In the middle of California's worsening drought, a startup is turning to the ocean floor for answers.
Water technology company OceanWell is building subsea desalination pods that it says can convert saltwater into drinkable water at scale, offering a potential lifeline for regions under extreme water stress.
Global Water Scarcity Creates Urgency
More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organization, while half of the global population experiences water scarcity for at least part of the year. The organization estimates that by 2030, as many as 700 million people could be displaced due to drought, with conflict over water resources already worsening humanitarian crises in Syria and Sudan.
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"Water is one of the few things for which there is no substitute. It's also the most widely used commodity in the world. Nobody can live for three days without water," OceanWell CEO Robert Bergstrom told Inc.
Los Angeles-based OceanWell is working with the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Southern California to launch its first commercial water farm, a project the company says will be operational in 2028. The region is its initial focus due to recurring droughts, shrinking groundwater basins, and its reliance on imports from the Colorado River.
How OceanWell's Pods Work Beneath the Sea
Traditional desalination plants rely on reverse osmosis, a process that forces seawater through membranes under high pressure to remove salt and minerals, producing drinkable water and a brine byproduct. According to Water HQ, around half of Saudi Arabia's water supply and 50% of the United Arab Emirates' supply came from desalination plants in 2023.
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Sergio Salinas Rodríguez, head of the water supply sanitation environmental engineering department at the Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, told Inc. that reverse osmosis "is the best available technology at the moment for desalination" in terms of investment, production, and water quality.
OceanWell says its subsea approach harnesses natural ocean pressure to power reverse osmosis, lowering energy consumption by up to 40% compared with land-based desalination plants. The company adds that each pod can produce at least 1 million gallons of freshwater daily, and clusters of pods can be scaled into water farms large enough to supply entire cities.
Unlike conventional plants that require large onshore facilities, OceanWell's subsea pods are described by the company as "effectively invisible," eliminating the need for coastal plants while preserving landscapes and ecosystems. The company also claims climate resilience benefits, saying its pods remain protected from floods, algae blooms, and severe weather events because they operate at depth.
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Environmental Impact and Growth Plans
A frequent criticism of desalination is concentrated brine, which can damage marine ecosystems when discharged back into the ocean, Inc. reported.
OceanWell says its technology avoids this problem by releasing only slightly saltier water that disperses naturally into the sea. The company's LifeSafe system is designed to protect marine organisms by preventing impingement and allowing microscopic life to pass unharmed.
"We're leaving marine life in the ocean, and we're not changing its pressure or any of its conditions," Bergstrom told Inc.
OceanWell was founded in 2019 and currently employs 13 people. The company has raised about $14 million and expects its upcoming Series B funding round to double or triple that amount, Inc. says. According to its mission statement, OceanWell aims to add 1.2 billion cubic meters of affordable, environmentally sustainable freshwater to the global supply within a decade.
"I chose water almost 30 years ago because I did my research, and the trends were just inexorable. We are going to be in deep, deep trouble. I'm trying to find a way to help us. And it's been tough, but damn it, it's working," Bergstrom told Inc.
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