Global demand for water treatment products will increase by 6.4 percent annually, reaching $40 billion by 2011, according to a recent study.

Global demand for water treatment products will increase by 6.4 percent annually, reaching $40 billion by 2011, according to a study recently published by the Cleveland-based research firm The Freedonia Group Inc.

“Advances will be particularly strong in the developing world, with countries such as China and India registering growth more than double the global average,” the report notes. The North American market will grow at a rate of 5.3 percent per year, a figure unchanged from that region’s annual rate in the period 2001 to 2006.

Growth in the developing world will be spurred by, among other reasons, the introduction of municipal water treatment to previously unserved populations. Water treatment product gains in more established markets, such as North America, will be due to introduction of new technologies, “including wider use of higher-end membranes in desalination and other applications, specialty chemicals in industrial water treatment, and easier-to-use products for recreational water treatment.”

The study encompasses chemical and non-chemical water treatment products. It estimates that annual growth rates of the market from 2006 through 2011 will range from 4.0 percent in Western Europe to 9.2 percent in the Asia/Pacific region.

The complete study, “World Water Treatment Products,” is priced at $5,800; more information about it is available at www.freedoniagroup.com.