In Western Europe the first signs of spring are appearing. Longer daylight hours and warming air temperatures are encouraging flowers, as well as humans, to emerge from their winter slumber. All would seem normal with the world, but our relief at the end of winter doesn’t mask the fact that the deep, hard and cold winter of the past didn’t happen this year, again. A few days of ice and snow, yes, but as an old friend and keen skier, said to me the other day: “This year winter was on Sunday”.

While scientists and policy makers are working to convince themselves, and the wider public, that action to combat climate change is urgently needed, the remarkable 2016 – 2017 winter season has manifested itself foremost in the extreme deviations of the North Pole temperature and limited extension of the pack-ice. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recent report* has shown that this season’s North Pole winter “head-waves” are highly unusual. It is unlikely the North Pole ice will grow to even close to the average extension.

The consequence of this phenomenon is far-reaching. In the absence of a strong difference in winter temperature between mid- and northern latitudes, extreme fluctuations in temperatures and weather patterns are to be expected at mid-latitudes. This is likely to result in warm-air moving north quickly, and cold air coming from the polar-regions heading south rapidly for brief periods, resulting in large swings in weather conditions on a more frequent basis.

The implications for water management are significant, as infrastructure-design is based on average hydrological conditions taking into account certain margins of difference. Dikes are designed and built taking into account the expected frequency of extreme events. Water supply storage is calibrated to match the frequency of replenishing reservoirs and aquifers with water demand. More extreme events, well beyond what is taken into account for infrastructure design, creates major uncertainty and is likely to result in more damage to infrastructure, economies and livelihoods.

The increasing frequency of severe climatic events means we face a difficult and costly recovery and rebuilding every time one of these ‘epics’ takes place. This is where resilience becomes critical. In the face of more frequent and extreme conditions, how are we going to design, build and operate the infrastructure that is fit for purpose? What else is needed to build resilience in relation to water resources and water services management? The latest issue of the IWA’s “The Source” magazine** provides new insights and foresights with its special focus on resilience and updates you on what this means for the water sector.

To be more resilient, water infrastructure development and operations has to take a portfolio approach, combining and aggregating a variety of water supply and demand interventions. This implies first, a need to focus on reducing water use through major water user and allocation efficiency. It requires us to create storage from catchment to user level, both above ground and underground. We need to look at alternative supplies from wastewater re-use, desalination and rainwater harvesting. And we need to replenish aquifers, restore water sources and wetlands: all providing critical support to resilient water management.

The ability of societies to re-bound and re-build is, however, limited. Beyond the infrastructure response, we need natural, technical, social, financial, and political capital to build resilience in the face of growing uncertainty. While this is increasingly understood, our response is not quick enough. The urgency felt by scientists and policy makers needs to be translated into action today: we don’t have ten years to wait.

* http://library.wmo.int/opac/doc_num.php?explnum_id=3414

** https://thesourcemagazine.org/?s=resilience

Water continues to rank high on the World Economic Forum’s risk ladder. The water crisis, together with extreme weather events, natural disasters, and the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, forms part of the top 5 risks in terms of expected major impact. Extreme weather events and natural disasters rank in the top 5 of the most likely risks to materialise.

This paints a bleak picture, yet where there are risks there are often opportunities. This includes tackling threats to global water security. A recent report provides a deeper insight into how investing in water source protection helps cities, utilities and farmers alike. Andrea Erickson, Managing Director of Water Security at The Nature Conservancy, and one of the report’s authors, states “Our latest results show that forest protection, reforestation and the use of cover crops can help four out of five of the 4,000 cities analysed reduce sediment and nutrient pollution in waterways by a meaningful amount.”

Total global investment in water source protection using payments for watershed services, including water funds, is currently estimated at USD 24.6 billion. An additional USD 48 billion will be needed per year to realise a 10 percent reduction in sediment and nutrient levels in 90 percent of watersheds according to the report. This represents 8 percent of current levels of global investment of around USD 600 billion in water services provision, approximately USD 2-6 per person per year.

Water funds can provide a mechanism to connect the benefits produced by source water protection to potential beneficiaries who are willing to pay. For example, downstream cities, utilities and hydropower producers, can benefit significantly from lower sediment and nutrient levels that can reduce their water treatment, energy or refurbishing costs. The report highlights that the return on investment in ‘nature as infrastructure’ can be 2.5 times that of the equivalent investment in grey infrastructure.

While individual downstream companies can benefit from secured water flows, multiple additional benefits can be generated for those living upstream. Farmers protecting their land and reducing the loss of nutrients from productive fields, will help increase nutrient stocks and boast crop yields. Through better management of forests and wetlands, and the ecosystem services they provide, new business opportunities can be generated. For example, bamboo along rivers can help reduce siltation and nutrient flow into the river, while creating new opportunities for local entrepreneurs to harvest bamboo and produce valuable materials for construction and furniture. Carbon sequestration can be an important additional function that can generate much needed cash-flow for watershed protection.

Numerous cities, utilities, companies and local communities have set-up watershed funds. However, the spreading of these funds to other locations is hampered by the complexity of land and water rights at the local level. Frequently, the many actors involved have to agree upon the rules of the game before they can start to participate. The benefits created are often not well quantified and qualified, making it hard to allocate financial resources from watershed funds in the most effective way.

The scaling-up of water funds for source protection is urgently needed. To attract additional capital at the scale that is required, we need the development of better tools to monitor and track the delivery of results and outcomes from watershed fund’s investments. We will also need new financial vehicles that can connect these funds to the major capital markets and institutional investors. Further innovation and trial is now needed to build a well-documented track record of water(shed) funds and their performance. If we are able to that, investing in securing our water sources could become mainstream.

The new round of climate change negotiations taking place at the COP22 in Morocco this week brings a new opportunity to address the critical issues of water scarcity and drought. Today, 4 billion people are impacted by severe water scarcity and drought, affecting communities across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Agriculture, industry and the environment are seriously impaired by water scarcity and prolonged droughts. Rising water demand and climate change will only intensify water scarcity in the coming years.

To counter this we have to put in place a wide range of measures to adapt to climate change and combat growing water scarcity and drought. Governments have already identified water scarcity as a major priority through the Sustainable Development Goals, agreeing “to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity”. This, and the growing emphasis on climate adaptation, creates new opportunities to tackle water scarcity around the world at an unprecedented scale.

The outcomes of the recent Water Scarcity and Drought Summit held in Brisbane, confirmed the wide spread need to build resilience to water scarcity and drought as a fundamental component of planning for economic growth, societal wellbeing and environmental sustainability. High-level business leaders and policy makers agreed that we need a major shift in the current paradigm. Governments, businesses and civil society have to become much more pro-active using a portfolio of measures to address scarcity and drought. How will this be achieved?

First, we have to move beyond the traditional way of solving water scarcity by only building large water infrastructure, such as dams, reservoirs and pipelines, to store and increase water supply. We have to address water scarcity and drought not only through building large infrastructure but focus on pro-actively managing the increasing demand while improving supply. This requires us to work-out new policies, regulations and incentives to reduce water abstractions, re-use water and replenishing water resources. In fact we need new policies and regulation that will allow us to do more with less, and cascade water from one use to another.

Second, we need to create water markets that allow water users to trade the right to use water. In (local) water rights trading, water gets allocated to higher economic values. For example farmers in the Murray Darling Basin in Australia can sell their right to abstract and use water to neighboring farmers or industrial water users. The system allows water to be bought by the government to maintain environmental flows in the river. The key to a successful water rights trading scheme is securing legitimate water rights and promoting investments in water use efficiency.

The latter becomes more and more obvious as the value of water is no longer hidden and water starts having a real price tag. It is only then that the financial and economic cost of unproductive water loss starts to bite.

Third, we need to embrace a whole range of new technologies, including those already on the market and those yet to reach the market. Desalination and water re-use technologies have proven their value and increasingly use much less energy. Decentralized water systems using rainwater harvesting and local water re-use can change local conditions dramatically. Nano-technology to purify groundwater can help avoid drought and improve human health. Using a much broader set of engineering solutions is essential going forward. It requires us to ensure that our engineers get better access to the latest developments and are part of a much faster technology transfer. But, we also need to update our national engineering standards so that latest technology developments are included and can be used.

To be successful, these solutions need fertile ground from which to sprout. This is the values and attitudes of citizens towards water. To tackle water scarcity and drought, we need significant efforts to raise awareness and change attitudes: appreciating the tremendous value water has for our lives, families, communities and nations. Only with this attitude can we create the desire to care for water and not waste it.

A new action agenda on water scarcity and drought, DroughtAction, presents an opportunity to build a coalition of actors that bring together the relevant challenges, opportunities and solutions. It is an opportunity to bring business, governments, NGOs and knowledge institutions together to build resilient water systems and institutions. In doing so, we can lower the risks and impacts, stimulate investments and create benefits from pro-actively combatting water scarcity and drought.

Governments around the world have adopted the Sustainable Development Goals to stop and reverse the decline of water quality and the destruction of freshwater ecosystems. They have set ambitious targets to “improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials”, and to “protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes”.

This is an opportunity to reverse decades, or even centuries, of environmental degradation, and to get serious about replenishing the environment.

What is the size and scale of the effort required to reach the goals set for 2030? There are around 165 major rivers in the world with a total length of approximately 300,000 km; and many smaller rivers, with an approximate length of another 300,000 km. This leaves us about 600,000 km of rivers to deal with.

This is no small task. But restoring water quality, healthy ecosystems and biodiversity will not only benefit freshwater ecosystems and users downstream, including rapidly growing cities, but also marine life in coastal areas and the oceans.

Water quality degradation, in particular from nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, requires us to tackle three major pollution sources: untreated wastewater from industrial and urban sources; agriculture fertilizers seeping into rivers, lakes and groundwater; and atmospheric deposition of nitrogen-containing compounds from the burning of fossil fuels. Each of these sources requires its own set of solutions.

Currently, 80 percent of the world’s wastewater is not treated before it is discharged. With a figure this high, is it realistic to achieve high levels of treatment by 2030? Experience dealing with the same issue in Europe leads me to say “Yes”. The adoption of the Water Framework Directive in 1998 revolutionized the situation in Europe. Wastewater treatment was installed along a good part of the 40,000 km of European rivers, resulting in major improvements in water quality along at least 20,000 km.

Policy measures and on-the-ground efforts by countries bordering the Rhine River, for example, significantly reduced sewage and industrial emissions of nitrogen into open waters. This led to a 37 percent reduction in nitrogen, vastly improving river conditions and reducing oxygen depleted ‘Dead Zones’ in the North Sea.

Wastewater treatment efforts in China have been even more impressive. Between 2000 and 2014, wastewater treatment in cities increased from 480 to 3720 facilities, increasing treatment from 22 Mm3/day to 157 Mm3/day. This amounts to servicing an additional 36 million citizens per year with wastewater treatment (or 98,600 people per day for 15 years). This is already reducing local pollution levels and at least another 2,500 treatment facilities are planned in the next five years.

Progress is happening. Yet, to reach the targets we need to accelerate, scale up, and see progress in other countries and regions. Our efforts could be particularly successful if we turned wastewater into a source of re-used water, energy, fertilizer and other valuable materials.

In addition to wastewater, one of the biggest challenges is pollution from agriculture. Precision agriculture, where the right amount of fertilizer is applied exactly where needed, will help. Smarter and more efficient ways of applying fertilizers will help. Improving tillage and fertilizer application will reduce costs for farmers as less fertilizer is needed to grow the same or higher crop yields. This change in fertilizer practice can be combined with planting river-bank vegetation strips that capture nutrient loaded runoff. These two measures can drastically reduce agricultural pollution.

Improving water quality is one thing, restoring whole river ecosystems is yet another. In recent decades, we have changed the global runoff of rivers dramatically. As a result of dams, reservoirs and over-abstractions of water, downstream river-flows have been reduced, often to a trickle. For example, the Yellow River no longer reaches the sea, while the Jordan River has become a polluted stream.

Success requires us to focus on three critical actions.

First, we must establish environmental flows in all 165 major river systems in the world. This means leaving sufficient water in the river for downstream environmental use, enabling these rivers to continue to reach the sea.

Secondly, we need to restore habitats, all the way from hilltop to ocean. This includes reforestation of upper watersheds bringing springs back to life, restoring critical wetlands along rivers and lakeshores, and protecting estuaries and coastal zones.

Thirdly, we need to ensure that fish migration up and down rivers is restored, by removing or enhancing river-blocking infrastructure such as dams and dikes. Something easily done, but requiring much political will and broad stakeholder endorsement.

Achieving the ambitious Sustainable Development Goal agenda will require enormous effort, and cannot be done without taking into account other water abstractions and users. It’s only with a clear agenda and successful stakeholder engagement that we will be able to restore the quality and life in the world’s rivers. Examples from around the world, such as the Murray-Darling River Basin in Australia, give me hope that it can be done.

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These critical issues will be central to the debates at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition in Brisbane, Australia (09-14 October, 2016), including:

The Basin Leaders Forum

Protecting basins and restoring those that are already degraded should be a priority to ensure a balanced approach to development that sustains cities and industries and the ecosystems they rely on. The Basin Leaders Forum will provide an opportunity for water resource managers from sectors across river basins to share knowledge and experiences, and explore pathways for sustainable economic, social and environmental development of catchment areas.

Date: Wednesday 12 October, 10:30 – 15:00

Venue: Sky Room, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

A year ago, world leaders handed down an ambitious agenda: 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be successfully completed by 2030. This new global framework puts water at the centre of sustainable development, and presents an unprecedented opportunity for a revolution in water management around the world. Never in human history have governments committed themselves to make such progress on water.

To deliver the promises of the SDGS by 2030 will need a massive effort. Discussions on what is needed have mainly focused on financial needs, and who will pay. Success will require major investments, but also new policies, regulations and institutions, new infrastructure and technologies. Perhaps more than anything, it will require people – newly trained, or retrained, professionals to govern, manage and deliver water-related services.

Herculean effort needed

Let me give an example of the size and scale of the challenge. Today, 80% of wastewater goes untreated into nature where it creates health, environmental and climate-related hazards. The SDGs demand we halve the amount of untreated wastewater. During the same period the global population is estimated to rise to 8.5 billion people. Our task is to provide wastewater treatment to another 3.5 billion people by 2030.

This means in the next 14 years we need to build new wastewater treatment facilities for 700,000 people every day. That requires roughly 14 million new wastewater professionals trained during the same period, or 1 million every year.

This doesn’t even include the human resources and capacities needed for delivering the rest of SDG 6, or the water-related targets of the other SDGs. Simply put, the task ahead of us is nothing less than Herculean, on a scale that the water sector has never confronted before.

Coordinated international action is needed to get the capacities in place to deliver the SDGs. There is no time to sit back. We must hurry if we are to keep pace not just with the targets set by governments, but if we are also to meet the rising expectations of billions of global citizens.

Staff from Zambian Water utility, NWASCO

What, then, are the major challenges and opportunities for human resources needed to achieve the SDGs?

1. The number of professionals that need to be educated and trained is unparalleled. We have to start now.

We know shockingly little about the human resource capacities required to tackle the challenges related to water. The results of an IWA study between 2009 and 2014 show that, for most countries, even the baseline status quo of human resource capacity in the sector is unknown.

It is critical that we strengthen the evidence base that delivers reliable data to build and evidence-based human resources policy and programme strategy.

2. We know little about current water professionals: their numbers, their skills, their capacities. A clear base line is needed.

Our lack of knowledge is a major concern, and a barrier to effective future planning. The IWA’s research in fifteen countries in Africa and Asia shows that the human resource base is under-sized; its composition is unbalanced and gender-biased. Educational systems that should supply well-trained professionals are dysfunctional or not connected to real needs.

3. Current human resources and educational systems are grossly insufficient to deliver the SDGs water agenda.

Faced with wildly different circumstances, we need nuanced approaches. In the Philippines, education and training systems provide a good supply of water and sanitation professionals, but most seek employment abroad. In Ghana, a lack of environmental engineering education programmes results in a severe shortage of sanitation professionals.

The water sector needs an increasingly diverse work force, expanding the range of technical and professional staff. Sri Lanka, for example, requires an estimated 600% increase in social development and hygiene personnel to achieve universal water and sanitation coverage.

4. There is no blanket approach to capacity development at scale. We need country-by-country tailored solutions.

Human resource deficiencies are also about poor levels of staff knowledge, skills and experience. There is a major disconnect between the focus and scope of education and training programmes and needs of the sector. Professional updating and on-the-job training are critical.

In countries like Niger and Burkina Faso, under-qualified technicians provide urban water and sanitation services. As a result, services don’t meet the required standards. In Papua New Guinea the courses offered to plumbers, construction workers, and financial administrators, don’t reflect the demands placed on professionals to effectively perform their functions.

5. Water and sanitation-related education and training must be tailored to the skills, knowledge and know-how required in water supply operations.

Connecting the practical needs of the sector with education and training courses will help deliver an overall capacity development strategy that works. Only then can we hope to dramatically accelerate capacity development to deliver the SDGs.

Investing in infrastructure is money down the drain if it’s not accompanied by proportionate investments in human resources to design, expand, operate and maintain that infrastructure.

The critical actions we need to take as a matter of urgency include:

Creating the evidence base to underpin investments in human resources. We need concerted action at national, regional and global level to collect relevant human resources data. We also need to connect this new information to HR capacity action plans and strategies.

We need to innovate our education and learning systems and practices. It takes time to develop a professional workforce. But we have limited time and need strong collaboration to learn from one another, and drive innovation.

We have to develop national level HR strategies and use best practice in HR management. Countries need long-term, national action plans for HR capacity. This requires coordinated action at national level by ministries, education and training institutes, non-governmental and international professional associations. Water sector organisations urgently need to profile the sector as an attractive employer.

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Don’t miss Human Resource Capacity Gaps sessions at the World Water Congress and Exhibition, Brisbane (09 – 13 October, 2016):

Crisis Management at Water Utilities

Workshop
Date: 12 October 2016, 13.30 – 15.00
Venue: Room 8, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

Can workforce diversity deliver the vision for cities of the future? Cities are the future for humanity and by 2050 some 3 billion additional people will be living in urban areas. To be fit for this urbanised future, the water sector needs to recruit and train the skilled workers capable of delivering the future vision for cities. Diversity in professional skills, background, age, gender, culture will enhance the water sector’s ability to provide robust and innovative solutions for the water wise, liveable cities of tomorrow.

Capacity Gap: Building a Prepared, Diverse Workforce

Workshop
Date: 13 October 2016, 10.30 – 12.00
Venue: Room 9, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

How do utilities build workforces ready to meet their responsibilities to customers and the environment? Forming three workgroups, participants will discuss what they are doing in these areas, what they would like to be doing in these areas, challenges and lessons learned, and how IWA could help them help each other. The break out session will focus on how utilities can help each other move forward.

]]> https://iwa-network.org/sdgs-can-change-paradigm-water-africa/ Mon, 18 Jul 2016 07:50:08 +0000 https://iwa-network.org/?p=17396 Seizing water opportunities at Africa Water Week The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate agreement provides an unprecedented opportunity to tackle the major water issues facing Africa today and in the near future. To seize this opportunity, we need to find new synergies and coordinate our intervention efforts. This can best be done by focusing on the fundamental role water will play in achieving national development priorities, the Sustainable Development Goals and our efforts to adapt to Climate Change. Such coordination is increasingly needed between ministries with dedicated strategies and action plans at national and sub-national levels. To make progress, we have to connect water to the major sectors and interests that drive our economies: agriculture, energy, and the urban, industrial and service sectors. Reviewing existing […]]]>

Seizing water opportunities at Africa Water Week

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate agreement provides an unprecedented opportunity to tackle the major water issues facing Africa today and in the near future. To seize this opportunity, we need to find new synergies and coordinate our intervention efforts. This can best be done by focusing on the fundamental role water will play in achieving national development priorities, the Sustainable Development Goals and our efforts to adapt to Climate Change.

Such coordination is increasingly needed between ministries with dedicated strategies and action plans at national and sub-national levels. To make progress, we have to connect water to the major sectors and interests that drive our economies: agriculture, energy, and the urban, industrial and service sectors. Reviewing existing public water policies, regulation and investment strategies against the SDGs and in the light of adaptation to climate change will be critical.

As the water agenda is evolving fast, and the synergies are many, we need to focus our efforts. We must focus on perhaps the most critical water issue that African nations face today: tackling water scarcity and drought.

Today hundreds of millions of African citizens are impacted daily by severe water scarcity and drought. Villages, cities, industries, agriculture and the environment are seriously impaired by prolonged droughts. The underlying rising water demands and impacts from climate change are likely to only intensify in the coming years if no action is taken. To counter water scarcity and drought in Africa, we need decisive action, nothing less than a modern day “Marshall Plan” that brings together government policy and private entrepreneurship.

Mobilising global action on water scarcity and drought

Water scarcity has been identified through the Sustainable Development Goal 6.4 as a major global priority. Historically, government and business have responded to water scarcity and drought through building infrastructure to store water and augment supplies. However, we are increasingly aware that drought management is not just about new infrastructure and technologies, but increasingly about water demand-management, effective water allocation policies and incentives. It is about building systems that are broadly resilient to drought and scarcity, managing demand as well as improving supply.

To mobilise action on water scarcity and drought, the Australian Water Partnership, the Government of Australia and the International Water Association are organising the Water Scarcity and Drought Summit (10 October, 2016) in Brisbane, as part of the World Water Congress and Exhibition. The Summit will bring together top government officials, leading practitioners, policy makers, industry leaders, and civil society leaders to discuss new ways forward to turn the fight against water scarcity and drought.

The Summit will be a first step in creating a global coalition of key government, business, civil society and knowledge partners to tackle water scarcity and drought. Africa Water Week is an important stepping-stone towards the Summit, and to further interact and explore new ways to tackle drought and scarcity in Africa. We have to find new ways to manage drought more proactively and turn this into an opportunity for water sector reforms and new water investments in Africa, create momentum that will create the water wise world of the future.

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Africa Water Week is taking place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 18 – 22

The water crisis continues to score high on the World Economic Forum’s global risk assessment. While many business and opinion leaders consider water a less likely risk, it remains one of potential high impact. Combining this with other high-ranking risks – climate change, natural catastrophes and extreme weather events – ‘water’ certainly tops the risk ladder of many world leaders. It is perceived as a risk expressed through extreme events in the short term (18 months) and a globalised water crisis in the longer term (10 years).

This is true for leaders in South East Asia concerned about extreme weather events, and those in South Asia and the Middle East who foresee an acute water crisis. Last year Jordan’s Minister of Water, Hazim El Nassar, stated that, “We are one of the driest countries in the world, without further water investments we will not be able to grow Jordan’s economy and maintain societal stability”. Mass migration, another high ranking risk, from refugees is leading to unsustainable depletion of Jordan’s groundwater reserves.

The sheer magnitude and scale of global water challenges requires us to think and act differently and, by doing so, turning the water crisis into a gilt-edged opportunity for development at an unprecedented scale. We have to move from perceiving water risk to projecting a water wise world. We have to recognise water as fundamental to people, nature and societies.

In a world in which water is wisely managed to satisfy the needs of human activities and ecosystems in an equitable and sustainable way, we would dramatically reduce water wasted from dripping pipes and leaking canals. We would re-use water that has served its economic purpose and recycle it together with the materials and energy within it. We would replenish rivers, lakes and groundwater reserves.

Recognising water as a central pillar of sustainability and resilience is not a luxury. Business, government and civil society are increasingly getting it: water is the lifeblood of economies, societies and nature all at the same time.

Coca Cola gets it, prioritising efforts to give back to nature what they have taken out for fizzy drink production. Ahmed Bozer, President of Coca Cola International, recently stated that by 2020, “We want to be the first multinational who can claim that, globally, we are water neutral.” In India and Mexico this goal has been achieved.

Nestle gets it, creating shared value around a shared resource. CEO Peter Bulcke has talked of a “values crisis”, stating that Nestle’s Creating Shared Value journey “focuses business on the long term where the success of society and economic activity are intimately intertwined and mutually reinforcing”.

How do we move from these early adopters to create an early majority that takes action to elevate water to its rightful place?

Companies can work within their fenceline and reduce their water consumption. In water stressed China, for example, many industries now design new facilities to have zero liquid discharge, combing efficiency with safely re-using water. Industries can also work closer with cities and re-use treated used water for production and cooling. Like Coca Cola, companies can be part of restoring the quality of rivers and lakes, and recharge the aquifers they depend upon.

To truly contribute to sustainable water management though, businesses must go beyond their fenceline. The bigger challenge lies in managing water in large parts of the value chain not controlled by the corporations. While large corporations are starting to understand where the associated risks are, going beyond these risks cannot happen in isolation from other water users and stakeholders.

Creating a water wise world requires business to truly engage with a variety of stakeholders. This is hard, many stakeholders don’t share the same goals or logic as business; and multi-stakeholder processes are often long and complicated, with unknown behaviours and outcomes.

To seize the opportunities for solving the looming water crisis we need new approaches and unusual partnerships between diverse actors, to reach across value chains and boundaries. While business can and is taking on the water challenge, it’s the work beyond their fenceline that requires professional support to engage with stakeholders – problem owners and solutions providers alike.

Only through an audacious solutions-oriented approach will we be able to seize the opportunities the water crisis present to create a water wise world.

Moving from Risk to Opportunity

Across the world, leaders are consider water to be a risk of high impact and high likelihood, one that will negatively affect global supply chains, regional stability and economic performance. Yet, water is a tremendous opportunity to invest in and to further economic growth, societal well-being and environmental sustainability. The way we manage water will determine how economic development, human well-being and environmental sustainability will be achieved.

To move beyond water as ‘risk’ we need to focus on fostering responsibility, capturing opportunities, and promoting new solutions to water challenges. In doing so I propose to focus on 3 key areas:

• Promoting the Blue and Green Revolution
• Implementing the 5 Rs of new water management
• Building ecosystem inspired urban areas

Using these approaches can help turn water scarcity from a risk into an opportunity. For example with investments in water solutions that promote efficiency, water re-use and desalination. These sort of solutions are all pillars of a blue and green revolution that drives the closing of urban, industrial and agricultural water loops. The risk is not “water”, it is the lack of actions to manage water wisely. Actions come at many levels, by industry, government, civil society and the agricultural sector alike.

Poor and Rich – Infrastructure

Let’s take a step back. The future we are shaping will take place in a world with fewer divisions between poor and rich nations. By 2050 the world will be more homogeneous. The vast majority of people will live in Asia in middle income countries, with access to basic water and sanitation services. However, a tremendous effort will be required to ensure water efficiency and water quality is where it needs to be. This will require major investments to reduce water loss, increase wastewater treatment and reduce industrial pollution of surface and ground waters. With roughly 60% of the urban infrastructure existing in 2050 still to be built, there is an enormous opportunity to get it right. To do so we need to revolutionize our thinking and action: a true blue and green revolution.

Focusing on urban areas can be an important starting point for turning water from a ‘risk’ into an ‘opportunity’. The world is continuing to urbanize rapidly with over 60% of world population to live in urban areas by 2030. Urban areas today already account for about 70 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product. Cities are the engines of economic growth and social development. They attract people, resources and inspiration to thrive. Because they bring so many strands together, they present a great opportunity to drive the green and blue revolution. To do so we have to work at different levels, from the individual to neighborhood to city, and further to area and country level.

Citizens and Consumers

Let’s start with citizens and consumers. A significant change in consumer behaviour will happen in coming years. The new energy consumers not only consume energy, they ‘produce’ energy through, for example, efficiency and home-based solar power. This move from consumers to prosumers is enabled, amongst others, by new actors in the sector such as Google (-Nest) and IKEA Solar that offer consumer products that change energy behaviour. This development is important for urban water as the majority of household energy is being used for heating water. It exemplifies how important it is, and increasinly will be, for water utilities to become a stimulus for change: becoming true service companies that understand end-users, and offer new services and products to galvanize the urban blue and green revolution.

Utilities

Leading cities and their utilities have a tremendous opportunity to contribute to turning the tide and move from ‘risk’ to ‘opportunity’. In my view, utilities have to lead in setting operational standards and practices on urban water management to a higher level. This could be done across the water source, supply and consumption value chain by focusing on the 5 R’s of new water management:

re-duce, re-use, re-cover, re-cycle and re-plenish

Reducing loss of water and increasing water efficiency provides opportunities for many industries to reduce costs and lower water stress in their operating area. Re-using water, both within its own operations and in cooperation with neighbouring industries, towns and farmers can unlock gridlocks between stakeholders and truly be transformative for entire regions. Recovering water, energy, nutrients and other materials from wastewater and industrial water is becoming more economically viable and forms to basis of recycling precious nutrients and other materials. Finally, the future of water management is already here in the form of many successful pilots and large scale applications to replenish the environment through restoring watersheds, lakes and groundwater reserves. Leading cities and utilities can be instrumental on all 5 R’s to showcase and up-scale sustainable water solutions.

Beyond Urban

Of course, cities do not exist in isolation. They use resources from surrounding areas, even faraway places, which contribute to their economies. The water footprint of cities and their inhabitants will increase in importance, as city leaders start to review how both city and citizens are part of the solution to local and not so local water challenges. For example, some cities are investing in maintaining upper watershed ecosystems critical to guarantee water security and safety; others invest in farmer level water efficiency to help increase downstream water security. Yet other urban areas bring the ecosystem into the city and base their water management on ecological principles and practices.

Ecosystems inspired city

Adopting an urban water agenda that uses the 5 Rs management framework, focusing on creating an ecosystems inspired city, enables better planning for a healthy, liveable, risk-resilient and regenerative city, all at once. The drive to realize this approach will come from rapidly growing cities, facing major resource limitations yet needing to provide for human health and an attractive economic environment. Creating ecosystems inspired cities goes beyond water and addresses all urban disciplines. It recognizes how water shapes urban landscapes both through natural water ways, including storm and flood management, but also because risk-resilient and regenerative urban water services are only fully implementable if integrated in urban landscapes at the building, district and metro scales.

The ecosystems inspired city is planned holistically. It is connected to its catchment to embrace the Water-Food-Energy nexus in its urban planning. It plans its water supply and sanitation, waste management, transport, energy supply and production, as well as economic activities for the metropolis by identifying cross sector synergies at the district and building scale.

Water is only one element of urban planning, and water professionals can no longer work sequentially with other disciplines. We need to work together in trans-disciplinary teams inspiring each other and be the drivers of a blue and green revolution. Taking on the 5Rs framework of water management provides a hands-on approach to having short term benefits and investing for the future. Step-by-step we can then develop a more ecosystems inspired urban water management that can be truly sustainable and resilient.

But don’t forget: people are at the center of city development and its water management. This implies we need to engage with citizens, understand their needs and support behavior change that benefits all. In this way we can help make citizens truly the drivers of the blue and green revolution and co-create the ecosystem inspired cities of the future.

The Paris Agreement reached last Saturday provides an unprecedented opportunity to keep the global temperature rise well below 2 ºC and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 ºC. This is a major step forward to a low-carbon economy. The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are widely applauded by political, business and NGO leaders. We have a fantastic opportunity now to act and act with urgency!

Thus, very good news for the planet, its inhabitants and all those concerned with the future of water. Water is fundamental for prosperity, human wellbeing and environmental sustainability. It is the lifeblood of human kind and our planet. Now, adapting water management systems to a world that is within 2 ºC warmer than pre-industrial levels is a major challenge, but one that can be achieved. Let’s get started!

Additional financial resources, of at least USD 100 billion per year from 2020 onwards, are a welcome contribution to address the projected increase in floods and droughts related to climate change. Such spending should be targeted towards those most in need and without the ability to master the finances to adapt.

Financing adaptation of our water systems is fundamental to address water as a global risk. Without these investments no economy and society will be able to thrive. Yet we have to keep in mind that climate adaptation comes on top of dealing with other pressures on water systems: rising populations, changing consumption patterns and continuously growing water demands from cities, industries and agriculture. Combined, these provide not only a major challenge but also a major opportunity for the water sector to engage and raise the stakes on water adaptation.

The water sector also has an active role to play in climate mitigation. Reducing energy consumption and producing energy from the urban water cycle can make a significant contribution to a low-carbon economy. Water utilities like Ruhrverband in Germany are leading the way. Over the last decade Ruhrverband has reduced their energy consumption and started producing renewable energy from wastewater generated bio-gas. Others are following suite, raising the possibility of carbon neutral water utilities becoming the norm rather than the exception.

The greatest opportunity to achieve this comes from utilities in cities were wastewater is not yet treated – accounting for 80 per cent of all wastewater globally. Up to 45kg of carbon dioxide per person per day is emitted from untreated wastewater. And here is where global agendas connect to create a win-win solutoin.

The Sustainable Development Target 6.3 aims to halve the proportion of untreated wastewater, requiring the building of wastewater treatment facilities world-wide at a pace never seen before. The scale of the SDG commitment is enormous. It requires us to build wastewater facilities for approximately 0.6 million people every day until 2030. This is huge! Delivering at scale and within the set timeframe will require an unprecedented effort that delivers transformative financing, technologies, policies and practices. Let’s ask ourselves: how are we going to deliver on this promise?

While utilities can do a lot to reduce their own carbon footprint, a real breakthrough in reducing carbon emissions can come from working with customers. On average, a household emits approximately 10,000 kg CO2 per person per year. Water heating and consumption is about 10% of this emission. With smarter homes, efficient boilers and shower heads, thermostat mixers and heat recovery from drainage water, the household carbon footprint of water use can be dramatically reduced.

The key is for utility leaders to step up and transform their business into being truly service oriented by helping customers to make the change. It might sound farfetched but Sydney Water in Australia puts its customers first, and is reshaping utility services as a true customer service enterprise. It is one example of providing practical pathways to establish sustainable lifestyles and ways of consumption that can become a truly transformative force.

With the Paris Agreement, the goal posts for transitioning to a carbon free economy are set. Current voluntary commitments aren’t enough to realise this. So, let us show that the water sector is able to step up and lead the way towards a carbon neutral economy that won’t reach beyond +1.5 ºC. Let’s pull together and show the world that we have, and can develop and apply at scale, the technologies, management and know-how needed to achieve a carbon neutral water sector. A wise water world that is fully capable to adapt to the changes to come.

We live in a changing world that is quickly becoming water scarce. Fresh water is critical for human wellbeing, as well as for healthy ecosystems and sustainable economies. Yet water scarcity is increasingly a global reality and water resources are facing unprecedented pressures. Rapid urbanisation, coupled with population growth and changing consumption patterns are being exacerbated by man-made climate change and variability.

We have reached a point where water is now considered to be one of the highest global risks. Climate change and variability, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, call for entire economies and nations to adapt and for radical solutions to address water security.

So why does the current text negotiated for the COP21 climate discussions exclude water? If water does not take its rightful place we will be making a mistake of historic proportions, a lost opportunity for effective mitigation and adaptation that will haunt us for years to come. The international community is sending mixed messages: in September water gained its own Sustainable Development Goal, making it a global priority; two months later, climate negotiators seem to have forgotten water exists.

Water is not just a ‘victim’ of climate change, it offers answers to climate change. Water companies are typically energy intensive, between 10% and 35% of operational costs are on energy consumption. The water sector contributes between 2-5% of global carbon emissions, as well as contributing towards other greenhouse gas emissions, including nitrogen oxides and methane, that have much larger multiplier effects on global warming.

New and existing technologies, combined with innovative regulation and financing, can incentivise the water sector to become energy and carbon neutral. Water utilities in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands already operate treatment plants that are close to energy neutral; and the IWA is developing a framework to enable water utilities around the world to make an easier transition to neutrality over the next 20 years.

This will reduce carbon emissions and save up to 40 per cent of a utility’s overall costs. This is crucial at a time when many utilities are struggling to get the ends meet. A major adaptation is needed in the amount of water we abstract, how we use it and how we re-use and discharge wastewater. Currently, some 80 per cent of the world’s wastewater is discharged into nature untreated, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

Jordan, a country where the availability of water resources per capita is one of the lowest in the world, exemplifies the water challenges we face. Rising industrial and agricultural production to meet the needs of a growing population, including the 1.4 million refugees recently absorbed from neighbouring countries, are combining with climate change to produce a potential ‘worst case scenario’.

Climate Change is driving extreme weather events

In the Middle East prolonged droughts and soaring temperatures will become the norm. Political instability and water conflicts between communities and countries are real dangers. Yet in the water sector we possess the technology and knowhow to solve these challenges. Significant investment in water infrastructure and best practice water management, good governance and the right policy and financing frameworks, can ensure water security in Jordan and elsewhere.

During the IWA Water and Development Congress last month in Jordan, Hazim el Nassar, the Jordanian Minister for Water and Irrigation, made it clear that water resources are being depleted at unsustainable rates. Jordan needs major support, including financial support of billions of dollars, to prevent it from falling prey to water-related instability. Tensions between Jordanians and large refugee populations who’ve fled Syria and Iraq are already heightened.

To keep Jordan afloat a major international effort is needed, unparalleled in the region to ensure technology is put in place to re-use water, increase efficiency, pay the electricity bills of water and ensure water is provided to all communities.

Jordan’s situation is not unique. Many parts of the world will face similar conditions over the next 20 years. While we are negotiating on climate change in Paris, we should not forget that countries already are on the edge of serious climate conditions, like Jordan, do not fall prey social, political and economic instability. Adapting to climate change through water management is therefore not to be forgotten when it comes to negotiating the next climate deal.