adaptive operational model, preventive and predictive maintenance, and external verification of benefits under VWBA, guaranteeing additionality, traceability, and intentionality. Finally, the project is scalable and replicable in other arid regions of the U.S. and worldwide, provided favorable regulatory frameworks and public-private partnerships exist, positioning it as a competitive and visionary solution to the global water crisis.
Project implementation follows an adaptive approach and is organized into clearly defined phases. The first phase involves diagnosis and baseline assessment, including hydrochemical characterization of aquifers, flow modeling, and future demand scenarios. This stage also establishes the baseline reference for water quantity and quality, losses, and emissions, against which benefits will be compared. The second phase covers the design and construction of the BWRO plant, incorporating scalable and redundant modules, advanced pretreatment systems, and control equipment such as flow meters, quality probes, and IoT sensors connected to a SCADA platform. The nominal capacity will be 2.7 MGD (≈10,220 m³/day), with an expected recovery rate above 80%. The third phase consists of commissioning and technical and environmental validation through external audits, applying VWBA 2.0 methodologies to verify volumetric benefits and compare with- and without-project scenarios.
During continuous operation, real-time monitoring of flows, energy consumption, quality parameters, and carbon footprint will be conducted, with automatic daily reports and periodic audits. Physical traceability is ensured from extraction to distribution, while digital traceability is managed through an IoT platform that integrates early warning systems and deviation reports. External validation protocols will be applied by independent verifiers. Governance involves the technical operator, local beneficiaries, external verifiers, and regulatory authorities, with clear roles in operation, maintenance, monitoring, and validation.
The maintenance plan includes preventive and corrective activities, supported by technical redundancies and contingency plans for critical failures or hydrological variability. Identified risks, technological failures, saline intrusion, or social acceptance, are mitigated with redundancies, shared governance, and strict quality protocols. Finally, the system integrates continuous improvement mechanisms through data feedback, technological upgrades, and process adjustments, ensuring the permanence of benefits over time and the ability to replicate the model in other basins under appropriate technical and regulatory conditions.
The main intervention consists of constructing and operating a Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis (BWRO) plant to produce high-quality drinking water from local brackish aquifers. Technically, the process involves underground extraction, physical-chemical pretreatment, filtration, passage through high-efficiency membranes, remineralization, and final disinfection, ensuring a nominal flow of 2.7 MGD (≈10,220 m³/day). The infrastructure integrates digital control and monitoring systems and complies with EPA, WHO, and U.S. legislation on potable water and environmental safety.
This solution is relevant because it addresses the growing salinity and overexploitation of the Nueces River basin’s freshwater aquifers. Before the project, the city relied on limited and vulnerable sources; afterward, it will have a resilient and secure supply. The plant is suitable in this hydrological and social context because it transforms an abundant but unusable resource into a strategic source of potable water, contributing to climate resilience and public health.
Concrete results include the annual regeneration of millions of m³ of safe water, a significant reduction in contaminants such as total dissolved solids and specific salts, lower emissions associated with imported water transportation, and improved water security for more than 20,000 residents. Additionally, the project generates social benefits such as reliable water access, reduced waterborne diseases, and local specialized job creation.
Strategically, the project aligns with the Water Positive roadmap by quantifying volumetric benefits with VWBA and ensuring additionality, traceability, and intentionality. It offers tangible ESG benefits such as social license to operate, enhanced reputation, competitive differentiation, and compliance with global frameworks such as SBTi, NPWI, SDGs, and ESRS E3.
The model is replicable in other arid basins in the U.S. and worldwide where brackish aquifers exist, supported by adequate regulatory frameworks and public-private cooperation. Its scalability relies on alliances with technical operators, local communities, and governments, which facilitate technology transfer and financing.
The ultimate expected impact is a net positive contribution to the basin’s water balance, strengthened resilience to climate change, job creation, and community well-being. Strategically, the project sends a clear message to investors, clients, and society: it is possible to transform an environmental liability into a regenerative asset that leads the transition toward a sustainable and resilient water economy.
