Mick, You Can't Always Get (Clean Water) for Free

In 2001, Mick Jagger released "God Gave Me Everything." It’s a high-energy anthem of rock-star optimism where he sings:

"The water's free, the air is free / God gave me everything I want."

It’s a great hook. It’s also an economic fantasy that hasn't aged well.

In the twenty-five years since that song hit the airwaves, the world has entered a state of "water bankruptcy." We are staring down a massive global supply deficit by 2030 and a $58 trillion economic dependency on clean water molecules.

Mick was riding high on the "Infinite Resource" myth—the idea that water is a gift from the sky that just happens to show up at your tap. But as we navigate the industrial realities of 2026, we have to face a hard truth: Water was never free. We just never looked at the real bill.

The Myth of the Infinite Molecule

When we treat water as a "free" resource, we ignore the massive industrial complex required to make it usable for the modern world. God provides the rain, but God doesn’t provide the reverse-osmosis membranes to clean our water to potability standards. God doesn’t fund the $1.2 billion desalination plants or the thousands of miles of piping required to move water from where it is to where it’s needed.

When Mick sang those lyrics, we were living on the "legacy" of 100-year-old water infrastructure, 2000 year old water systems. We were drinking for free on our ancestors' dime. But far more dangerously, we were drinking our children’s future. While we were busy treating water as an infinite freebie, the real bills were accumulating underground, out of sight. Today, 70% of the world’s global aquifers are in long-term, structural decline. We are no longer just consuming the water that falls from the sky; we are actively mining "fossil water"—ancient, subterranean reserves that took millennia to accumulate, drained in a matter of decades. From the over-drafted Central Valley in California to Mexico City, Bengalaru, Tehran and depleting basins globally, we have treated prehistoric natural bank accounts like a checking account with overdraft protection.

Today, that legacy has run dry. The physics have caught up with the fantasy. If we want water for our cities, our food systems, and our energy transition, we have to stop treating hydrology like an infinite "vibe" and start treating it like a bankable asset. We must build the market infrastructure to commodify water, driving capital directly to the infrastructure that protects it through rigorous verification at source.

The "Truth Tax" for the 2026 Economy

In the 2026 economy, the demand for water isn't just about thirst—it’s about thermodynamics. Some examples:

• The Hydrogen Nexus: You cannot create "Green Hydrogen" without high-purity water. While the opportunity is significant with regard to Green Hydrogen's potential - both economically due to US tax incentives (IRS 45V), a social responsibility, or market demand perspective - it take 9 L of of water, to create 1 Kg of Hydrogen. To unlock these massive opportunities, water supplies must be secured.

• The AI Surge: You cannot cool a multi-billion dollar data centers without a constant, verified stream of liquid. Significant work continues by the hyperscalers to shift to recycled water for cooling (Amazon as an example), or dry cooling or hybrid closed systems. (Reuters article, Google video) That being said, there is no magic bullet yet to satisfy the AI demand, while remaining consistent with water positive goals or trading off water for energy consumption.

  

• These are just two industrial examples, pulled from recent headlines - but pick your industry - as you dive in, you will learn more about that industry's demand for water.

For these sectors, "free" water is actually a liability. If you are an ESG-mandated corporate buyer, you can’t just point to a river and claim victory. You need a verified impact that proves the water you consume or discharge is actually delivering circularity or additionality.  You need to know that your investment isn't just "greenwashing," but is actually moving the needle on basin-level scarcity. This is the "Truth Tax." It is the necessary cost of verification, data integrity, and market architecture. Without it, capital stays on the sidelines. With it, we can finally mobilize the trillions in private capital that have already transformed the renewable energy sector.

And the hopeful news is - just as the world's need is reaching critical proportions - the technology to dramatically shift the landscape of water availability is reaching production maturity - whether that be waste water remediation or desalinization or atmospheric water generation - the technologies are there. All that is missing is the capital.

Building the Infrastructure of Trust

At Kreneon, we aren't building pipes; we are building the market infrastructure to commodify water. We are moving the world away from Mick’s 2001 optimism and into a 2026 reality where "Device Truth" replaces manual audits. By capturing at-source verification from production devices and committing it to the ledger, we turn a "free" (and therefore unvalued) molecule into a standardized, bankable unit of value. Mick Jagger famously told us that "You can't always get what you want." In the water sector, that’s only true if we continue to ignore the price of the infrastructure.

If we want a resilient water future, we have to be real and pay the Truth Tax. We have to build the market. Because while I can agree that the sun is still free, clean, industrial-grade water is not. The water infrastructure needed to support our future certainly is not.