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BILL RADKE: H2O is a commodity that’s projected to get more scarce. Industries that rely heavily on water are trying to adapt. Now, a beer company has come up with the idea of a floating brewery.

The BBC’s Rebecca Singer reports.

REBECCA SINGER: Making beer uses a lot of water — more than a gallon of H2O is needed on average to make just 1 quart of beer. But a recent study estimates the amount of water available across the globe could fall by 40 percent in the next 20 years. So the brewer of Miller Beer has been looking at ways it could carry on its business in those circumstances.

Andy Wales is the head of sustainable development at SABMiller and says a brewery on a ship is a realistic option.

ANDY WALES: You’d plug it in at a dock and get water, you’d be able to plug it into energy or you may even be able to use things like solar power, or wind or other energy sources on the ship. And then you’d brew beer, bottle it and send it out into the local market.

Wales says it could also be moved between different countries, which would be particularly useful in reaching new customers and adapting to seasonal demand.

And if there’s not enough local water available then the ship would also be able to use desalinated ocean water.

In London, I’m the BBC’s Rebecca Singer for Marketplace.