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Words into Action

7 Worldwaterforum th

Special edition for the

daegu-gyeongbuk | republic of korea | 12-17 april 2015

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

In the United Arab Emirates, water is more important than oil.

That’s why we have adopted a pioneering approach to addressing local and global water security through developing and deploying innovative technologies and by placing water sustainability at the heart of our country’s growth strategy.

We look forward to forging partnerships and working together to achieve a secure water future.

Visit the UAE Pavilion no. A-430, EXCO, Daegu #WaterSecureFuture

In partnership with:

For more information visit: www.masdar.ae

PUBLISHERS forEwOrd

Publisher’s Foreword

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he Words into Action series has a well established record for documenting the proceedings of global summit meetings, conferences and fora.

Publications within the series have become a recognised fixture at many of the world’s most significant gatherings of this type, ever since the inaugural edition was released for the United Nation’s World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.

In broad terms, the series is aligned with events that pursue a sustainable approach at the core of their agendas and are aimed at improving the livlihoods of people throughout the world. There can be no doubt that the 7th World Water Forum, like World Water Fora before it, is one such event. Indeed, as far water and the plethora of interrelated and interdependent issues are concerned - from food and energy security through to access, entitlement, green growth, development and much more - its significance cannot be understated.

We have worked assiduously to draw together world-renowned experts in their respective fields in order to deliver the thought leading papers, case studies and other contributions that comprise this particular edition - the third, in fact, that we have produced to coincide with World Water Fora.

We trust that the publication will play its part in communicating some of the crucially important issues under discussion in Daegu-Gyeongbuk and and that it will be of benefit not only to you, the reader, but to the entire process.

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Park Geun-hye President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun-hye is the eleventh and current President of South Korea. She is the first woman to be elected as President in South Korea and is serving the 18th presidential term. She also is the first female head of state in the modern history of Northeast Asia. Prior to her presidency, she was the chairwoman of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) between 2004 and 2006 and between 2011 and 2012. Formerly a member of the Korean National Assembly she served four complete consecutive parliamentary terms as a constituency representative between 1998 and 2012; she began her fifth term as a proportional representative in June 2012. Her father was Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea from 1963 to 1979.

President Park Geun-hye delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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his year the Republic of Korea experienced sizzling summer days along with much rain. Many countries around the world experienced tough summers due to unusual weather phenomena. While severe flooding occurred during the long monsoon season in some parts of the world, extreme heat and drought plagued other parts of the world. Water shortages, water pollution, water-related disasters and changing climate are creating growing challenges for water management.

Water is the most valuable resource for the survival of the human race. Sound management of water has become the key to welfare and economic well-being of the nation.

Water has no boundaries. Cooperation on water between nations is required since water is not confined by political borders. That is one reason why the UN General Assembly declared 2013 as the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation.

The World Water Forum is the world’s largest event to strengthen international cooperation in the field of water. It is the place of communication for the world to gather to discuss, to advance the water sector for our survival and prosperity and to promote awareness of the importance of water.

The Republic of Korea will contribute to opening new waterways for people suffering from water challenges as a host country of the 7th World Water Forum. As well, the Republic of Korea will join the rest of the world to strive to suggest solutions for global water challenges and will spare no effort to translate the solutions into actions.

I hope that the various water-related issues gather like tributaries of a river to gain force for solutions at the 7th World Water Forum.

Daegu Gyeongbuk, the host location of the 7th World Water Forum, has developed its own traditional culture and industries around the Nakdong River and has accumulated abundant knowledge and experience in water quality management and environmental protection. It is an excellent place to unite around the cause of water as an essential requirement of life and human dignity, to secure practical and tangible results while talking over water cooperation.

Buoyed by the strength of the knowledge and passion of the participants at the 7th World Water Forum to end conflicts over water, pain, and suffering, we hope that peace, coexistence and prosperity will flow from the 7th World Water Forum, like rivers finding the sea.

Park Geun-hye

President of the Republic of Korea

7th WORLD WATER FORUM 2015

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Yun Byung-se Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea in March 2013. He is a graduate of the College of Law and Graduate School of Law at Seoul National University and holds an M.A. from The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C., U.S.A. Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1977, Yun Byung-se has led a distinguished political career, holding diplomatic posts both at home and overseas, including Australia (Consul, Korean Consulate General), Singapore (Minister-Counsellor, Korean Embassy), Switzerland (Minister, Korean Permanent Mission to the UN Secretariat and International Organizations in Geneva) and the United States (Minister, Korean Embassy).

Yun Byung-se delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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ater is the ultimate resource that can decide the fate of human civilization and history because it is an irreplaceable natural resource. That’s why water is also called ‘blue gold,’ the last high valueadded resource in the world.

Now, water security is threatened all around the world. We see cases of regional disputes over water ownership, children in underdeveloped countries dying of unclean water, water scarcity, and so on.

These problems are directly linked to the realization of a sustainable society and the world’s security.

To resolve the international challenges, it is highly important that the world should cooperate and share achievements made in the process, building upon the efforts by stakeholders–policymakers, international organizations, NGOs, public/private sectors, academia, experts, etc.

The 7th World Water Forum focuses on ‘implementation.’ I am certain that people from all over the world will gather to discuss solutions to various water challenges, and those solutions will lead to the implementation at a national level.

To this end, an open discussion arena will be provided in Daegu & Gyeongbuk ensuring that anyone interested in water issues can participate in the 7th World Water Forum in diverse ways. Also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will spare no efforts in cooperating with our counterparts.

It is truly an honor to invite you to the 7th World Water Forum, the largest water event in the world, in April, 2015. I hope all of you will participate in the 7th World Water Forum and be with us for “Water for Our Future.”

I extend my warmest welcome to you.

Yun Byung-se Minister of Foreign Affairs

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Suh Seoung-hwan Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Suh Seoung-hwan is an economics professor at Yonsei University and member of the presidential transition committee’s subcommittee for economy. He was named the first minister of land and transportation under the Park Geun-hye administration. His late father, Suh Jong-chul, was former minister of defence, presidential aide for national security and Army chief of Staff under Park’s father, former president Park Chung-hee. Born in Seoul, he graduated from Yonsei University and earned his doctorate from Princeton University in 1985.He has headed various academic organisations, including Yonsei’s Economic Research Institute, and served on the Land Ministry’s urban planning and property policy committees.

Suh Seoung-hwan delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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s the 7th World Water Forum is just a year away, the expectation for the 7th Forum has indeed been realized. Vague ideas have been articulated, and many people aware of the severity of water-related issues are taking part in the preparation of a successful Forum in 2015.

Due to water shortage, one billion people are already suffering. After three decades, it is estimated that more than two billion people will suffer from water-related problems. The number of children dying of polluted drinking water has been on the rise as well. Securing safe and abundant water has been regarded as a matter of survival and human rights.

Resolving water challenges is our mission to guarantee the survival of future generations and sustainable development. However, they cannot be addressed by a single nation or organization. That is why participation from all stakeholders and cooperation among nations are essential in tackling water challenges.

I believe that meaningful achievements have been made throughout the previous editions of the Forum.

However, considering that water-related issues become aggravated at a fast pace, it seems that time is not on our side. Implementation is needed now, before it’s too late.

In this regard, there is a high expectation for the 7th Forum, in which solutions to water-related problems with a focus on ‘implementation’ will be discussed.

At this moment, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Environment, the National Committee for the 7th World Water Forum, the Daegu Metropolitan City Government, the Gyeongbuk Provincial Government, and the World Water Council are working in tandem to prepare the 7th Forum.

I hope you will show your kind interest and support for a successful Forum.

Suh Seoung-hwan

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

7th WORLD WATER FORUM 2015

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Dr. Lee, Jung-moo Chairman of the National Committee Dr. Lee, Jung Moo is chairman of the National Committee for the 7th World Water Forum. Formerly Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and subsequently Ministry of Construction and Transport, he was also a Member of the 13th and 15th national assemblies of Republic of Korea.

His extensive career has spanned corporate management, politics, public administration and academia. His multi-stakeholder work experience is invaluable to the objective of mobilising domestic and international water related stakeholders towards the 7th World Water Forum.

Dr. Lee, Jung-moo delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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he deterioration of water environments and water shortages caused by excessive use of water is not a problem of a single nation. Rather, it is a global challenge that requires sustainable and shared responses based on cooperation among various stakeholders such as governments, civil society, academia, and others.

During the Kick-off Meeting in Daegu in May 2013 and the 2nd Stakeholders Consultation Meeting in Gyeongju in February 2014, we were able to witness joint efforts and passion for tackling water challenges.

At the 7th World Water Forum to be held in April 2015, we will establish concrete implementation plans regarding the agenda that has been discussed throughout the six previous Forums in order to ensure participation and implementation from diverse stakeholders.

To this end, we newly added the Science & Technology Process in which countries will share experience and know-how in water-related technology. Also, the Thematic and Regional Processes will help participants discuss more specific issues and will implement solutions drawn from the 6th World Water Forum. In the Political Process, policymakers and international organizations will cooperate to establish the leadership of implementation to address water-related problems. In addition, we are working hard to make the Citizen’s Forum with more lively discussions by global citizens.

Since the 7th World Water Forum invites the world to discuss the water challenges we all face and to develop solutions beyond the difference in nationality and culture, active participation is greatly needed from governments, academia, research institutions, industry and others, to overcome common water challenges and crises.

The 7th World Water Forum is just a year away. To guarantee that all your activities in each process will be meaningful, the National Committee will spare no effort and support. I sincerely hope to see all of you gather in Daegu & Gyeongbuk (Gyeongju) next April to implement solutions to world-wide water challenges together.

Dr. Lee, Jung-moo

Chairman of the National Committee

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Professor Benedito Braga President of the World Water Council Prof. Benedito Braga is professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is currently on leave, serving as Director of the Brazilian National Water Agency – ANA. He was President of the International Water Resources Association from 1998-2000 and presently is Vice-President of the World Water Council. Prof. Braga is an active researcher in the field of conflict resolution and multi-objective water resources decision making processes with stakeholder participation.

He has participated in several international committees promoting the concept of integrated water resources management. He is the author of more than 200 articles and 25 books and chapters of books on the subject of water management at international level.

Prof. Braga is recipient of the 2002 Crystal Drop Award, given by the International Water Resources Association – IWRA in recognition for his life time achievements in the area of water resources management. His challenge today as Director of ANA, is the implementation of a modern water management system in Brazil that will use economic instruments and a multi-objective decision process with public participation.

Prof. Benedito Braga delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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ater is the common thread connecting social stability, human wealth, prosperity, economic growth and sustainable ecosystems. The World Water Council through the World Water Forum has focused its efforts on increasing awareness, fostering dialogue and encouraging the emergence of effective measures. As a response to global changes, the World Water Council has been carrying a unique message: water is the key for all sources of development.

Next year, the 7th World Water Forum will be a milestone in securing water for human well-being and the environment. The transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals will require measuring the successes and assessing the failures in building a sustainable future for water.

Following the Forum of Solutions held in 2012 in Marseille, implementation will be the motto of this next edition. By participating in this unique event, all stakeholders, ranging from local community representatives to international decision makers, will be sharing their knowledge and experience to build a common objective, making water security a global priority. By proposing a substantive program that addresses today’s most important water-related challenges and bringing means to prepare sound water policies according to regional specificities, we will reach a turning point in the history of water.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Republic of Korea for its hospitality and its commitment to increase awareness on the social, economic and environmental benefits of water security. By gathering the water community to speak with one voice, we will elaborate the framework for our water future in a sustainable and equitable manner. The preparation of tomorrow’s global agenda starts now.

Join us to formulate these messages and bring them to Daegu and Gyeongbuk in April 2015.

Benedito Braga President of the World Water Council

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Soontak LEE Co-Chair of International Steering Committee Soontak LEE is Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering at Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea. He has extensive experience in the fields of hydrological sciences and water resources management and has served as Korean government representative to a number of water-related international conferences, including the UN Water Conference and those of UNESCO, WMO, ESCAP and WWF. He possesses several Doctoral degrees, including Ph.D., D.Sc. & Hon.D.Eng.Sc. from Korea University and others from the University of New South Wales, Australia; University of Tsukuba, Japan and Altai StateTechnical University, Russia Federation.

He is Chief Editor of the bi-annual Journal of Hydrologic Environment, an official International Journal of the International Hydrologic Environmental Society (IHES) of which he is currently President. He previously published the UNESCO IHP HELP Programme Special Edition, Volume 7, Number 1, December 2011.

Lee Soontak is President of International Hydrologic Environmental Society (IHES) and Distinguished Professor, Yeungnam University, , Reublic of Korea Lee Soontak delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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he 7th World Water Forum, where water makes the world become a one, will take place in the Republic of Korea next year under the slogan of “Water for Our Future”.

The 7th World Water Forum carries an extraordinary significance because it is held in 2015 when the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) finish. From the perspective of ‘implementation,’ the 7th World Water Forum will give us opportunities to review the achievements drawn from previous editions of the Forum and to open a new horizon for the future.

Starting with the Kick-off Meeting, we have announced the core value of the 7th Forum, ‘implementation,’ discussed how to design each Process, and shared the progress towards the 7th Forum at the 2nd Stakeholders Consultation Meeting in February, 2014.

Our efforts for a successful Forum will continue. We will come up with programs that will embody ‘implementation’ and diverse side events.

The success of the 7th Forum depends on active contributions from various stakeholders, convergence of their expertise, and passion and efforts for new inspiration.

Thus, I would like to urge you to participate in the 7th World Water Forum, where you can design implementation for addressing water challenges and for moving towards a sustainable future.

Lee Soontak Co-Chair of International Steering Committee

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Kim Bum-il - Mayor of Daegu, Kim Kwan-yong - The Governor of Gyeongbuk, Choi Yang-sik - Mayor of Gyeongju The mayors of Daegu and Gyeongju and Governor of Gyeongbuk delivered the remarks reproduced below to coincide with the first announcement for the 7th World Water Forum.

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o far, humanity has excessively used water because it seemed abundant and unlimited. However, things have changed. So many people have suffered from water shortages and natural disasters related to water.

Also, water disputes among nations have occurred.

In the 21st century, overcoming water shortages and improving water quality have been discussed worldwide.

However, these challenges have not fundamentally been resolved, despite relentless efforts by governments.

At this juncture, it is highly significant to hold the 7th World Water Forum, the largest water-related event in the world, in Daegu & Gyeongbuk (Gyeongju) with the core value of ‘implementation.’

The venue has clear and abundant water with the Nakdong River, about 170 miles (275 km) in length, and the Gumho River, where otters live. Also, it was the place where the Buddhist culture of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C. – A.D. 935) and the Confucius culture of the Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910) flourished. It has a wide range of historic and cultural heritage.

For a successful Forum, Daegu & Gyeongbuk (Gyeongju) are putting their utmost efforts in establishing systematic infrastructure that prioritizes visitors’ convenience. More specifically, Daegu is putting its utmost efforts such as upgrading facilities of EXCO to create an optimal environment for the 7th World Water Forum and exhibition. Gyeongbuk (Gyeongju) created a committee that supports the preparation of the 7th World Water Forum. We will spare no effort in preparing the 7th World Water Forum so that visitors will experience no inconvenience.

We will look forward to see you all next April.

Kim Bum-il

Mayor of Daegu

Kim Kwan-yong The Governor of Gyeongbuk

Choi Yang-sik Mayor of Gyeongju

7th WORLD WATER FORUM 2015

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TA B L E O F

Contents

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SETTING THE SCENE

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SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE The Water Cycle in a Changing Climate.

Professor Timothy Osborn & team at Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia / University of Nottingham.

WATER -ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS Tackling the Asian Water Crisis: Finding Solutions for doing more with less.

Yasmin Siddiqui, Asia Development Bank.

REGIONAL COOPERATION Regional cooperation on water in South Asia: Challenges and opportunities.

Sagar Prasai and Mandakini Surie, The Asia Foundation.

Water and ODA: Global water crisis and Korea’s contribution to addressing the issue.

Korea International Cooperation Agency.

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DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE Water in the new development era: Three priorities for poverty reduction in a rapidly changing world.

Roger Calow and Nathaniel Mason, Overseas Development Institute.

SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVE Reaching millions with water, sanitation and hygiene in Bangladesh.

Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, Milan Kanti Barua, Nameerah Khan, Abu Taleb Biswas, M. Akramul Islam, BRAC. FOOD SECURITY PERSPECTIVE Partnerships pave the way to innovative solutions for water and food security.

Roberto Lenton and Molly Nance, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.

FINANCING PERSPECTIVE Quality implementation is the

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Achilles Heel of progress towards the WASH SDGs. Antoinette Kome, SNV. HEALTH PERSPECTIVE Water: Creating a continuum for children.

Jean-Baptiste Kamaté, World Vision.

TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE Water in the digital era: Increasing the role of technology and innovation Dirk Krol, WssTP, the European Technology Platform for Water.

THEMATIC FRAMEWORK 62

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ENOUGH SAFE WATER FOR ALL What would it take to achieve universal access to water and sanitation?

Timothy Brewer, WaterAid. INTEGRATED SANITATION FOR ALL Integrated sanitation for all: Creative initiatives in responding to sanitation in emergency contexts.

Andy Bastable and Jenny Lamb, Oxfam.

ADAPTING TO CHANGE: MANAGING RISKS AND UNCERTAINTY FOR RESILIENCE AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS Managing new risks and uncertainties for resilience and disaster preparedness Simon Buckle, Xavier Leflaive, Jack Radisch and Charles Baubion, OECD Water is key to disaster resilience Margareta Wahlström, UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

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INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND SERVICES

Infrastructure au naturel: one way to sustainability.

Danka Thalmeinerova and Steven Downey, Global Water Partnership EnvisionTM – a rating system for encouraging sustainable water resources management and services in the United States.

Karen C Kabbes, American Society of Civil Engineers.

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WATER FOR FOOD Clean water: A future luxury?

Claudia Ringler and Hua Xie, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

WATER FOR ENERGY When planning new infrastructure water and energy must go hand in hand Karl Rose, World Energy Council.

GREEN GROWTH Water and green growth Salmah Zakaria, Sara Demartini and Min Woo Kim, United Nations ESCAP. Water stewardship, inequality and green growth.

Adrian Sym, Alliance for Water Stewardship.

MANAGING AND RESTORING ECOSYSTEMS FOR WATER SERVICES AND BIODIVERSITY Wetlands - for water and life!

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ENSURING WATER QUALITY FROM RIDGE TO REEF Asian water environment management: A partnership for improvement Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.

SMART IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM) Sustainable management of available water resources with innovative technologies (SMART) implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM).

Tadashige Kawasaki, Network of Asian River Basin Organisations.

ECONOMICS AND FINANCING FOR INNOVATION INVESTMENTS Financing water infrastructure: New opportunities for a water secure world DaeHyun Bae, Hannah Leckie and Xavier Leflaive, OECD. Access to water in rural areas and villages Raymond Jost, International Secretariat for Water.

Financing water supply systems: The case of Korea and implications for other countries.

Kyung-Hwan Kim, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS) COOPERATION FOR REDUCING CONFLICT AND IMPROVING TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENT An NGO approach to promoting cooperative use of shared water resources.

Marie-Laure Vercambre, Green Cross International.

Shared waters: Cooperating for future generations.

Stockholm International Water Institute WATER CULTURES, JUSTICE AND EQUITY The future of water: When and how will it arrive?

John Oldfield, WASH Advocates.

ENHANCING EDUCATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING 2iE’s education model: An innovative solution for capacity building in subSaharan Africa.

Prof. Amadou Hama Maiga, Dr. Mariam Sou Dakoure, Prof. Hamma Yacouba, 2iE.

Special edition for the

7th Worldwaterforum Published by

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Words into Action

7 Worldwaterforum Special edition for the

th

daegu-gyeongbuk

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republic of korea

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12-17 april 2015

Publishers Peter Antell, Ross W. Jobson Commercial Executives Andrew Moss, William Brown Managing Editor Dave Thomas Asia-Pacific coordinator Lloyd Millett Art Director Johnny Phillips Production Coordinator / Sub-Editor Robert Parker Financial controller Lynn Tarragano

Printed in the Korean Republic

©Copyright Faircount Media (UK) Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of editorial content in whole or without written permission is prohibited. Faircount Media (UK) Ltd. does not assume responsibility for the advertisements, nor any representation made therein, nor the quality or deliverability of the products themselves. Reproduction of articles and photographs, in whole or in part, contained herein is prohibited without expressed written consent of the publisher, with the exception of reprinting for news media use.

Securing Africa’s Water Future

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he Africa Water Vision for 2025 foresees “An Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment”. The Vision speaks to the aspirations of the post-2015 development agenda and aspires for an Africa where the full potential of the continent’s water resources is unleashed to stimulate and sustain economic development, social well-being and ecosystems. A different perspective is needed for water, energy and food security that supports economic growth and development, human well-being and the environment.

Africa realizes the central role of water in this nexus.

Achieving inclusive economic growth while transitioning towards green growth are the two objectives of the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s Strategy for 2013-2022. Water features prominently in the Strategy’s five core operational priorities: Infrastructure; Regional economic integration; Private sector development; Governance & accountability and; Skills & technology.

The AfDB provides financing and technical assistance for sustainable solutions across the water value chain to deepen transformative socio-economic development. All water sector interventions are gender sensitive and are increasingly designed to be resilient to climate change risks.

Through its Transitioning States Facility, the AfDB also applies the fragility lens to design and implement water sector interventions for fragile states and post-conflict countries.

As Africa’s leading development Bank, AfDB has various innovative initiatives and financing tools to help realize the African Water Vision 2025 by leveraging the potentials of for example: i) ii) iii) iv) v)

The African Water Facility (AWF), which an initiative of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). It focuses on the preparation of viable projects and informed governance, leading to effective and sustainable investments: http://www.africanwaterfacility.org/en/ ; The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) aiming at achieving universal access to improved water supply and sanitation services in rural areas: http://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/rural-water-supply-sanitation-initiative/; The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) launched at G8 Summit in 2005 to promote investment and development of infrastructure in Africa for improved lives and economic well-being of the people: http://www.icafrica.org/en/; The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA): http://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/programme-for-infrastructure-development -in-africa-pida/; and Africa50 a vehicle that aims at mobilizing private financing to infrastructure delivery in Africa: http://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/africa50-infrastructure-fund/.

SETTING THE SCENE

7th Worldwaterforum

setting the scene The 7th World Water Forum aims to increase water security, aid sustainable development, harmonise humans and nature and, in the process, deliver ‘the future we want’.

In this section, we present a series of perspectives pertaining to these overarching objectives, authored by leading stakeholders, experts and academics.

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SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

The Water Cycle in a Changing Climate

Millions of people across the globe are already affected by natural variability in the water cycle. A multidisciplinary team of experts from the University of East Anglia and the University of Nottingham, led by Timothy Osborn, Professor of Climate Science at the worldrenowned Climatic Research Unit, set out the empirical evidence - and argue the need for implementation of measured adaptation mechanisms that take into account uncertainties in the projection of future precipitation patterns.

Earth’s freshwater is distributed unevenly – spatially, day by day, through the changing seasons, and between dry and wet periods lasting years to decades.

Climate change, though still very uncertain in its regional details, will have a tendency to exacerbate this unevenness, drying some already arid regions, wetting some humid regions, enhancing seasonality in many areas, and concentrating rainfall into shorter but more intense spells. As a result, projections of future changes in climate and the hydrological cycle indicate that the population exposed to hydrological risks will increase significantly during the 21st century, though slowing climate change through reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could reduce this risk.

Climate and water: tightly coupled partners Climate change occurs due to disturbances to the Earth’s energy budget, driven particularly by natural and, more recently, human-related variations in greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2. The response of our climate to such changes is through

a complex mixture of mechanisms in which the hydrological cycle plays a central role – transporting heat energy (through evapotranspiration followed by condensation) from surface to atmosphere and from tropics to poles, affecting absorption and reflection of radiation by the influence of clouds and the water vapour content. Indeed, water vapour is the strongest component of the natural greenhouse effect, yet unlike other GHGs it condenses and rains out of the atmosphere at only moderately low temperatures [Lacis et al., 2010]1. Thus the amount of water vapour depends strongly on how warm the air is: the atmospheric water vapour concentration is enhanced because CO2 keeps the atmosphere naturally warm – and increased CO2 will warm the atmosphere further, allowing increased water vapour to further strengthen the total greenhouse warming effect. This intertwining of the hydrological cycle and the Earth’s energy budget means the hydrological cycle is both modified by climate change and interacts with it to shape all aspects of climate change.

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Timothy J. Osborn Professor of Climate Science, Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, Norwich, UK

Simon N. Gosling Associate Professor in Climate Risk School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

currently living in water scarcity has been estimated at between 1.2 and 2.4 billion (Gosling and Arnell, 2013)3, with the wide range arising because the measure of scarcity differs between studies. Figure 2 shows regions of high Water Stress Index.

The number of people across the globe currently living in water scarcity has been estimated at between 1.2 and 2.4 billion.”

Water in our current climate Water evaporated from the oceans is carried by the atmosphere away from the subtropics (where evaporation peaks) both equatorward and to the mid latitudes, though also over subtropical land regions during summer monsoons.

This transport, combined with the uplift of moist air flows by mountains or over warm land surfaces, and the recycling of water evaporated and transpired from the land surface, determines the complex pattern of land precipitation (Figure 1). It is usually uneconomic to transport water over long distances, so the development

of agriculture, industry and society has been shaped by this distribution of water resources.

The reliability of precipitation is also key, and many regions exhibit large seasonal and interannual variability. Water storage and other adaptations provide some resilience to these large variations, but additional measures and infrastructure may be needed, especially where climate change is expected to alter average rainfall or its variability. The natural infrastructure of geological aquifers plays a key role here, but recent assessments [Gleeson et al., 2012]2 have highlighted that many aquifers are being unsustainably exploited, with annual abstractions exceeding the renewable groundwater resources by more than tenfold in some instances (Figure 2).

The number of people across the globe

Natural climate variability Despite the high profile given to climate change driven by increasing GHGs, it is the natural and mostly unpredictable variations in our weather and climate which will dominate the hydrological cycle in the coming decade or two. This is especially the case when considering local scales, where rainfall variability is large compared with the expected climate change signal [Hawkins and Sutton, 2011]4. Nevertheless, the underlying climate change signal is expected to grow and may be felt most where it alters the frequency of extreme events such as droughts and floods. There is indeed some evidence for increased precipitation extremes in recent decades, though not in all regions and our observing networks are not sufficient to provide a global picture [Hegerl et al., 2014]5. Natural variability, especially related to the El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, has so far prevented the identification of any clear trend in drought occurrence at the global scale [Trenberth et al., 2014]6.

Water scarcity in a changing climate The effect of climate change on the hydrological cycle is expected to grow

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

as we look further ahead, with increased precipitation projected at mid to high latitudes and drying on the poleward side (e.g. the Mediterranean) of the already dry subtropical regions. Changes in the equatorial and monsoon regions are very uncertain, with some climate models projecting drying in some regions and other models projecting increased precipitation, and vice versa elsewhere. This uncertainty should not be equated with an assumption of little change: on the contrary the changes in precipitation could be very large, perhaps leading to changes in average streamflow of more than +/-30%.

But there is more to consider than simply changes in average climate. The vertical gradient, up through the troposphere, is expected to weaken in temperature but strengthen in water vapour, especially in the topics. The former may stabilise the atmosphere and make convection less frequent, while the latter would intensify convection when it does occur [Hegerl et al., 2014]5. This combination of less frequent but more intense rainfall is a robust prediction of how the hydrological cycle will change, and coupled with increased potential evapotranspiration (PET) resulting from warmer temperatures, may lead to widespread decreases in soil moisture during the growing season and thus an increased risk of agricultural drought [Jiménez Cisneros et al., 2014]7.

Over the past decade, assessments of how water scarcity might change under different socio-economic pathways and emissions scenarios have increased in number, and they have become more comprehensive by coupling multiple climate models and hydrological models. There is considerable uncertainty in the regional patterns of change (Figure 3), but nevertheless strong scientific agreement that increasing GHG emissions will adversely affect water security at the global-scale and especially in most dry subtropical regions due to an

Figure 1. Climatology of annual total precipitation, also highlighting areas where precipitation is highly seasonal (defined here as regions where half the annual total falls in three months or less).

Figure 2. Areas of present-day water stress (grey shading) and six aquifers where groundwater resources are under particular pressure (red outlines). Water Stress Index is the percentage of total water resource that is being withdrawn for human use, estimated using population in year 2000 (11-20% light grey; 21–40% medium grey; above 40% dark grey)3. Highlighted aquifers all have annual abstractions between 8 and 54 times the renewable groundwater resource.

increase in variability of precipitation and surface runoff [Gerten et al., 20138; Arnell et al., 20139]. Schewe et al. (2014)10 estimated that about 8% of the global population would see a severe reduction in water resources with even a relatively modest global warming of 1 °C above present day, rising to 14% at 2°C and 17% at 3°C. Change in groundwater recharge and storage will reflect the regional interplay

of future precipitation, runoff and PET. Simulations using the latest climate projections [Collins et al., 2013]11 indicate recharge and storage volume increases in the northern mid-to-high-latitudes but a mixed pattern of decreases and limited increases in lower latitudes.

Although increases are projected in parts of agriculturally-intensive eastern China and India, climate projections for these areas are very uncertain and groundwater withdrawal already greatly exceeds recharge in some significant aquifers (Figure 2) such as the North China Plain and Upper

SETTING THE SCENE

Approximately 600 million people currently live in flood-prone areas, yet few studies have incorporated data on flood-prone populations and infrastructure to quantify global-scale fluvial flood risk.”

Ganges (Gleeson et al., 2012)2. It might appear beneficial to increase groundwater withdrawals in response to increases in river flow variability under climate change but this is only sustainable where groundwater withdrawals remain well below groundwater recharge (Kundzewicz and Döll, 2009)12. Moreover, groundwater would not offset declines in surface freshwater availability in regions where groundwater recharge decreases due to climate change.

Portmann et al. (2013)13 predict that for each degree of global temperature rise, an additional 4% of the global land area would experience at least 30% decrease in groundwater resources.

A more variable future?

Assessments with multiple climate and hydrological models indicate that fluvial flood hazard could increase over about half of the globe by the end of the century but there is high variability at the catchment scale and the magnitude of projected changes varies strongly between climate models (Dankers et al., 201414.1; Hirabayashi et al., 201314.2; Arnell and Gosling, 201414.3),. The direction of change is more certain, however, for increases in flood frequency in Southeast Asia, Peninsular India, eastern Africa and the northern half of the Andes (Hirabayashi et al., 2013)14.2. Approximately 600 million people currently live in flood-prone areas, yet few studies have incorporated data on

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Words into Action

Figure 3. Uncertainty in the effects of climate change on exposure to water scarcity in 2050 (relative to 1961–1990 estimates) by considering climate change projections from 21 different climate models. The upper panel shows how many of these 21 projections result in a significant increase in exposure to water scarcity, while the bottom shows how many project a significant decrease in exposure to water scarcity. Regions shaded in both panels are those where uncertainty in climate change is greatest, with some models predicting significantly drier conditions but others predicting significantly wetter conditions. [Redrawn from Gosling and Arnell, 2013]3 flood-prone populations and infrastructure to quantify global-scale fluvial flood risk.

An initial assessment (Arnell and Gosling, 2014)14.3 suggests that by 2050 between 31 and 450 million people may experience an increase in exposure to flood hazard, with the large range reflecting our uncertainty in future precipitation changes.

Closing remarks Millions of people across the globe are already affected by natural variability in the water cycle. In some regions, an increasing population and climate change will combine to exacerbate issues such as water scarcity and flood risk. This points towards a need for the implementation of measured adaptation mechanisms that take into account uncertainties in the projections of future precipitation patterns. While climate change presents opportunities for

some regions (e.g. lowering water scarcity), such opportunities may only be realised if infrastructure is in place to manage water resources appropriately.

Craig J. Wallace Senior Research Associate Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, Norwich, UK

Steve Dorling Senior Lecturer School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, Norwich, UK

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

References 1 Lacis AA, Schmidt GA, Rind D and Ruedy RA (2010) Atmospheric CO2: principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature.

Science, 330, 356-359, doi:10.1126/ science.1190653.

2 Gleeson T, Wada Y, Bierkens MFP and van Beek PH (2012) Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint. Nature, 488, 197-200.

3 Gosling S N and Arnell N W (2013) A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity. Climatic Change (doi: 10.1007/s10584-013-0853-x).

4 Hawkins E and Sutton R (2011) The potential to narrow uncertainty in projections of regional precipitation change.

Climate Dynamics, 37, 407, doi: 10.1007/ s00382-010-0810-6 5 Hegerl G C, E Black, R P Allan, W J Ingram, D Polson, K E Trenberth, R S Chadwick, P A Arkin, B Balan Sarojini, A Becker, A Dai, P Durack, D Easterling, H Fowler, E Kendon, G J Huffman, C Liu, R Marsh, M New, T J Osborn, N Skliris, P A Stott, P-L Vidale, S E Wijffels, L J Wilcox, K M Willett and X Zhang. (2014) Challenges in quantifying changes in the global water cycle. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00212.1 6 Trenberth K E, Dai A, Van Der Schrier G, Jones P D, Barichivich J, Briffa K R, Sheffield J (2014) Global warming and changes in drought. Nature Climate Change, 4, 17-22.

7 Jiménez Cisneros B E, T Oki, N W Arnell, G Benito, J G Cogley, P Döll, T. Jiang, and S S Mwakalila (2014) Freshwater resources.

In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment

Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field C B, et al. (eds.)].

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 229-269.

8 Gerten D, Lucht W, Ostberg S, Heinke J, Kowarsch M, Kreft H, Kundzewicz ZW, Rastgooy J, Warren R and Schellnhuber HJ (2013) Asynchronous exposure to global warming: freshwater resources and terrestrial ecosystems. Environmental Research Letters, 8, 034032.

9 Arnell NW, Lowe JA, Brown S, Gosling SN, Gottschalk P, Hinkel J, Lloyd-Hughes B, Nicholls RJ, Osborn TJ, Osborne TM, Rose GA, Smith P and Warren RF (2013) A global assessment of the effects of climate policy on the impacts of climate change.

Nature Climate Change, 3, 512-519.

10 Schewe J, Heinke J, Gerten D, Haddeland I, Arnell NW, Clark DB, Dankers R, Eisner S, Fekete BM, Colón-González FJ, Gosling SN, Kim H, Liu X, Masaki Y, Portmann FT, Satoh Y, Stacke T, Tang Q, Wada Y, Wisser D, Albrecht T, Frieler K, Piontek F, Warszawski L and Kabat P (2014) Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 3245-3250.

11 Collins M, et al. (2013) Long-term climate change: projections, commitments and irreversibility. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker T F, et al. (eds.)].

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 12 Kundzewicz ZW and Döll P (2009) Will groundwater ease freshwater stress under climate change? Hydrological Sciences Journal, 54, 665-675.

13 Portmann FT, Döll P, Eisner S and Flörke M (2013) Impact of climate change on renewable groundwater resources: assessing the benefits of avoided greenhouse gas emissions using selected CMIP5 climate projections. Environmental Research Letters, 8, 024023.

14.1 Dankers R, Arnell NW, Clark DB, Falloon PD, Fekete BM, Gosling SN, Heinke J, Kim H, Masaki Y, Satoh Y, Stacke T, Wada Y and Wisser D (2014) First look at changes in flood hazard in the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project ensemble.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 3257-3261.

14.2 Hirabayashi Y, Mahendran R, Koirala S, Konoshima L, Yamazaki D, Watanabe S, Kim H and Kanae S (2013) Global flood risk under climate change. Nature Clim. Change, 3, 816-821.

14.3 Arnell N and Gosling S (2014) The impacts of climate change on river flood risk at the global scale. Climatic Change, 1-15.

Acknowledgements Preparation of this paper was supported by the EU HELIX project (603864), the Belmont Forum SAHEWS project (NERC NE/ L008785/1) and a NERC Impact Accelerator Award.

Author contributions All authors contributed to the writing of the paper.

About University of East Anglia UEA is one of the world’s leading institutions concerned with the study of climate change. Housing the Climatic Research Unit, the School of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Centre, its research spans climate of the past, present and future, and its impact on humanity and the natural world.

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SETTING THE SCENE

With its rising share of the world’s economic output and many millions of people being lifted out of poverty, the 21st Century has been called the Asian Century. But despite the rapid economic growth, over 75% of the region is water insecure with countries that are home to over 90% of the region’s population already facing an imminent water crisis.

Indeed, the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Risks Report highlighted water insecurity as the biggest risk not only for Asia but for the world. Unmanaged, this water insecurity poses a serious threat to Asia’s continued growth and prosperity. We need to find solutions to do more with less water taking into account the links between water, energy, and food.

Tackling the

Asian Water Crisis Finding Solutions for Doing More with Less The World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Risks Report highlighted water insecurity as the biggest risk not only for Asia but for the world. Yasmin Siddiqi, Principal Water Resources Specialist at the Asian Development Bank’s Regional Sustainable Development Department, highlights the threat this poses to Asia’s continued growth and prosperity, focussing on the importance of finding solutions that take into account the interdependencies between water, energy, and food.

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WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS

Photo: Samir Jung Thapa

Below: A water tap in Kerangu Ghol. ADB-supported initiatives helped provide 2.7 million people with access to clean water supply. 31402-013: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project in Nepal.

The Backdrop Agriculture is the biggest consumer of water in Asia. On average, 70% of water resources in the region are used for growing food.

However, in many countries, the amount of crops produced from a unit of water is lower than it could be and needs to be because water is used inefficiently. The expansion of cities, towns, and industrial areas is reducing available farmland at the same time as food demand is increasing, adding pressure on the need to produce more crop per drop.

Asia’s energy demand is growing at an exceptional rate as Asia’s economies expand apace and populations seek on-demand electrical supply.

Estimates produced by Columbia University’s Water Institute for Asia predict a 65% increase in industrial water use, a 30% increase in domestic use, and a 5% increase in agriculture use by 2030. This illustrates the growing and acute competition among the principal water consumers—it also indicates the limits on supply options for agriculture.

Cities are also growing at a phenomenal rate – by 2050 about 64% of Asia’s population will be urban. The PRC already has more than one hundred cities with more than 1 million inhabitants, and by 2050, 55% of India’s population is expected to reside in cities. Alarmingly, more than 50% of urban residents in Asia already live in low-lying coastal zones or flood plains. This places a large population at risk from urban flooding and other disasters. This is a water problem of a different kind.

Dynamic rural economies, the impacts of climate change and the water-food–energy nexus require a rapid shift away from piecemeal and isolated solutions to water insecurity that we have typically seen in the past.

As recognised by the 2030 Water Resources Group in Charting Our Water Future1, planning for water relies on technical innovations to increase water productivity

but which must also take into account the direction of the whole economy. ADB currently invests about $2 billion per year in urban and rural water-related projects and about $4 billion in energy projects. Our new challenge is to operationalise solutions through a multi-pronged approach which demands emphasis on the inter-linkage between water and energy. ADB’s Water Operational Plan for 2011-2020 which guides ADB activities in the water sector seeks to do this.

The Challenges Ahead Raising the Profile. Water plays a pivotal role in sustaining economic growth. All too often, the critical nature of the resource, particularly in the context of development and growth, is overlooked and we must raise the profile of water beyond just flooding, agriculture and water supply. The manufacturing and industrial sectors are key to Asia’s economic growth. The huge requirements of water for these sectors, and the energy needed to drive them, are intrinsically linked.

To recognise the holistic link between water and energy requires a step change in approaches to development and the

Estimates produced by Columbia University’s Water Institute for Asia predict a 65% increase in industrial water use, a 30% increase in domestic use, and a 5% increase in agriculture use by 2030.” various dimensions and interactions of water use. ADB’s Asia Water Development Outlook publication is an effort to provide a framework to present a quantitative and comprehensive analysis of water security on a country-by-country basis. A core finding of the latest 2013 report is that without efforts to improve water availability, water scarcity will become a constraint on economic growth.

In the People’s Republic of China (PRC),

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SETTING THE SCENE

Below: Located at Khojabakirgan-2 Pump Station, this reservoir is for the first level of water lifting.

planners and developers consider the need to expand energy output.

Rapid urbanisation in the region provides a particularly daunting backdrop to the waterfood-energy nexus challenge. Urban and peri-urban agriculture is expanding to meet the growing demands for food in cities, but the sector must compete with industry and municipalities for water and land resources as well as facing increasing urban pollution. Safe use of wastewater for irrigation and wasteto-energy initiatives are among the innovative solutions required for tackling the nexus within this urban-rural interface.

for example, an estimated 2.3% of gross domestic product is already lost because of water scarcity (1.3%) and the direct effects of water pollution (1%). The next Asia Water Development Outlook, due in 2016, will provide a more refined picture of water security in the region and present case studies.

The Water-Energy-Food Interlinkage.

Water is intrinsically linked across all users.

Agriculture is the major consumer of water and with an ever-increasing population, food production (net of food used for biofuels) must increase by 70% by 2050 to meet demand. As populations become wealthier, their diets change and become more meat based. This requires more water. On average about 5 times more water is required to

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Words into Action

produce a kilogram of meat compared to a kilogram of rice.

Many countries in the region rely heavily on groundwater for farming. The countries with the biggest irrigated areas using groundwater are India (39 million ha) and the PRC (19 million ha). Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan together pump about 210-250 km3 of groundwater using about 21-23 million pumps every year. The total energy used in these countries for lifting groundwater is estimated to be 68.6 billion kWh equivalent per year, costing about US$3.78 billion.

Continued expansion in groundwater use causes declining water tables and increased demand for energy. Producing that energy in the first place whether for agriculture or other use requires significant amounts of water although this fact is often overlooked when

1. Technology advancements for re-use or more efficient use of water.

Pollution in upstream areas undermines health and sanitation for populations which depend on local water sources for their water supply. The problem is most acute in rural areas where drinking water treatment is inadequate or nonexistent. ADB has forged links with the private sector in the PRC to deliver the first direct assistance focusing on innovative technology for rural wastewater management. This project introducing the rotating biological contactor, which is mainly used in Europe and the United States for industrial wastewater treatment, will reduce pollution in the PRC’s rural areas, particularly in townships currently without wastewater treatment.

2. Improving governance of water resources and water services delivery.

Adopting an integrated approach to water resources management promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources to maximise economic growth and social

Photo:Â Nozim Kalandarov

The links and competition between various water users require more novel solutions to meet the changing and challenging demands faced by the region. They also highlight that isolated, sector specific focus for solutions are no longer be valid. Efforts are needed across various sectors to deliver innovative projects that manage water resources more rigorously

Finding novel solutions The links and competition between various water users require more novel solutions to meet the changing and challenging demands faced by the region. They also highlight that isolated, sector specific focus for solutions are no longer be valid. Efforts are needed across various sectors to deliver innovative projects that manage water resources more rigorously. Among the options are:

WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS

benefits without compromising the environment. ADB promotes integrated water resources management as a sound process to strike a balance across all water users. The Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management Investment Program in Indonesia, the Karnataka Integrated and Sustainable Water Resources Management in India and the Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project in Nepal, for example, are a new genre of projects which consider water more broadly as a resource and embed a holistic planning approach as the basis for development.

ADB is the first multi-lateral development bank to implement a dedicated Water Operators Partnership Program. This supports sharing knowledge and building capacities of water utilities through partnering.

Pairing an experienced, efficient water utility and a utility needing help to deliver better services allows underperformers to learn and adopt best practices from an experienced and successful mentor. The program has helped water utilities in Papua New Guinea reduce non-revenue water losses by 10% through training and support in leakage detection. Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) of Myanmar meanwhile is twinning with Hunter Water of Australia with Hunter Water training YCDC staff on water quality monitoring and treatment so they can improve the performance of their wastewater plant.

3. Managing the growing costs of energy and water consumption for agriculture.

Power subsidies including free power to farmers have led to an unsustainable development paradigm without matching growth in food-grain yields. In many countries, high subsidies for power have led to groundwater depletion, necessitating the use of higher-capacity pump sets, which in turn consume more power and result in higher power subsidies. In Punjab state in India, provision of free power to farmers to promote agriculture has caused the state government to almost exhaust its revenues in recent years. In short, Punjab is caught in two vicious cycles of power subsidies and debt– deficit dynamics, which reinforce each other, and undermine fiscal and environmental sustainability.

Adjusting agriculture power subsidies is highly politically sensitive. It requires changing behavior by introducing demand management incentives and public awareness. ADB is financing the Punjab Development Finance Program which will adopt a phased approach to adjusting the power subsidy for agriculture tubewells, increasing farmers’ awareness on using water and energy efficiently and importantly, separating out the electricity feeders for agriculture tubewells which will help monitor use of energy and water for crop production.

There is no short answer but without innovative solutions that recognise links and

competition between all water users, the huge development gains in Asia in in recent decades could reverse.

Reference 1. Charting Our Water Future Economic frameworks to inform decision-making, 2009 About the author Yasmin Siddiqi is the Principal Water Resources Specialist with the Regional Sustainable Development Department of ADB where she provides knowledge development and support for implementation of Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s water policy and water operational plan through corporate support to ADB’s operations departments and water Community of Practice (COP).

She is a chartered civil engineer with 20 years experience in the planning, design and implementation of water resources projects in South Asia. Her specialisation is irrigation engineering and she spent over 8 years working on large and small-scale irrigation projects in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Since joined ADB in 2007 as a project officer for the South Asia Department she has led technical assistance and loan projects including smallscale water resources management and rural development in Bangladesh and irrigation and integrated water resources management in India.

About ADB The Asian Development Bank aims for an Asia and Pacific free from poverty.

Approximately 1.7 billion people in the region are poor and unable to access essential goods, services, assets and opportunities to which every human is entitled.

Photo: Ariel Javellana

Yasmin Siddiqi

Above: Water flowing out of the reservoir of the Nam Theun 2 Dam.

Principal Water Resources Specialist, the Regional Sustainable Development Department of ADB

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EU INITIATIVE

MORE THAN WATER T

o mark the 7th World Water Forum (12 - 17 April 2015), the European Commission wishes to reconfirm its strong commitment to making sure that everyone, no matter where they live, has access to clean, safe water and sanitation.

2015 is a pivotal year. Through the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda and also underlined in the recent Communication from the European Commission "A Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development after 2015" the international community is called to respond in a transformative manner to fundamental challenges facing the world today.

Building on the commitments taken in Rio, water and sanitation will constitute a key area for development.

The UN Open Working Group endorses

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Words into Action

a dedicated water-related sustainable development goal. The 2014 Communication from the European Commission "A decent life for all: from vision to collective action” reaffirms that water and sanitation action remain priorities and recommends that the new development framework promotes access to safe drinking water and sanitation whilst integrating water management, including water efficiency, in order to manage the challenges of climate change and water scarcity.

2015 is also the European Year for Development and we will continue to target the public’s interest and facilitate cooperation between EU Member States and EU partners under the motto "our world, our dignity, our future". The EC and EU Member States remain the world's largest donors of

development assistance, providing more than half of official aid worldwide (€53 billion in 2011). 85% of Europeans think it is important to help people in developing countries. However, as stated by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, the EU's development policy is neither charity or a luxury but an “investment for peace and stability” around the globe.

Access to water and sanitation has been a top priority over the last decade. More than €2.4 billion has been committed in the water sector (€712m via the EU Water Facility). Over 300 water projects are currently being implemented in 60 countries, many of which respond to sanitation and hygiene thematic priorities targeting

All photos in this feature: EU funded projects in the water sector

SPECIAL FEATURE

poor peri-urban areas. In the context of our EU development policy "Agenda for Change" and the programming period 2014-2020, Integrated Water Resource Management (water for food, people, nature and industry) will be addressed in 32 countries.

Water remains a main area of action for particular regional programmes: Neighbourhood, Central Asia, and East Africa.

Although the MDG target on drinking water has been reached there remain important disparities across regions.

748 million people still do not have access to safe drinking water and sanitation is still one of the most off-track sectors, with an estimated 2.5 billion people lacking access to basic levels of sanitation, and over a billion people practicing open defecation, mostly in middle income countries. This terrible reality has a disproportionate impact on women and girls and therefore promoting gender equality in the 2014-2020 programming period is a priority for this Commission.

Two years ago at the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in New York, the European Commission launched the EU Millennium Development Goal initiative, allocating an extra 1 billion for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to meet the most off-track MDGs of which 266 million is being specifically targeted by the initiative at water and sanitation.

Since 2002, the EU Water Initiative (EUWI) has brought partners from the water world together. This approach is implemented through Multi-Stakeholder Forums held in four regions: Africa, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, Latin America, and the Mediterranean to strengthen political commitment towards water and sanitation access and better governance. Although not itself a funding mechanism, the EUWI aims to improve coordination among the EC and EU Member States to improve delivery of water supply and sanitation services.

Since 2012 the EU has also been supporting a greater understanding of the water-energy-food security Nexus as a means to implement a new paradigm for the management of water, energy and land to support inclusive and sustainable growth in the poorest developing countries.

In this framework the European Commission is developing a global Nexus Programme for 2016 onwards.

We recognise the achievements of many regions to initiate nexus dialogues and the support given by our Member States to regional organisations and platforms that have begun to bring water, energy and food security stakeholders around the same table. This will be enhanced to enable regional nexus dialogues to achieve nexus action plans and policy recommendations which can be used to guide future integrated investments.

This emphasis responds also to the commitments made in July 2013 by the Foreign Affairs Council and its conclusions on EU Water Diplomacy, stressing the importance of water co-operation across the world. The number of people living in seriously water-stressed river basins is expected

to double between 2000 and 2050, affecting 3.9 billion people.

Supplying safe water and ensuring sustainable access to both water and energy continues to require stronger governance and political engagement from national and international communities. Water will continue to be at the forefront of our development agenda as a cross-cutting element. â?š

Mr Neven Mimica Commissioner (2014-2019) for International Cooperation and Development

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SETTING THE SCENE

Regional Cooperation on Water in South Asia: Challenges and Opportunities

Despite nearly 75 percent of countries in the Asia-Pacific region facing an imminent water crisis, exacerbated by rapid democratic transition, urbanisation and the consequences of extreme events, cooperation between countries remains limited and piecemeal. Using the South Asian experience as a case in point, The Asia Foundation’s Sagar Prasai and Mandakini Surie contend that progress is only possible if nationalistic posturing around shared water issues is put aside, alongside a slew of other changes.

South Asia has witnessed rapid social and economic transformation over the last two decades. Undeterred by a global slowdown, the region’s economic growth rate is estimated to remain at a respectable 6 and 6.4 percent for 2015 and 20161. Coupled with a sustained economic growth and a burgeoning population of 1.67 billion2, South Asia is experiencing immense pressures on rapid demographic transition and urbanisation, intensifying agriculture and an escalating energy demand. Water remains at the core of all three processes: urbanisation, food production and energy generation.3

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Words into Action

Nearly 75 percent of countries in the Asia-Pacific face an imminent water crisis, and among these countries, South Asia has emerged as a global hotspot where poor water security is beginning to have a serious impact on populations and economies4. The region supports more than 21 percent of the world’s population, but has access to just over 8 percent of global water resources. Meanwhile, the available resources are dwindling. Water availability per capita in South Asia has declined by nearly 70 percent since 19505 and it is estimated that nearly 20 percent of South

Asia’s populations lack access to safe drinking water.6 Rivers in South Asia bear the brunt of this new demand for fresh water. The three major transboundary river systems— the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra – are under considerable stress from population growth, industrial development, urbanisation and ecological degradation.

Exacerbating the problem, excessive extraction of ground and surface water for agriculture, industry and energy production, poor domestic management of water resources and increasing variability in

REGIONAL COOPERATION

rainfall and climate patterns have made countries in the region highly susceptible to floods, droughts, and natural disasters.

The problem is likely to get worse. Climate change studies on South Asia increasingly suggest that the effects of glacial melt,

temperature variations, and erratic monsoon patterns will significantly reduce the availability of water in the region’s river basins leading to a greater frequency of floods and droughts. Whether linked to the broader pattern of climate change or

Water availability per capita in South asia has declined by nearly 70 percent since 1950 and it is estimated that nearly 20 percent of South Asia’s populations lack access to safe drinking water

not, the damage and devastation caused by recent floods in the region including the 2008 Kosi floods in Nepal, 2010 Indus floods in Pakistan, 2011 Uttarakhand floods in India and more recently 2014 floods in parts of Indian and Pakistan administered Kashmir are difficult to ignore.

Despite the frequency and transboundary nature of these extreme events, cooperation between countries remains limited and piecemeal at the best of times. Given the subcontinent’s deep, complex and contentious geo-politics, all things that flow from one side of the

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SETTING THE SCENE

border to the other are inextricably tied to national security. Securitization of South Asia’s water has meant that even basic information about transboundary rivers, including stream and sediment flow, water withdrawal, and usage is notoriously difficult to access within countries – let alone across borders.

Political boundaries complicate the management of transboundary rivers everywhere but the subcontinent’s complex and contentious geo-politics runs deeper than most other regions. The Indus, Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers have sustained and supported civilisations in the region for centuries. Originating in the Tibetan plateau, these rivers are vital life lines to a number of countries in the region in particular Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. As these rivers criss-cross boundaries, there are a number of upstream-downstream linkages, interdependencies and water sharing arrangements that are mediated through international agreements. The countries in South Asia so far have managed to sign only five such agreements: Indus River Treaty between India and Pakistan (1960), the treaties between India and Nepal on the Kosi (1954), Gandaki (1959), Mahakali (1996), and the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty (1996) between India and Bangladesh. In addition, the scope of

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these agreements are limited to managing a negotiated water-sharing arrangement between two countries at a fixed hydrological structure (a dam or a barrage) and incapable of managing new and emerging challenges associated with flow variability, ecological degradation, dynamics of river morphology and climate change.

Water remains an evocative and politically charged issue in South Asia. The political incentives for collaboration are often too

Indus has been a cause for concern in Pakistan. Similarly, for downstream Bangladesh, the availability of water from the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers particularly in the lean season continues to sour bi-lateral relations. Between Nepal and India, frequent flooding of rivers such as the Kosi and Mahakali have been a source of sorrow and destruction of human life and property.

Beyond the political context, several

Water remains an evocative and politically charged issue in South Asia. The political incentives for collaboration are often too meagre for the region’s leaders.

meagre for the region’s leaders. Close to 70 percent of the region’s population remains rural and their livelihoods are intrinsically linked to small farm agriculture. This voting block is easily swayed by nationalistic rhetoric on water. It is not uncommon for countries to be suspicious of each other over proposed developments upstream or to accuse each other of subversive use of dams and barrages in causing floods or droughts downstream. India’s construction of upstream dams on tributaries of the

features of the existing approaches to water cooperation in the region also need to change. First, the framework for cooperation is exclusively controlled by national governments which limits the spaces and opportunities for sub-national stakeholders and citizen groups to seek and find alternative common ground on deeply contested issues. The content of negotiations on transboundary rivers is exclusively controlled by technocrats in water resources ministries and determination of what constitutes “national interest” on transboundary water is often a function of the knowledge held by couple of key bureaucrats in foreign ministries. This approach also keeps the scope of engagement narrow and negotiating postures further entrenched in an intractable zero-sum game. Second, the discourse around water is highly nationalistic and securitised. This makes it difficult for negotiators even to accept common sense compromises or to seek reasonable common grounds on contended issues. Third, bilateral negotiations have remained uniquely reductionist in content, focusing largely on the quantum of water to be allocated to each country around a specific diversion structure. With each party wanting more of the water, even when the respective claims on shares of water is eventually agreed upon, other

REGIONAL COOPERATION

Measuring Water Security in Asia and the Pacific. http://www.adb.org/sites/default/ files/publication/30190/asian-waterdevelopment-outlook-2013.pdf 4. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Aquastat online database, as cited in Jaitley (2009), p. 17.

5. Babel, M.S. and Wahid, S.M. 2008.

Freshwater Under threat in South Asia: Vulnerability Assessment of Freshwater Resources to Environmental Change.

Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme and Asian Institute of Technology.

problems related to upstream-downstream rights, ecological management and local livelihood concerns tend to crop up and delay implementation of the agreement.

Lastly, much of the discourse on water takes place in an environment of secrecy with governments retaining monopoly access over data as well as the agenda.

Governments in the region, in particular India and Pakistan, consider hydrological data and information as state secrets which leaves the civil society, the academia, the media and other legitimate stakeholders with no available means of producing informed counter-narratives that often help to soften rigid positions taken by governments and find reasonable common grounds for agreements in informal settings.

The unbundling of South Asian nationalism on water issues is another important entry point towards a more gainful, sustainable and equitable management of shared water in the region.

Governments in South Asia have so far been unable to make progress on this front largely because the political benefits of maintaining a highly nationalistic posture on water have outweighed the political costs of reasonable compromises on

water. This unbundling endeavor, however, remains easier said than done. In order to open up the water discourse to include multiple voices and interests, a gradual democratisation of policy processes and water-related state institutions is required.

Dialogues designed to understand and appreciate the position taken by the “other” is required at all levels. This approach will take time and persistence. Elevating the discourse on regional water cooperation in South Asia from one of long-standing mistrust and misinformation to openness and cooperation is crucial, urgent and necessary to the future of the region.

References 1. According to 2013, World Bank estimates. http://data.worldbank.org/ region/SAS

About the authors Sagar Prasai is the Country Representative and Mandakini D. Surie is a Senior Program Officer both with The Asia Foundation in New Delhi, India. The authors can be reached at sagar.prasai@ asiafoundation.org and mandakini.surie@ asiafoundation.org.

About The Asia Foundation Working through a network of offices in 18 Asian countries, The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia.

Sagar Prasai Country Representative, The Asia Foundation, India

2. Rasul, Golam 2014. Food, water and every security in South Asia: A nexus perspective from the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Environmental Science and Policy.

39, p. 35-48

Mandakini Surie

3. Asia Development Bank. 2013. Asian Development Water Outlook 2013 –

Senior Program Officer, The Asia Foundation, India

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SETTING THE SCENE

Water and ODA:

Global Water Crisis and Korea’s Contribution to Addressing the Issue Today various water-related issues are posing a threat to the survival and economic activities of humanity. Many regions around the world are experiencing water shortages.

To make matters worse, the rising pressure from global water-related crises is leading to international conflicts over water resources. Thus, the appropriate action to address the global water crisis has now

30

Words into Action

become an essential requirement for the stability and prosperity of the world.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in April, 2014, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said that the most important and direct impact of climate change will “result in conflicts over water and food” within five to ten years (Elliot, 20141).

This means that, with the spread of

damage by unusual weather events and global warming, climate change-induced water shortages and water disasters are the biggest threat to the world in the 21st century.

Thus, all nations of the world should work together to address water-related crises (e.g. flooding, typhoons, and droughts) and reduce the resulting damage. Such concerted effort is a matter of the utmost

REGIONAL COOPERATION

Number ofClimate-related Climate-related Disasters, Number of Disasters Around1980-2011 the World (1980-2011)

The appropriate action to address the global water crisis has now become an essential requirement for the stability and prosperity of the world.

200

150

100

150

http://www.unisdr.org

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Created on 13 June 2012 DATA SOURCES

FLOOD 39

43

48

49

47

58

50

68

76

46

60

59

84

EM-DAT - http://www.emdat.be/ - The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database; Data version: 13 June 2012 - v12.07

STORM 43

50

52

59

57

51

56

58

60

73

137

66

76

108

81

DROUGHT 14

13

13

32

8

3

4

15

17

7

12

18

12

9

13

6

6

18

2

3

2

1

8

2

6

6

5

13

8

7

4

9

13

5

13

12

Humanitarian Symbol Set (2008): http://www.ungiwg.org/map/guideline.php

EXTREME TEMPERATURE

3

77

88

94

92

81

77

95 79

94

122

158

157

172

88

106

102

108

123

20

23

27

22

25

14

11

22

8

31

23

15

159

25

129

193

85

129 16

130 29

226

218

166

76

105

111

87

91

84

9

11

16

18

16

16

24

25

9

151

24

183

29

154

15

Source 1. http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/statistics/

importance and urgency that directly affects global security.

If water resources are distributed equitably across the globe despite climate change, it would not an issue of concern (Hyun Yi, researcher at KOICA Planning & Coordination Team, 20152). However, many countries are continuing to suffer from water scarcity. Also, water disasters are causing losses of life and property.

Notably, the total amount of water on the planet has almost certainly not changed since the Earth was created. However, the world’s population has increased exponentially since 1950 and global water consumption has grown more than threefold over the past 40 years. Thus, all that matters is whether the world has the ability to manage and distribute the absolute amount of water in an efficient manner.

International Rivers and Water Conflicts The four cradles of ancient civilisations (e.g.

Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yellow River valley) have in common that they are all situated along large rivers. This shows that human civilizations

emerged from rivers. Accumulation and redistribution of wealth originating from water are definitely elements of great concern that can threaten food security and human survival.

The factors in disputes and conflicts relating to water can be usually found in various elements such as politics, economy, society, and the environment (Gehrig and

Rogers, 20093). However, conflicts over water arise from shrinking supply and growing demand for water. In particular, countries around international rivers are competing more and more fiercely over water.

The most major conflicts are currently under way among Central Asian nations around the Aral Sea, African nations around the Nile, and the Middle East regions around the Tigris River and the Jordan River.

Also, the Mekong River always bears a high potential for conflicts because of the following two factors: (1) China’s economic emergence and (2) the river’s path that runs from the Tibetan plateau of China through

International River Basins at Risk

Source 2. http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu.

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SETTING THE SCENE

Sustainable development goals: changing the world in 17 steps – interactive

Source 3. http://www.theguardian.com

Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Thus, the river is grabbing the world’s attention.

Water Shortages in Developing Countries The problems of water shortages and water disasters are especially concentrated in developing countries. Appropriate levels of facility investment and manpower training can ease climate change-induced flooding

32

Words into Action

and drought as well as improve inequitable water distribution and water shortages resulting from the absence of water governance. However, implementing those measures requires a considerable cost, thus making it truly difficult for developing countries to come up with fundamental solutions.

With water security as well as food security emerging as a critical issue, the developing world places the highest priority on securing safe and reliable water supply. Many international aid organizations proposed the target of improving access to safe drinking water in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the target year of 2015.

On July 19, 2014, the UN Open Working Group (OWG) concluded negotiations on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and forwarded a proposal of 17 goals that all human beings should pursue together to the General Assembly.

Importantly, the support and cooperation of the international community are an essential requirement for achieving the sixth goal to ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.’

Korea’s Contribution and KOICA’s Water-related ODA Korea achieved the “Miracle on the Han River” out of the ashes of the Korean War. The nation is also the only one in the world that transformed itself from an ODA recipient to a donor country. Thus, with much interest in and a strong commitment to addressing international issues, Korea is actively participating in solving such matters.

Since its establishment, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has implemented projects for supporting developing countries in various fields under the vision of ‘Happiness for All with Global KOICA.’ Importantly, we are providing such support in various forms and sizes to address water-related issues. For instance, we are engaging in a project to develop drinking water sources in villages through cooperation with NGOs. We are also carrying out a project to develop agricultural water and irrigation channels that directly affect food security.

Other forms of support include the master plan project to prevent natural disasters and the project to construct large water supply and sewerage systems. historically, KoicA has provided input, such as master planning, to developing countries, giving priority to those states’ development strategies. in many cases, projects were not immediately implemented, largely because the costs of such huge scale infrastructure projects in consideration exceeded national budget capability. to overcome this type of challenge, KoicA is now attempting to integrate planning and implementation of large scale projects by facilitating financial support and funding via other multilateral financing organizations.

Our support for water-related projects is on a steady increase. We have engaged in approximately 106 projects in a total of 35 countries from 1991 to 2014. The total cost of those projects is estimated at 220 million dollars.

REGIONAL COOPERATION

East Asia Climate Partnership Main Sector

KOICA’s Projects in the Water Sector

We provided support mainly to South America, Africa, and the Middle East during the 1990’s. However, our support has been increasingly focused on Asian regions since the late 2000’s.

Our water-related support projects are no longer confined to developing water supply systems and improving water facilities. They are now being diversified into various areas, including micro-hydropower generation, integrated water resources management, water pollution treatment, and natural disaster prevention.

Such diversification is a result of taking into account geographical features, national development levels, and regional situations.

KOICA’s Project Cases: the Water Management Landmark Project In cooperation with global management consultancy McKinsey & Company, we implemented an intensive review of 36 areas where Korea can show leadership in responding to climate change.

Through this intensive review, we selected water management, low-carbon energy, forests, and biomass as five primary areas to be supported by the East Asia Climate Partnership (EACP)1. Also,

1. The East Asia Climate Partnership (EACP) is Korea’s international initiative for global cooperative development. The EACP helps tackle climate change in developing countries and achieve sustainable growth in Asia. This initiative has provided approximately 200 million dollars in ODA for five years since 2008.

we placed the highest priority on ‘water management’ among those five areas.

Asian developing countries are bearing the brunt of the impact of climate change.

This is attributable to rapid industrialisation and rising energy demand. Thus, the EACP has selected Asian regions as recipients of its support to strengthen their capabilities to respond to climate change and achieve their sustainable development goals.

Importantly, the Water Management Landmark Project offers solutions to water issues because a country with high project effectiveness is selected as a recipient of support. This program is a “landmark-style” water management project.

We selected Mongolia, the Philippines, and Azerbaijan as recipient countries for project support. These countries represent Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia respectively.

We provided a total of 678 billion dollars for those projects until 2015, making the project Korea’s largest grant-type aid in history. This type of project provided a comprehensive solution to water-related issues specific to those countries. As a result, the water management project laid the foundation for the water industry to

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SETTING THE SCENE

■ Project for the Development of New Water Supply Sources for the Yarmag Area of Ulaanbaatar City, Mongolia (2011-2013/22.6 million dollars) This project seeks to address the continuous lack of water resources as well as water shortages from a sharp increase in the population caused by the influx of nomads.

Accordingly, we constructed facilities for solar energy generation and for micro-hydropower generation, thus creating the effect of air pollution decline and environmental health improvement.

This project has contributed not only to building water supply facilities but also to strengthening Mongolia’s capabilities to manage and develop water resources.

■ Project for Mitigating Climate Change Impacts through Sustainable Upland Watershed Management and Installation of Small Water Impoundings in Isabella and Bukidnon district, in Philippine(20102015/21.67million dollars) In the Philippines, one of the countries vulnerable to natural disasters, yields of major agricultural products declined

East Asia Climate Partnership Priority Areas

The Target Areas for the Water Management Landmark

precipitously due to flooding, typhoons, and drought by climate change, posing a threat to food security.

To address this problem, we built small-scale rainwater storage facilities in the nation and helped reduce natural disasters. We also contributed to reducing poverty in rural areas by increasing agricultural productivity through secondary water resources.

This assistance is an exemplary case of bilateral cooperation that maximizes the effectiveness of a project by taking advantage of a differentiated strategy of supporting poverty eradication in rural areas beyond dealing with waterrelated issues.

■ A Total Solution for Water Shortage on the Absheron Peninsula(2010-2013/26.18 million dollars) Azerbaijan, a typical nation adjacent to international rivers, bore the possibility of conflicts among countries over water resources because desertification advanced fast due to climate changeinduced water shortages.

This project helped address water shortages and raise the living standards of local people by providing a reliable supply of water. As a result, this assistance has contributed to improving agricultural productivity in Azerbaijan and enhancing Korea’s image as a leader in responding to climate change.

Also, the largest project of grant-type and loan-type aid has demonstrated the excellence of Korea’s water resources management technology, thus paving the way for water management services to enter the marketin Central Asia.

The Present and the Future of KOICA As for projects in water-related fields, it is difficult to predict the feasibility of business due to various factors such as climate change, urbanisation, and industrialisation.

However, countries around the world are working hard to make a peaceful and fair use of water amid disputes and conflicts over water (Hyun Yi, 2015).

As Korea’s only governmental agency responsible for grant-type aid, we, KOICA, are making efforts to revitalise the economy

34

Words into Action

REGIONAL COOPERATION

Left: Construction of a water supply system

for water-related ODA projects in developing countries.

Last but not least, we are committed to realising the diplomacy based on the public’s participation in KOICA’s activities by achieving the following: (1) increasing ODA to the level commensurate with Korea’s economic size and (2) implementing advanced water-related ODA projects in harmony with the goals of the post-2015 development agenda and the values of the international community.

Concept of a water supply system

References 1 Elliot, Larr y. 2014(April 3). “Climate change will ‘lead to battles for food’, says head of World Bank”. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian. com/environment/2014/apr/03/climatechange-battle-food-head-world-bank 2 Hyun Yi. 2015. ”Water Conflict and International Development Cooperation”: Development & Issue no.23.

As Korea’s only governmental agency responsible for grant-type aid, KOICA is making efforts to revitalise the economy of developing countries and enhance the effectiveness of aid. of developing countries and enhance the effectiveness of aid. To this end, we are building a global partnership by actively participating in international discussions about related matters and expanding our platform role for mutual growth.

In addition, we seek to contribute to eradicating poverty in developing countries and reducing international inequality by building governance in the developing world. To make such contributions, we will also transfer Korea’s economic development experience in a way to suit the unique situations of developing countries

(e.g. the “SMART New Community Movement”).

This work is part of our efforts to make the right diagnosis of water-related crises and achieve shared growth and an integral part of Korea’s efforts to contribute to the international community.

As always, we, KOICA, will put more emphasis on the role and importance of water, which serves as the foundation for health and welfare as well as an essential element for economic activities.

We will also share the burden of the global water crisis and provide support

3 Gehrig, Ja son and Rogers, Mark M. 2009. Water and Conflict: Incorporating Peace building into Water Development. Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services.

About KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) KOICA was founded in 1991, with a mission to fight against global poverty.

Since its establishment, KOICA has strived to meet that goal as Korea’s dedicated grant aid agency. KOICA will embark on its journey to plant the seeds of happiness throughout the world.

About the author Kim Young-mok is president of the Korea International Cooperation Agency since 2013. A career diplomat, Kim previously served in several senior positions and ambassadorships within the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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SETTING THE SCENE

Water in the New Development Era: Three priorities for poverty reduction in a rapidly changing world Development policies and strategies focussed on service delivery and water resource management may be losing sight of the issue which underpins both - access to water itself, write Roger Calow and Nathaniel Mason.

Water security is a regular feature in the jargon of academic and policy documents. A security framing can offer new insight, allowing us to look beyond the narrow concerns of physical stocks, flows and stresses to relational concepts of need, want and access. But debate still too often gets stuck in the language of limits and risks.

We end up losing sight of ‘how’ and ‘for whom’ water security is achieved, and the trade-offs often involved in strengthening one users’ security at the expense of another’s.

The physical arithmetic on water certainly looks gloomy. Limited endowments of freshwater are set against rapid population growth, the need to grow more food and generate more energy, and climate change (Steer, 20131; Cisneros et al, 20142). As the global population heads for more than nine billion by 2050, the world is becoming more urbanised and wealthier (UNFPA, 2013). Food preferences are changing as a new middle class emerges, with a shift to more water-intensive diets in north and south (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2011)3.

Concern over climate change is increasing interest and investment in ‘cleaner’ energy, including hydropower, biofuels and shale gas, with direct or indirect implications for water withdrawals, diversions, consumption and quality (ERD, 20114; Granoff et al, forthcoming5). And greater climate variability increases the risks of flooding and drought

36

Words into Action

DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE

- extreme events that hit the poorest hardest, and entrench poverty for those unable to recover (Cisneros et al, 2014)2 With so many pressures on water systems, it is easy to lose sight of the human face. But just as it would be unthinkable now to analyse food security only in terms of production and supply-side shocks, we cannot hope to address the problems of water insecurity without considering access – to water itself, and to the benefits that flow from it – the entitlements dimension. This point was not lost on the authors of the landmark Human Development Report on water, published 10 years ago, who concluded that “the scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality, not in physical availability” (UNDP, 2006)6. Drawing a simple distinction between water for life (basic human needs) and water for livelihoods (water for productive uses), the report focussed global attention on the startling inequality in access to water that condemned poorer women, men and children to persistent poverty, violence and drudgery. Ten years on, we concluded that stubborn inequalities in water access, provision and use still remain, but that the context for addressing them was changing – and changing fast (Calow and Mason, 2014)7.

Water security in a fast-changing world In broad terms, demographic, socioeconomic and environmental change is re-shaping contexts and priorities for service delivery and water resources management.

Yet development policy remains stuck in siloed policy spheres, and spatially and temporally static thinking about the nature of poverty, growth and water security.

By 2050, the population living in urban areas will be almost as large as today’s global population. Around 90% of the growth will be in developing countries, concentrated mostly in smaller cities and towns (UNFPA, 20138; Lucci, 20149). Beneath the headlines, however, the pace and complexity of movement remain difficult to predict; even in those countries with relatively strong bureaucracies and statistical systems (e.g.

China, India), understanding the nature of rural-urban transitions, and implications for managing and delivering water, presents a huge challenge. Increasingly, simple distinctions between ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ will fail to reflect patterns and flows of people and economic activity, or the new dynamics of water security. At the same time, a growing proportion of those not yet reached by water supply (and sanitation) will live in areas, countries and whole regions affected by political crisis and conflict. Already, around half of the global population without improved water services live in fragile states; a similar situation will arise for sanitation by 2030 based on current rates of progress (Calow and Mason, 2014)7.

What of the big allocation questions around livelihoods? Here too, contexts and priorities are shifting; new money is on the table. The political and financial landscape for major infrastructure investment is very different to the one that existed even 10 years ago, particularly for energy and irrigation (World Bank, 200910; ERD, 20124; Skinner and Haas, 201411). There is a re-emerging consensus on the need for a ‘minimum platform’ of infrastructure for water storage and delivery, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Grey and Sadoff, 200612; Foster and BricenoGarmendia, 201013). But the World Bank is now the lender of last resort for hydropower: in Brazil the national development bank provides the framework and implicit guarantee for domestic funding of large dams in the Amazon (Newborne and Welham, 2014)14; in Africa, Chinese and other non-OECD finance has mostly supplanted that from traditional donors.

Investment in big irrigation is similarly ramping up. In Africa, sustainable land management and water control form the centrepiece of major new initiatives such as the Partnership for Agricultural Water for Africa (AgWa) under the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), Feed the Future and The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

Foreign direct investment in land – and

by implication water – is also accelerating (Woodhouse and Ganho, 2011)15. Improved agricultural water management and irrigation expansion, so the argument goes, are key to boosting yields, and to building the assets and incomes farmers need to break out of poverty (Commission for Africa, 200516; Faures and Santini, 200817).

But while mobilising water for green growth has become something of a new mantra, the pathways and impacts of transition remain poorly understood. Links to poverty reduction (vs GDP or average income) are inferred or assumed (Calow and Mason, 2014)7; causality remains difficult to prove.

Three propositions to deliver water security with a human face – services, economies, politics While labour mobility drives growth at the emerging junctions of economic systems, it makes enormous demands on both the people making a move, and the institutions tasked with managing water resources and delivering services. Large numbers of poor people are not benefiting from either the expansion of community-based services in rural areas, or the reform of municipal utilities, because they live neither on farms or in cities but in emerging ‘rural’ towns and peri-urban areas (Sadoff et al, 2006)18.

In these contexts, no single actor - public, private or NGO – alone has the necessary combinations of information, resources and authority to deliver secure services for all.

The key question is how different non-state actors, including community groups and private entrepreneurs, can work with state institutions in helping poor users (domestic, small business) connect to systems, or be held to account by them in terms of the quality, reliability and affordability of services they deliver. As global attention in major conferences focusses on the role of big corporations in water stewardship and utility services, there is a real danger that the role of home-grown entrepreneurs and businesses – the messy and poorly understood ‘informal’ sector - is ignored, despite its huge significance for poor people (Calow and

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SETTING THE SCENE

Left: Following in her father’s footsteps?

Rapid urbanisation in China is presenting policy makers with difficult decisions on water allocation.

Mason, 2014)7.

Similar issues are at play in fragile or conflict-affected areas in terms of weak state capacity and the importance of hybrid institutions in bridging gaps in service provision. In terms of state capacity and legitimacy, we can hypothesise a general relationship between the provision of basic services (including water and sanitation) and the strengthening of state-society relationships through meeting public needs and expectations. The link may have more to do with how services are delivered (by/ with whom, for whom) than the service itself, however (Ndaruhutse et al, 201119; Wild and Mason, 201320). More evidence on what works is needed. Specifically, on how water security – and its delivery pathway and agents - can best build state capacity and legitimacy and reduce fragility, and how humanitarian and development actors and interventions should adapt to recurrent crises and volatile environments.

The role of water security in underpinning macro-economic growth is increasingly highlighted. Valuable work has been done to model links between GDP and rainfall variability (e.g. Brown and Lall, 2006)21, and in hypothesising a minimum platform of water infrastructure needed to unlock growth gains (Grey and Sadoff, 2006)18. Yet beyond the water sector, there is growing recognition that a narrow focus on growth alone is not only ethically questionable, but also bad economics. What is needed is growth with

38

Words into Action

depth (ACET, 201422; DFID, 201423). Key then is to understand how the new wave of investment in water can go beyond the ‘what’ questions – what is the minimum platform of infrastructure needed for growth - to the ‘how’ and ‘for whom’ questions. In other words, how infrastructure, institutions and investment - increasingly domestic, private or SouthSouth – can leverage the productive potential of water in ways that benefit those with little voice or formal rights in water allocation, or the benefits that flow from it.

The contention here is that while harnessing water for productive use and mitigating environmental risk is central to the ambitions of many countries, new infrastructure is not intrinsically good for the poor if parallel investments in the institutional plumbing of rights and allocation are missing. Hence investments in water control will not generate secure benefit streams for poor people, or preserve the environmental assets on which they depend, if entitlements are eroded and the benefits from water use are captured by powerful groups. Hydropower may, for example, allow an expansion of electricity in low income slum areas – or deliver power to and generate foreign exchange from other users. A new irrigation project may lift thousands of smallholders out of poverty – or simply displace pastoralists and provide export revenue for government parastatals.

What are the implications? In short, water strategies for economic transformation demand a much clearer understanding

of ‘how’ and ‘for whom’ water resources should be developed, and a much smarter appreciation of how the politics of water security play out. Much of the current debate on water security is silent on these issues, and occurs in an unrealistic framework from which political dynamics are almost entirely abstracted.

Understanding the nature of elite settlements and what is really driving political decision-making in water-dependent sectors – from water investment and allocation to the control of benefit streams - would seem an essential starting point. This would help us learn from past mistakes. With the benefit of hindsight, many previous water investments have missed opportunities and incurred unforeseen costs - from de facto privatisation of a common resource to the transfer of water and wealth from poorer to richer groups even where overall gains have been positive (Hatfield-Dodds, 200624; Calow and Mason, 20147). For those with an interest in poverty alleviation, the quality of investment, the depth of growth it generates and the politics that surround it, matters.

References 1. Steer, A. (2013). Resource Depletion, Climate Change and Economic Growth.

Working Paper 5, Global Citizen Foundation.

June 2013.

2. Cisneros, J., Oki, T., Arnell, N., Benito, G., Cogley, J., Doll, P., et al. (2014). Freshwater Resources. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPPC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 3. Mekonnen, M.M., Hoekstra, A.Y. (2011).

National water footprint accounts: The blue, green and grey water footprint of production and consumption. Value of Water Research Report Series, No. 50. Delft: UNESCO-IHE. 4. ERD 2011. Confronting scarcity: Managing water, energy and land for inclusive and sustainable growth. European Report on

DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE

Development 2011/12.

5. Granoff, I., Pickard, S., Doczi, J., Calow, R. and D¹Alançon, V. (forthcoming - 2015).

Can fracking green China’s growth? Risks, opportunities and recommendations for unconventional gas in China’s environmental transformation. ODI Research Report.

London: ODI. 6. UNDP (2006). Human Development Report 2006: Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis. New York: United Nations Development Programme.

7. Calow, R.C. and Mason, M. (2014). The real water crisis: inequality in a fast changing world. ODI Framework Paper. London: ODI, May 2014.

8. UNFPA, UNDESA, UN-HABITAT, IOM (2013). Population Dynamics in the Post2015 Development Agenda: Report of the Global Thematic Consultation on Population Dynamics. Geneva: UNFPA, UNDESA, UNHABITAT, IOM. 9. Lucci, P. (2014). An urban dimension in a new set of development goals. ODI Working Paper. London: ODI, January 2014.

10. World Bank (2009). Awakening Africa’s sleeping giant: prospects for commercial agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and beyond. Directions in Development: Agriculture and Rural Development, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Washington DC: The World Bank.

11. Skinner, J. and Haas, L.J. (2014) Watered down? A review of social and environmental safeguards for large dam projects. IIED Natural Resource Issues No.28. IIED, London.

12. Grey, D. and Sadoff, C.W. (2006). Water for Growth and Development. In: Thematic Documents of the IV World Water Forum.

Comision Nacional del Agua, Mexico City.

13. Foster, V. and Briceño-Garmendia, C. (2010). Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation. AFD and World Bank co-publication. Washington DC: Agence Francaise de Development and World Bank.

14. Newborne, P. and Welham, B. (2014). Brazil’s story – sustainable energy.

Development Progress Case Study Report.

London: ODI. 15. Woodhouse, P. and Ganho, A.S. (2011). Is Water the Hidden Agenda of Agricultural Land Acquisition in sub-Saharan Africa? Paper presented at the International Conference on Land Grabbing, 6-8 April 2011, IDS, University

of Sussex.

16. Commission for Africa (2005). Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa. March 2005.

17. Faurès, J.M. and Santini, G. (2008).

Water and the Rural Poor: Interventions for Improving Livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa.

FAO Land and Water Division. Rome: FAO. 18. Sadoff, C., Kemper, K. and Grey, D. (2006). Calming Global Waters: Managing a Finite Resource in a Growing World. Chapter 13 in: Global Issues for Global Citizens – An Introduction to Key Development Challenges.

Washington DC: World Bank.

19. Ndaruhutse, S., Ali, M., Chandran, R., Cleaver, F., Dolan, J. and Sondorp, E. (2011).

State-building, Peace-building and Service Delivery in Fragile and Conflict-affected States.

London: Practical Action Consulting, Save the Children, CfBT Education Trust.

20. Wild, L. and Mason, N. (2013). Examining the role of WASH services within peace- and state- building processes: findings from Tearfund programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of South Sudan. London: ODI. 21. Brown, C. and Lall, U. (2006). Water and economic development: The role of variability and a framework for resilience. Natural Resources Forum 30 (2006) 306-317.

22. ACET (2014). Growth with Depth – 2014 African Transformation Report. African Centre for Economic Transformation. Accra: ACET. 23. DFID (2014). Economic development for shared prosperity and poverty reduction: a strategic framework. London: Department for International Development.

24. Hatfield-Dodds (2006). Water Strategies for Sustainable Development: What is required to ensure ‘responsible growth? A response

by Steve Hatfield Dodds, CSIRO (Australia) to: ‘Water for Growth and Development’ theme document for the 4th World Water Forum

by David Grey and Claudia Sadoff. Clayton, South Victoria: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation About The ODI The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is the UK’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. ODI’s mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods

in developing countries. This is achieved by locking together high quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. ODI’s Water Policy Programme aims to shape global and national debates on water policy, and to inform and support implementation of policy through evidence-based research.

The programme has four main work streams emphasising: secure WASH services, water resources management, adapting to environmental change and uncertainty, and private sector engagement in service delivery and water management.

About the authors Nathaniel Mason is a Research Fellow in the Water Policy Programme at ODI. He leads a stream of work on WASH service delivery in fragile and conflict-affected areas, and also works on the political drivers of sector reform, financing, water security metrics and the role of new actors in the water space, including multinational corporations.

Roger Calow is Head of ODI’s Water Policy Programme, managing a multidisciplinary team of 10 staff working on water and poverty-related issues in over 10 countries.

Roger has 25 years’ experience in applied research, focusing on service delivery and financing, water resources management, irrigation reform and climate change impact assessment and adaptation.

nathaniel mason Research Fellow in the Water Policy Programme at ODI.

roger calow Head of ODI’s Water Policy Programme

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SETTING THE SCENE

Reaching millions with water, sanitation and hygiene in Bangladesh Bangladesh, like many other low-income countries, made significant progress in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)sector in recent years. However, it remains an unfinished agenda and new challenges are emerging. BRAC, a Southern-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) which has been successfully implementing large-scale WASH programmes since the 1970s promise to take on the challenges post-2015.

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It goes without saying that safe drinking water, proper sanitation facilities and good hygiene practices are essential for human health and wellness. Access to safe water and sanitation are basic human rights, the lack of which can lead to several waterborne diseases, which are otherwise preventable, and can have other wide-ranging impacts as well. Poor WASH conditions may lead to malnutrition by way of diarrhoea, intestinal parasites and environmental enteropathy.1,2 Presence of

SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVE

arsenic in drinking water is associated with conditions such as skin lesions, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and neurologic and developmental consequences.3,4,5 Lack of WASH facilities in schools can affect menstrual hygiene management and therefore school attendance.6 Adequate WASH facilities are among the most cost-effective public health interventions.

According to the UN, for each dollar that is invested in water and sanitation, there is a $4.3 return as a result of reduced healthcare costs.7 WASH globally Significant progress has been made globally in increasing access to safe water and sanitation. The MDG target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015, was reached five years ahead of time.8 Still, 748 million people do not have access to safe water.9 The sanitation target has been less successful and it is unlikely that it will be reached: a staggering 2.5 billion people need such facilities.10 A major challenge is equity – it is mostly the poor and the marginalized that are often left behind.

WASH in Bangladesh Bangladesh’s journey with water and sanitation has been fraught with challenges.

In the 1970s shallow tubewells (typically 10-70m deep11) were installed across the country to avoid drinking surface water, which is often contaminated with pathogens. However, it wasn’t until the 1990s that high arsenic levels were discovered in these wells. Similarly, though hygienic (pit) latrines are cost-effective and convenient, communities face the challenge of emptying the pits and safely disposing of sludge.

Fortunately, Bangladesh has already met the MDG target for safe water, with 85% of the population having access as of 2012, up from 68% in 1990.12 This is partly due to installation of deep tubewells (depth greater than 150m) in arsenic affected

areas.13 Much progress has also been made in the sanitation sector with 57% of the population having access to improved sanitation facilities, up from 33% in 1990.14 The sanitation MDG target, however, will not be met by 2015. Bangladesh’s success in reducing open defecation has been phenomenal, the prevalence of which has come down from 34% in 1990 to just 3% by 2012.15 Bangladesh, along with just two other countries (Vietnam and

BRAC in WASH BRAC, one of the largest NGOs globally, was born in Bangladesh in 1972. Its goal is poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. BRAC takes an integrated approach to development, working in major sectors such as education, health, environment & climate change, human rights & legal aid, microfinance, and agriculture & food security, among many others. Our work now reaches an estimated 135 million people,

Bangladesh’s journey with water and sanitation has been fraught with challenges. In the 1970s shallow tubewells (typically 10-70m deep11) were installed across the country to avoid drinking surface water, which is often contaminated with pathogens.

Peru) have brought it below 10%.16 As a contrast, about half of the population in neighbouring India still defecate openly.17 Recognising the need for a comprehensive policy, the Government of Bangladesh adopted the National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation (NPSWSS) in 1998, followed by other important policies including National Water Policy 1999, National Policy for Arsenic Mitigation 2004, National Sanitation Strategy 2005, Pro-poor Strategy for Water and Sanitation 2005, National Cost Sharing Strategy for Water Supply and Sanitation in Bangladesh 2011, Water Safety Framework in Bangladesh 2011, and National Hygiene Promotion Strategy 2012. The main goals and strategy of the NPSWSS are to hand responsibility to local governments, to increase community participation (especially of women), coordinate with NGOs and the private sector, and adopt water and sanitation technologies appropriate to socioeconomic and geographical conditions.

across 11 countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.* BRAC’s involvement in the WASH sector began in the 1970s, when diarrhoea was identified as a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Latrines were built in BRAC’s pioneer project in Sulla sub-district in the north-eastern part of the country, as part of a larger integrated development project. In the 1980s BRAC implemented a programme where mothers were taught how to make a home-made oral rehydration solution for diarrhoea. The programme, which included advice on clean water and hygiene, reached 14 million households.18 In 1986, BRAC started the Essential Health Care programme, with WASH as an important component. By 2005, BRAC had helped local entrepreneurs establish 841 latrine production centres leading to installation of 2.4 million latrines. BRAC also trained over 105,000 community health workers to provide hygiene education and water and latrine promotion. BRAC’s arsenic mitigation project tested more than 85,000 tubewells and established 1,970 safe water points.

* For more information on BRAC and its activities please visit www.brac.net 7th world water forum

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SETTING THE SCENE

Table 1: Overall WASH conditions in programme areas Population Total population in WASH areas

66.4 million

Received hygiene promotion education from BRAC WASH

51.4 million (77%)

Access to safe water

57.03 million (86%)

Access to hygienic latrines

48.8 million (73%)

Households with hygienic latrines where all members use it

90%

In 2006, BRAC started scaling its WASH programme in 152 sub-districts, funded by the Government of the Netherlands. It was expanded to 98 more sub-districts by 2011 totalling 250, about half of the country, with support from the Netherlands government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Aid and Australian Aid. During 2006 to 2011, the proportion of people using sanitary latrines in BRAC subdistricts increased from 33% to 83%.19 In terms of impact on health, the prevalence of waterborne diseases in BRAC areas dropped from 9.4% to 2.3% during the same period.20

support.22 About 51.4 million people were reached through hygiene education, and over 5,000 secondary schools built separate latrines for girls through a cost sharing arrangement with BRAC.23 See Table 1 for information on overall WASH conditions in programme areas.

Much of the success of BRAC WASH can be attributed to our emphasis on community participation. The nucleus of the programme is the Village WASH Committees made up of six women and five men of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, from the community and trained by BRAC. The committee uses

Removing the gaps between socioeconomic groups, gender, rural and urban areas, and urban slums is an imperative for post-2015. The world needs to invest in WASH for human rights, public health, environmental protection and poverty alleviation.

Till now, 36.9 million people have gained access to sanitation through, for example, 1.4 million newly constructed latrines, improvement of 2.8 million unhygienic latrines to hygienic latrines through financial support and motivation, and mobilisation of 671,000 grants from the government.21 More than 2.3 million people gained access to safe water through installation of 6,180 deep tubewells and 700 other water options (such as pond sand filters and piped water supply) through BRAC’s

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participatory rural appraisal* to identify households needing WASH-related assistance (see photo) and then mobilise and keep track of changes in their community. We operate a need-based financial model whereby the poor receive loans to improve their latrines and the ultrapoor receive grants to build two-pit latrines.

We also mobilised the ultra-poor to receive grant assistance from the government.

Along with community involvement, we emphasize public-private partnerships,

and as mentioned already, we support rural sanitation entrepreneurs through interest-free loans and technical training.

Collaboration with the government at different levels is integral but we also work with other non-profit organisations such as the NGO Forum for Safe Drinking Water, Institutional Development Services Linkage, World Toilet Organisation and IRC for technical assistance. Lastly, we also partner with private companies like American Standard and RFL Plastics Limited, who provide subsidized latrine pans.

Another interesting characteristic is our monitoring and evaluation system, which ensure transparency and accountability.

The programme has its own Management Information System, Qualitative Information System, and Monitoring & Quality Control Unit. The independent BRAC Research and Evaluation Division also do coverage and higher-level impact evaluations.

The post-2015 agenda The post-2015 development agenda for the WASH sector should build upon the MDG success and complete the unfinished agenda of universal access to water supply and sanitation. Removing the gaps between socioeconomic groups, gender, rural and urban areas, and urban slums is an imperative for post-2015. The world needs to invest in WASH for human rights, public health, environmental protection and poverty alleviation.

For Bangladesh there are challenges remaining and as such we will focus on difficult hydro-geological settings such as coastal areas, low-lying floodplains, the Hill Tracts and other hard-to-reach areas and introduce appropriate alternative water and sanitation technologies in these different settings, for example, floating and community latrines in flash flood-prone areas (known as haor) in the north-eastern part of the country. In addition, we will expand to urban areas to address the issue of access to WASH facilities in certain places.

Arsenic remains a forgotten issue in Bangladesh. We hope to establish a systematic approach to ensure water

* An approach whereby the knowledge and views of the community are utilised through several tools such as social mapping, transect walks, etc.

SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVE

quality through water safety plans and regular testing. Salinity in both surface and groundwater in the coastal belt is also an emerging issue, so we are currently exploring alternative methods to alleviate this problem. Based on our research on managing faecal waste, we will pilot solutions such as reusing sludge as organic fertiliser after composting for 18 months.

Through a community and businessoriented approach, BRAC has had a significant impact on water-sanitation conditions in Bangladesh. Despite numerous challenges including pervasive poverty, the country’s progress has been commendable and will certainly continue to improve beyond 2015.

References 1. Ngure, F. M., Reid, B. M., Humphrey, J. H., Mbuya, M. N., Pelto, G., & Stoltzfus, R. J. (2014). Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), environmental enteropathy, nutrition, and early child development: making the links. Ann. N.Y. Acad.

Sci., 1308.doi:10.1111/nyas.12330 2. Prüss-Üstün A, Bos R, Gore F, & Bartram J. (2008). Safer water, better health: costs, benefits and sustainability

of interventions to protect and promote health. World Health Organization, Geneva. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/ publications/2008/9789241596435_ eng.pdf 3. WHO. (2012). Arsenic.http://www.who. int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs372/en/ 4. Argos, M., Kalra, T., Rathouz, P. J., Chen, Y., Pierce, B., Parvez, F., Islam, T., Ahmed, A., Rakibuz-Zaman, M., Hasan, R., Sarwar, G., Slavkovich, V., van Geen, A., Graziano, J., & Ahsan, H. (2010). Arsenic exposure from drinking water, and allcause and chronic-disease mortalities in Bangladesh (HEALS): a prospective cohort study. The Lancet, 376. doi:10.1016/ S0140-6736(10)60481-3 5. Wasserman, G. A., Liu, X., Parvez, F., Ahsan, H., Factor-Litvak, P., van Geen, A., Slavkovich, V., LoIacono, N. J., Cheng, Z., Hussain, I., Momotaj, H., &Graziano, J. H. (2004). Water arsenic exposure and children’s intellectual function in Araihazar, Bangladesh. Environ. Health Perspect.,112.

6. Sommer, M., Vasquez, E., Worthington, N., & Sahin, M. (2013). WASH in Schools Empowers Girls’ Education: Proceedings of the Menstrual Hygiene Management in Schools Virtual Conference.UNICEF

and Columbia University, New York. http://www.unicef.org/wash/schools/files/ WASH_in_Schools_Empowers_Girls_ Education_Proceedings_of_Virtual_MHM_ conference%282%29.pdf 7. UN News Centre. (2014). Every dollar invested in water, sanitation brings four-fold return in costs – UN. http://www.un.org/ apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49377 8. WHO/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme. (2014). Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation – 2014 update. WHO, Geneva. http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/ user_upload/resources/JMP_report_2014_ webEng.pdf 9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Flanagan, S. V., Johnston, R. B., & Zheng, Y. (2012). Arsenic in tube well water in Bangladesh: health and economic impacts and implications for arsenic mitigation. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 90. doi: 10.2471/ BLT.11.101253 12. WHO/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme. (2014). Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation – 2014 update. WHO, Geneva. http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/ user_upload/resources/JMP_report_2014_

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webEng.pdf 13. Radloff, K.A., Zheng, Y., Michael, H. A., Stute, M., Bostick, B.C., Mihajlov, I., Bounds. M., Huq, M.R., Choudhury, I., Rahman, M.W., Schlosser, P., Ahmed, K.M., & van Geen, A. Arsenic migration to deep groundwater in Bangladesh influenced by adsorption and water demand. Nat Geosci., 4. doi:10.1038/ngeo1283 14. WHO/Unicef Joint Monitoring Programme. (2014). Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation – 2014 update. WHO, Geneva. http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/ user_upload/resources/JMP_report_2014_ webEng.pdf 15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Chowdhury, M. (2014). The Mantra of Delivery. Stanford Social Innovation Review. http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/the_ mantra_of_delivery 19. Research and Evaluation Division, BRAC. (2013). Achievements of BRAC Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme Towards Millennium Development Goals and Beyond (Research Monograph Series No. 60). http://research.brac.net/ monographs/Monograph_60.pdf 20. Ibid.

21. Data from the programme’s Management Information Systems (MIS) 22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. Jacimovic, R., Ahmed, M., & Bostoen, K. (2014). WASH I Report on QIS data analysis: Findings from the first round 2012 – 2013. http://www.ircwash.org/ sites/default/files/activity_report_on_washi_ qisfindings_firstround_irc_brac_.pdf Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank BRAC’s development partners (Government of the Netherlands, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Department for International Development (DFID), AusAID, American Standard, Charity: Water, and Splash), the Government of Bangladesh,

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BRAC staff, and, more importantly the community people, for their contributions to the success of the BRAC WASH programme. We would also like to thank Katie Allen of BRAC UK for her support in developing this article.

Author contributions Conceptualization: AMRC, NK, ATB, MKB, MAI Initial draft: NK, ATB Review and edits: AMRC, MKB, MAI, NK About the authors Abu Taleb Biswas Md. Abu Taleb Biswas is working as Senior Sector Specialist, WASH in School and Capacity Development at the BRAC water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme.

He has been working with BRAC since 2005.

Prior to joining WASH programme in 2006 he worked in the National Nutrition programme.

He completed his first Master’s in Social Work from Rajshahi University in 2000, and his Master’s in public health from the James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh in 2012.

Md Akramul Islam Director Tuberculosis and Malaria Control; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH); and Disaster, Environment and Climate Change (DECC) programmes, BRAC BRAC Centre 75 Mohakhali Dhaka 1212 Bangladesh T: 880 2 9881265 Ext 3508 Fax: 880 2 8823542 Email: akramul.mi@brac.net Md. Akramul Islam is the director of tuberculosis and malaria control; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); and disaster, environment and climate change (DECC) programmes. He is an adjunct professor of James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University. Dr Islam completed his Masters on Primary Health Care Management at the Mahidol University of Thailand and his PhD on International Community Health at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr Islam joined BRAC in 1993 and served in different

capacities.

Dr Islam has contributed over 30 articles in international peer-reviewed journals and is a co-author of Making Tuberculosis History: community based solution for millions. He also wrote a chapter in From one to Many: Scaling Up Health Programs in Low Income Countries. In 2009-2010, he served as a technical consultant of the International Union against TB and Lung Disease for South East Asia Region.

Dr Islam is serving as chair of Working Group on Evidenced Based Research on Tobacco Control at the International Union against TB and Lung Disease. Dr Islam is also serving as Technical Working Group Member of WHO SEARO and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) member on TB at Geneva.

Dr Islam was nominated for Award of Global Development Network of the World Bank in 2002 for his PhD Research Work on Cost-effectiveness on TB control programme in Bangladesh. In 2008, the International Union against TB and Lung Disease South East Asian Region recognised him for his leadership in public and private partnership model on TB control. Dr Islam was a visiting lecturer of the University of Tokyo from 20022005 and at Harvard University in 2008-2009.

Dr. Mushtaque Chowdhury Mushtaque Chowdhury is the Vice Chair of BRAC, the world’s largest non-governmental organization. Previously, he was its Deputy Executive Director, founding Director of the Research and Evaluation Division and founding Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health.

Dr Chowdhury is also a Professor of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University in New York. During 2009-12, he worked as the Senior Adviser to the Rockefeller Foundation, based in Bangkok, Thailand. He also served as a MacArthur Fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Chowdhury holds a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA

SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVE

(Hon’s.) from the University of Dhaka.

Dr. Chowdhury was a coordinator of the UN Millennium Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health, set up by the former Secretary General Kofi Annan. He is a corecipient of the ‘Innovator of the Year 2006’ award from the Marriott Business School of Brigham Young University in USA and in 2008 he received the PESON oration medal from the Perinatal Society of Nepal. He has wide interest in development, particularly in the areas of education, public health, poverty eradication and environment. Dr. Chowdhury has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed international journals including the International Journal on Education, the Lancet, the Social Science & Medicine, The Scientific American and the New England Journal of Medicine. One of his recent books is From One to Many: Scaling Up Health Programs in Low Income Countries (coedited with Richard Cash et al.), published in 2011. He co-ordinated the recently launched Lancet Series on Bangladesh (http://www. thelancet.com/series/bangladesh). The Lancet also published a ‘profile’ celebrating his contributions to Global Health.

Dr Chowdhury is a founder of the Bangladesh Education Watch and Bangladesh Health Watch, two civil society watch-dogs on education and health respectively. He is on the board and committees of several organizations and initiatives, including: Board of Trustees of BRAC University in Bangladesh, and International Advisory Board of the Centre for Sustainable International Development at the University of Aberdeen in UK. Nameerah Khan Nameerah Khan is working as manager, documentation at the BRAC water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme. Prior to joining BRAC in 2013, she worked in the Quality Assurance department at Novartis.

She completed her B.Sc. in biochemistry from Adelphi University, New York in 2011 and her Master’s in public health from the James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh in 2015.

Milan Kanti Barua Programme Head Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme, BRAC BRAC Centre 75 Mohakhali Dhaka 1212 Bangladesh T: 880 2 9881265 Ext 3503 Fax: 880 2 8823542 Email: milan.kb@brac.net Milan Kanti Barua is the Programme Head of BRAC’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme. Mr. Barua completed his M.Sc. in Statistics from Chittagong University in 1980, Certificate Course on Managing Health Program in Developing Countries, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, and Certificate Course on NGO Philosophy and Strategy in Development, Hammamet, Tunisia.

Mr. Barua has thirty-three years of experience in health, nutrition, water, sanitation and social development programmes in BRAC. He started career as a community-based grassroot organizer in the beginning of 1980s to combat diarrhoea through implementing an education; awareness and capacity building programme that addressed the social and behavioural perspectives.

Over time, worked as a community development professional and programme manager in health, water and sanitation and nutrition sector. He has contributed to the implementation of several programmes, including the WASH programme, Essential Health Care programme, Tuberculosis Control programme, Reproductive Health and Disease Control programme, Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project, Child Survival/Primary Health Care Pilot programme, Oral Therapy Extension programme (Nation-wide). Additionally, he coordinated special interventions such as the 100% Sanitation Project and the Public-Private Partnership for ESP delivery.

Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, PhD Vice Chairperson and Interim Executive Director, BRAC

Milan Kanti Barua, MSc Programme Head Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Programme, BRAC

Nameerah Khan, MPH Manager, Documentation Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Programme, BRAC

Abu Taleb Biswas, MPH Senior Sector Specialist Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Programme, BRAC

M. Akramul Islam, PhD Director Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Programme, BRAC

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SETTING THE SCENE

Partnerships pave the way to innovative solutions for water and food security Ensuring sustainable global food security in the face of growing demands for scarce water resources to meet other human and environmental needs, as well as climate change, is one of the great challenges of our times. Roberto Lenton and Molly Nance assert that world needs improvements in the management and use of water by and for agricultural and food systems and propose a range of solutions.

We need a bigger table. There will be over 200,000 more people at the global dinner table tonight than were there last night.

By 2050, there will be nearly 10 billion people to feed on this planet. But our population is not only growing, it’s growing wealthier, with increasing demand for food — especially meat and dairy products, requiring more agricultural production and water use. As

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a result of population increases and rising incomes, total food demand will likely double by 2050 (Earth Policy Institute, 2014)1.

Growing populations and rising incomes are just two of the constraints to ensuring food and water security for future generations. There’s also the devastating effects of climate change — turning cropland into deserts, swelling crop water demands

and increasing the variability of water supplies.

Concerns for the sustainability of groundwater are increasing, as water tables in many parts of the world continue to fall due to over pumping. Nearly a third of the world’s cropland is losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming, making land less fertile and reducing crop yields (The Globalist, 2014)2.

And while advances in agricultural research

FOOD SECURITY PERSPECTIVE

and technology have helped improve crop production for decades, farmers in some high-potential agricultural areas have recently hit a glass ceiling — a plateau that constrains advances in the quest for more food for more people (Brown, 2012)3.

Holistic solutions To ensure sustainable global food security in the face of growing demands for scarce water resources to meet other human and environmental needs, as well as climate change, the world needs improvements in the management and use of water by and for agricultural and food systems. This enormous challenge — one of the most significant of the 21st Century — plays itself out in a variety of different contexts, from the large and highly productive systems characteristic of some major food exporting countries, to the more vulnerable smallholder producer systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian sub-continent. The availability of water for food production and other purposes, and the technology and policy options available to address the challenges, are all driven by local conditions. Hence, both the specific nature of the problems, as well as their potential solutions, differ substantially region by region, country by country, basin by basin, watershed by watershed, and farm by farm.

Despite these major differences in both problem characteristics and solutions, some of the major problems that need to be solved in our quest for greater water and food security cut across a range of contexts. For example, both large-scale farms in the major food exporting countries and smallholder producer systems in the world’s poorest countries need to close yield and water productivity gaps. Improving the sustainability of groundwater systems is proving to be a challenge in rich and poor countries alike.

And both industrialized and low-income countries are grappling with ways to reconcile agricultural water use with public health needs and the allocation of water to maintain environmental services.

The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute (DWFI) at the University of Nebraska, established in 2010 through a generous $50 million grant from the Robert B. Daugherty Foundation, was created precisely to address this need for innovation in water management in a range of different contexts across the

globe. Our vision is for a food and water secure world: one in which global food security is ensured without limiting the use of water to meet other pressing human and environmental needs. Our mission is to have a lasting and significant impact on achieving more food security with less stress on scarce water resources, by conducting scientific and policy research, using the results of research to inform and advise policy makers, and educating the necessary human talent.

Importantly, we work both near our home base in the center of one of the world’s most important food producing areas, as well as in other parts of the globe facing significant agricultural water management challenges.

Unlike most other organizations active in this space, DWFI works to build bridges across the worlds of large-scale and smallholder agriculture, which traditionally have moved in different circles and not talked much to one another, concentrating on subject areas that are vital to water and food security both in Nebraska and globally. These subjects include: • Yield and water productivity gaps, building on the pioneering work of the Global Yield Gap and Water Productivity Atlas, as well as the University’s expertise in plant breeding and biotechnology development to improve drought tolerance and crop

water productivity.

• High-productivity irrigation, working for example to use remote sensing to monitor and predict yield and water productivity levels in real time and implementing innovative projects in partnership with the private sector and social entrepreneurial groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Improving groundwater management, drawing on the vast experience of Nebraska’s water governance institutions and farmers, as well as the University’s technical and policy expertise in the subject.

• Public health and ecosystems management, ensuring that efforts to improve water and food security also advance public health and ensure ecosystem integrity, bringing to bear the University’s expertise in natural resources management, water quality analysis and technology, and public health.

Data driven innovation An important path toward improving water and yield productivity is in data and technology. Harnessing the data revolution to improve water and food security from local to global scales was the theme of the Institute’s sixth annual Water for Food Global Conference, held in October 2014 in Seattle.

Above: A team of international students from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands conduct stream sampling in Nebraska. Their field work is part of the Advanced Water Management for Food Production double degree program, a partnership between UNESCO-IHE in Delft, Netherlands, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.

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SETTING THE SCENE

Above: Sandhill cranes roost in the Platte River. This photo is part of the Platte Basin Time-lapse project led by DWFI Faculty Fellows Michael Forsberg and Michael Farrell of the University of NebraskaLincoln. DWFI has invested in Phocalstream, a software tool developed by students in UNL’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management to enable middle- and high school students to create videos from thousands of photos taken through the project. The videos show a watershed in motion, allow us to see and understand the natural and manmade processes that impact the Platte River as they unfold over days, months and years.

Discussions focused on examining how to use the vast array of currently available data to help farmers manage inputs and improve yields.

The explosion of data in recent years, which is having a huge impact on virtually every field of human endeavor, could potentially be an agricultural and water management game changer. Its utility stems from the patterns, trends and insights gleaned from analyzing large and diverse volumes of data, and then using those insights to make better decisions that lead to greater water and food security.

High-tech farmers generate much data on their farms. Companies are developing cloudbased tools to help them use the data and incorporate weather and other information to make decisions, such as when and how

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much to irrigate, as well as to automate irrigation and other farm tasks. The private sector is also taking advantage of new data tools to develop a range of products, from drought-resistant seed varieties to variable rate irrigation systems. At the other end of the spectrum, new data tools have the potential to “leapfrog” existing technologies in datapoor regions to aid smallholder farmers, much as cell phones have superceded landlines in many low-income countries. Remote sensing and digital soil mapping are becoming less expensive and could, for example, surpass costly land-based data gathering techniques.

The conference was an Americas Regional Process Event for the Seventh World Water Forum in Korea in April 2015, and the Institute has prepared a Synthesis Report (Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, 2014)4

Left: A team of international students from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands participate in a hands-on learning experience in agricultural production and water resources management by visiting various sites across Nebraska, drawing on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s expertise in food production, irrigation and water. Their field work is part of the Advanced Water Management for Food Production double degree program, a partnership between UNESCO-IHE in Delft, Netherlands, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.

as a contribution to the forum. The institute anticipates that the innovative concepts and research discussed at this conference will be continued within the Water for Food theme at the forum.

Partnerships for solutions One key to finding solutions to complex

FOOD SECURITY PERSPECTIVE

challenges is partnerships. From its inception, the DWFI was envisioned as developing cooperative research programs with organisations working nationally and internationally, to enable access to complementary expertise, extend its global reach, and amplify its impact, rather than trying to achieve its mission on its own. To that end, DWFI strives to keep abreast of the work of other participants — individuals, organisations, academic institutions or businesses — in its sphere of interest and collaborate with these actors where appropriate, entering into formal agreements with several partners, from the UNESCO Institute of Water Education in the Netherlands to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Sri Lanka. In carrying out its research and education and engagement activities, DWFI builds on these strategic partnerships.

We look forward to continuing the discussion and developing meaningful and measurable solutions to increasing food security with less stress on water resources with colleagues at the 7th World Water Forum in Korea.

References 1. Earth Policy Institute (2014). Retrieved from Earth Policy Institute: http://www.earth-policy. org/?/data_center/C21/ 2. The Globalist. (2014). Retrieved from http:// www.theglobalist.com/global-food-security10-challenges 3. Brown, L. (2012). Full Planet, Empty Plates.

4. Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute (2014). Water for Food Global Conference. Harnessing the Data Revolution: Ensuring Water and Food Security from Field to Global Scales.

About the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska was founded in 2010 to address the global challenge of achieving food security with less stress on water resources through improved water management in agricultural and food systems. We are committed to ensuring a water and food secure world while maintaining the use of water for other human and environmental needs.

Our approach is to extend the University of Nebraska’s expertise through strong partnerships with other universities and public and private sector organizations. Together we are developing research, education and engagement programs in a focused effort to increase food security, while ensuring the sustainability of water resources and agricultural systems. We work locally and internationally, bridging the water and agricultural communities and the worlds of smallholder and large-scale farmers to deliver innovative solutions to this complex global challenge.

The University of Nebraska has invested in four interdisciplinary, University-wide institutes — including the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute — that leverage talent and research-based expertise from across the University of Nebraska system to focus on complex state, national and global challenges.

Learn more at waterforfood.nebraska.edu/.

About the Authors: Roberto Lenton is the Founding Executive Director of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.

He is a specialist in water resources and sustainable development with more than 40 years of international experience. Until January 2012, Lenton chaired the World Bank’s Inspection Panel. Earlier, he was senior advisor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division of the United Nations Development Programme in New York, director general of the Internal Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka and program officer in the Rural Poverty and Resources program of the Ford Foundation in New Delhi and New York. He served as adjunct professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and as assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lenton is past chair of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council and the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership. He co-authored Applied Water Resources Systems, co-edited Integrated Water Resources Management in Practice and is lead author of “Health, Dignity and

Development: What Will it Take?” The final report of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation, which he co-chaired.

Lenton has a doctorate from MIT and a civil engineering degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Molly Nance is Director of Communications and Public Relations for the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska. She has 25 years of experience in marketing communications, strategic planning, advertising, public relations and event management. Most recently Nance was director of strategic planning and marketing for Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, one of the nation’s largest independent rehabilitation facilities.

Prior to her work at Madonna, Nance was director of communications for the Nebraska Hospital Association, communications manager for U.S. Central Credit Union in Overland Park, Kansas, and served as a marketing officer for two Nebraska banks.

Nance earned a master of liberal arts degree from Baker University in Kansas and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a certified professional marketer. She serves on the board of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center and is a past chair and board member of several philanthropic, civic and professional organizations.

Roberto Lenton Executive Director of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska

Molly Nance Director of Communications and Public Relations for the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska.

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SETTING THE SCENE

Quality implementation is the Achilles heel of progress towards the WASH SDGs

The most common justification for failure to make progress towards service delivery within the WASH arena is a lack of funding. Antoinette Kome of SNV, on the other hand, wonders whether the widespread failure to sustain services is a more significant factor affecting the sector’s capacity to mobilise resources beyond transfers.

It cannot be repeated often enough: access to water and sanitation is a human right1, and governments are the duty bearer of that right. This does not mean that governments should be the one and only service provider, but it does mean they need to make sure that all people in their jurisdictions have access to safe, affordable and adequate water and sanitation services, speaking the language of the SDGs. This 7th World Water Forum is about implementation, specifically “Implementation to concretise solutions to water challenges that have been discussed in previous fora�. While this aim may be optimistic, the focus on implementation is both timely and commendable. Implementation, in particular quality implementation, seems to be the Achilles heel of progress towards the SDGs. Simply, without quality implementation that

50

Words into Action

ensures sustainable service delivery, the SDGs will not be achieved.

Firstly, despite the best intentions, we do not yet seem able to fully implement our plans. Donor commitments too often fail to fully materialise, while domestic funding allocations are underspent year after year.

GLAAS 20142 reports that less than 60% of countries absorb more than 75% of their domestic commitments, while less than 50% absorb more than 75% of donor funds.

This underspending often boils down to capacity issues: administrative procedures, procurement delays, inadequate project preparation, and low public and private capacity to respond (GLAAS, 2014).

Secondly, when we do implement, the result is not necessarily sustainable services, or even service at all. The rate of nonfunctionality of rural water supply schemes

is estimated at around 40%3. In urban water supply, high levels of non-revenue water and intermittent service are the rule rather than the exception. Urban sanitation services beyond the household toilet are simply nonexistent in most cities and towns around the world.

Infrastructure investment is costly and continues to represent an important biggest finance need in WASH, but infrastructure construction alone is useless if it does not result in services. Too often, infrastructure is built, but management responsibility is then handed over to local communities and/or government with little to no post-construction follow-up. Local governments are held accountable for budget depletion and transparency, which are important, but rarely are they held accountable for associated service delivery.

More money for WASH is important, but on its own this is not sufficient. The more pertinent question is whether the way in which finance is organised, provides sufficient incentive for results and long term sustainability of services. Following this line of thought I was thus surprised to find barely a mention of the role and capacity of local governments or other local players in any of the leading global reports (OECD4, GLAAS, ICESDF5 reports). Yet, success stories in WASH service delivery, whether publicly or privately managed, almost always is linked to local leadership of a vested champignon - someone who made things happen, who engaged others, who mobilised complementing local resources (time and money).

Failure can often be traced back to a lack of service quality, which discourages people from engaging and paying tariffs.

Affordability of services is a real challenge for vulnerable groups in society, and this has to be addressed through targeted measures, but for the majority of people it is the quality of service that affects willingness-to-pay. OBA (Output Based Aid) schemes are emerging as an alternative, creating incentives for quality implementation, although they require

FINANCING PERSPECTIVE

significant capacity building support in order to work. Projects with local governments only commence once they comply with readiness or eligibility criteria, construction is prefinanced and funding is dispersed after construction is completed. While this is a step in the right direction, provided there are prefinancing sources, it is not conditional upon service delivery itself.

At the local level, a lack of funding is often blamed for not making any progress towards service delivery, but it may well be the other way around. It might be that the combined effect of the widespread failure to sustain services is affecting our sector’s capacity to mobilise resources beyond transfers. WASH infrastructure rarely offers quick wins – it requires long-term investment. In middleincome countries in particular, a diverse range of sources of finance beyond ODA6 are emerging, but few of these flow to WASH infrastructure, let alone to infrastructure in poorer communities. Alongside recognition of the lack of risk-mitigation instruments7, I would like us to highlight the lack of the local capacity and accountability to provide sustainable services. We may not necessarily need many more new models, but instead more time or better ways to understand and address lack of uptake or interest in existing models from local governments and utilities.

Quality implementation is the Achilles heel of the WASH SDGs. The dire consequences of not implementing with quality – and consequently failing to provide sustainable services – are borne by the 748 million people who lack access to water, the 2.5 billion who live without basic sanitation, the billions who suffer with low quality, intermittent service, and everybody else on the planet facing pollution due to poor sanitation and the ongoing waste of fresh water.

References 1. UN Water, accessed February 2015, http:// www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_ to_water.shtml 2. WHO, 2014, UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2014 Report: Investing in Water and Sanitation: Increasing Access, Reducing

Inequalities World Health Organization, Geneva 3. Based on figures from 15 countries where SNV works in capacity development for rural water supply service delivery.

4. OECD, 2014, Development Co-operation Report 2014: Mobilising Resources for Sustainable Development, OECD Publishing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/dcr-2014-en 5. ICESDF, 2014, Report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing, final draft, https://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/content/documents/4588FINAL%20 REPORT%20ICESDF.pdf 6. ISF-UTS, 2014, Financing Sanitation for Cities and Towns: Learning Paper.

Prepared for SNV Netherlands Development Organisation by Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney.

7. OECD, 2014, Development Co-operation Report 2014: Mobilising Resources for Sustainable Development, OECD Publishing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/dcr-2014-en Bio Antoinette Kome Antoinette Kome is one of SNV’s two Global Sector Coordinators for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, responsible for quality development of SNV’s WASH programme across 30+ countries globally. She joined SNV in 1999 as an irrigation and water management advisor

in Peru. She worked in Latin America till 2008 on irrigation, water resource management, watershed management and water supply and sanitation. In 2008 she moved to Asia as a WASH network leader, where she managed SNV Asia’s 5-country regional rural sanitation and hygiene programme (Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia), “Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All” and set-up the knowledge and learning around SNV’s rural and urban sanitation programmes.

She designed and managed the first phase of SNV’s 9 country results based finance programme for rural sanitation, and she is guiding the development of SNV’s urban sanitation and hygiene programmes around faecal sludge management.

Before joining SNV she worked in Senegal and Sri Lanka. Antoinette is Dutch and has a Master’s degree in Tropical Land Use and Irrigation from Wageningen Agricultural University.

Antoinette kome One of SNV’s two Global Sector Coordinators for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, responsible for quality development of SNV’s WASH programme.

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SETTING THE SCENE

Water:

Creating a continuum for children t To reach everyone, everywhere, water, sanitation and hygiene programmes much reach each person at every stage of life – starting at the very beginning.

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Words into Action

It has become very trendy to talk about equity and access, reaching all people. It is what we’re asking governments working on post-2015 development goals to commit to. Some may wonder if this is just lip-service to an unattainable goal, or whether it is truly possible. World Vision joins with partners

and communities in our commitment to the belief that water and sanitation for all is indeed an achievable goal.

How is this possible? For World Vision, it begins with children. Our work is founded on the belief that every child deserves clean water.

Children are more vulnerable than any

HEALTH PERSPECTIVE Left: Bay and sister Ny gather water for their family after school, from a well built by World Vision.

Below: Bay and sister Ny with their mother Noud.

Reaching the unreached in Laos Ten-year-old Bay is lucky to live in Laos. Her country has steadily increased access to safe drinking water; more than 70 per cent of people have access to improved sources of drinking water. But Bay is unlucky to live in a rural area, where families have not always benefited from the country’s progress.

Like the other families in her village, Bay’s family fetched water from the river and carried it back home twice a day. It took nearly two hours each time.

“People living here always got sick – both adults and children. We were especially sick with diarrhoea and malaria,” recalls Bay’s mother, Noud.

World Vision constructed a water system in Bay’s village and seven others nearby.

We helped the community set up a village medical fund, so that families could have access to medicine for simple illnesses within their own community, instead of having to travel far for health care. Families learned about the importance of sanitation, drinking clean water or boiling unsafe water before drinking.

“We are so happy,” Noud says. “My children are healthier than before. We have enough water to use in our community. The water is cleaner than before. My family and children are healthier and we have a better life.”

And as for Bay? “I am very happy that we have water tap near our house and I can take a bath or wash my hands any time I want.”

Photos: Ammala Thomisith/World Vision

children to thrive other group to the negative effects of dirty water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. From a health perspective alone, diarrhoea kills more than 1000 children under the age of five each day.

As primary water carriers in many parts of the world, walking long distances requires children to miss some or all of

school. Illnesses caused by water borne illness have an impact on school attendance. Undernutrition among children in their first few years of life cripples their growth and development in the long term. Exposure to constant faecal-oral contamination from unhygienic environments is a key cause of chronic undernutrition.

Effective water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions should start early and continue along the continuum of life –

gestation, birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age and death. Clean water, sanitation and hygiene are critical to both survive and thrive across the continuum of life.

WASH is a critical element of life at all its stages. It affects all areas of human well-being – health, education, livelihoods, resilience, and social and cultural norms that affect not just individual children, but how a community is formed and operates.

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SETTING THE SCENE

Good WASH practice starts in the womb – through a mother’s access to clean water as well as safe and hygienic birth practices -- and its impact continues until the end of life”

The continuum of water, sanitation and hygiene The three elements of WASH – water, sanitation, and hygiene – work together along a mutually supported and strengthened continuum. Without clean water, the effects of appropriate sanitation and good hygiene behaviours are limited. If a child has clean water, but doesn’t practice good handwashing behaviours or defecates in the open, or if water is not treated properly in the home, then contamination still occurs. This is why World Vision engages in interventions across the continuum of WASH to ensure the strongest sustainable impact.

The continuum of life The first 1,000 days of a child’s life – from conception to age two – are the most critical to establish good health and nutrition for long term well-being. Without clean water, appropriate sanitation and dignified hygiene during this critical period, a child will not be well established to thrive through the rest of life’s stages. Good WASH practice starts in the womb – through a mother’s access to clean water as well as safe and hygienic birth practices -- and its impact continues until the end of life.

Enabling and sustaining the continuum For WASH interventions to be sustainable across all stages of life, we must focus not only on the quality of hardware, but on attitudes and behaviours. World Vision commits to living and working in communities for at least 15 years, so that we can truly understand the needs and current behaviours, as well as the challenges and barriers to positive WASH behaviours.

Sustainable WASH cannot be achieved alone -- partnerships are absolutely critical.

World Vision builds strategic partnerships with communities, local organisations, governments, peer organisations and corporate partners.

Community partnership is critical because it ensures ownership and understanding.

Studies have shown that 30-50 per cent of water points provided in the developing world fail between two and five years following implementation. Many times these

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Words into Action

HEALTH PERSPECTIVE

World Vision’s vision for good water, sanitation and hygiene throughout life Beginning of life (first 1,000 days)

BabyWASH: Integrating WASH with maternal, newborn and child health, nutrition and early childhood development across the first 1000 days of life (mother, baby, infant and caregivers)

Pre-school years (3-6 years)

• • •

Continuing early childhood education Life skills development Learning good manners

Primary and secondary school years (6-17 years)

• • • •

Learning about personal hygiene through fun and games Menstrual hygiene management Monitoring WASH at home and in the community WASH in schools such as hygiene clubs

Adulthood

•

Multiple uses of water (water for more than just drinking – irrigation, economic development, etc.)

WASH committees Self-supply Sanitation marketing to support livelihoods and scale up supply and demand for improved sanitation facilities

• • • Old age

•

Ensuring WASH is accessible to all, including those with physical limitations

Whole continuum interventions

• • •

Designing for behaviour change Enabling environments WASH services such as rainwater harvesting, mechanised systems, boreholes, manual drilling WASH in emergencies Disability inclusive WASH Urban WASH

• • •

water points fail when the community-based management scheme fails to properly operate and maintain the WASH technology.

In contrast to the typical failure statistics, World Vision’s water points have historically had a high rate of functionality, measured at 79 per cent even if they are nearly two decades old1. This was because of the existence of a functioning water committee and charging a small fee for use of the water so that there was money available for repair of the well. The establishment of a robust water committee that fully owns and understands how to repair the WASH technology is the crucial way in which World Vision development workers partner with communities to co-create sustainable solutions.

Other partnerships help complement strengths and capacity. For example, World Vision has just launched a partnership with Sesame Workshop – the non-profit educational organisation behind the popular children’s programme Sesame Street -- to protect children around the globe from illness caused by dirty water and poor sanitation. Raya, one of the newest members of the Sesame family, along with her friend Elmo, will teach children and families about positive health behaviours related to WASH. World Vision and Sesame Workshop will leverage the strengths that both partners have established throughout decades of work in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Child-focused sanitation and health

educational materials featuring Raya and Elmo are being designed to reach children and families through media, schools and community engagement programmes.

By ensuring communities of people across the world – including each individual in those communities in all stages of life -- have access to clean water, to good sanitation practices, to knowledge and education about hygiene; the dream of reaching every child, everywhere, is not only possible, it’s probable.

Reference 1. University of North Carolina and Water and Sanitation for Africa Study (2014) http:// www.wvi.org/clean-water-sanitation-andhygiene-wash/article/sustainable-waterservices-delivery-project About the author: Jean-Baptiste Kamaté is Regional Leader for World Vision’s East Africa Region, and is World Vision’s Global WASH Champion. He worked at the US Embassy in Mali before joining World Vision in 1994. He has worked for World Vision for more than 20 years in various roles.

About World Vision: World Vision is a global Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.

World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

World Vision is the largest nongovernmental provider of clean water in the developing world—reaching one new person with clean water every 30 seconds. We aim to reach everyone in our 400 programme areas by 2020 with access to basic drinking water supplies, adequate sanitation, hand-washing facilities, and menstrual hygiene facilities at home, at school, and in health centres. In addition, they will be trained on hygiene promotion and behaviour change. Once we reach that goal, we will press on to reach everyone in all our programme areas around the world by 2030. For more information, please visit www.wvi.org/cleanwater.

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Changing lives with clean water :: HOW WE WORK

WATER COMMIT

SANITATION and HYGIENE

THE NEED

THE NEED »

OUR WORK »

Water affects all of life. When water is scarce, women and children must walk long distances

Before clean water even arrives, World Vision partners with community members to build

Volunteer committees are formed maintain wells and other water poi

to gather it—missing out on school and other productive activities, and often drinking dirty

latrines and train children and adults in good hygiene and sanitation habits, like handwashing

water systems, and promote safe h sanitation practices in the commun

water that spreads disease.

and handling water safely to help prevent the spread of disease.

committees help encourage comm of systems, ensuring that water con

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oping cou evel nt

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rie

nd

I

1,600 CHILDREN DIE

s

HANDWASHING

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»

56

has been shown to result in children growing STRONGER and SMARTER.

VOICE and LEADERSH OPPORTU in their villages.

LASTING ACCESS to WATER, and a fuller life World Vision’s community-based approach results in water that

And World Vision is there to support these ch

continues to flow, helping to save lives and transform communities.

that go beyond water into every other aspect

Fewer children die of disease. Girls get to go to school rather than

emotional, and spiritual. That’s because w

gathering water all day. With better health and more time, parents

the love of Jesus are crucial elements in a full s

are able to start small businesses.

solution that includes food, education, healthc

Words into Action

SETTING THE SCENE

WORK

SUSTAINABILITY and MAINTENANCE

R COMMITTEES WELLS and other WATER POINTS

COMMUNITY TAKES OVER

mittees are formed to operate and nd other water points, manage nd promote safe hygiene and

ces in the community. Water p encourage community ownership ring that water continues to flow.

»

Community members collaborate with World Vision to prepare for the construction of their well or other

Once the water point is constructed, volunteer committees help collect small user fees that pay

water point (such as a rain collection system or capped spring), building fences to keep animals out

for its operation, maintenance, and repair. A study done in Ghana showed that 8 in 10 World Vision

and smoothing terrain for big equipment to come in and drill, if needed.

wells were still functioning at high levels after two decades, thanks largely to this community-based approach.

Including women in these committees gives them a

VOICE and LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES in their villages.

er life

Most communities provide

In a 2014 study, functionality of wells was nearly

LOCAL BUILDING MATERIALS.

GOD’S LOVE

4 X HIGHER when a water committee was in place and fees were collected.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

support these changes with programs EDUCATION

hat’s because we believe clean water and

ements in a full solution to poverty—a

CLEAN WATER BASIC HEALTHCARE

ucation, healthcare, and more.

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DM147843_0215 © 2015 World Vision, Inc.

ry other aspect of human life—physical,

SETTING THE SCENE

WATER IN THEINCREASING THE ROLE OF DIGITAL ERA TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

90% of the global economy depends on sustainable management of water resources. In order to meet the water related challenges of today and tomorrow, we need demand-driven research leading to innovative solutions.

WssTP WssTP is the European Technology Platform for Water. Since 2004, WssTP has developed the Water Vision, a Strategic Research Agenda, and an Implementation Document, complemented by many thematic publications. Based on these three key documents, WssTP has been proactive in involving the European water sector and its supply chain in this common WssTP Water Vision.

WssTP has successfully identified the key research activities and the gaps to be filled throughout the water cycle.

58

Words into Action

Today, WssTP consists of 130 members and is unique at the European level as it membership represents the full diversity of the water value chain including industry, research, utilities, technology providers, and water users. WssTP also closely collaborates with European Technology Platforms for other industrial sectors as water is an important component of the production value chains in a number of water-dependent industries (such as textile, chemical, food production, mining, etc).

Through its Member States Mirror Group

and its collaboration with the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) WssTP also reaches out to national and regional authorities. WssTP represents a key mechanism to increase coordination and collaboration on research, technology development and innovation with regard to water, increase the competitiveness of the European in the water sectors and allied fields, and contribute to solving waterrelated societal challenges.

TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

Europe Europe has a long history in water services covering social, economic and eco-systems needs and is a global industrial leader in terms of service provision and technology development.

The sector also has a large societal impact: it involves some 600.000 direct jobs and 136.000 jobs through SME’s in Europe.

This history has led to Europe having a wide spectrum of leading expertise in the various aspects of water resource management.

Hundreds of institutions, SMEs, engineering and consulting companies have developed and continue to develop highly technical concepts to address water problems around the globe. Europe is also home to the two largest global water system integrators in the world. Many new technologies are proposed, researched and tested, resulting in publications and patents, and sometimes innovations.

With the Water Framework Directive and related policies, the EU has one of the most ambitious and challenging pieces of water legislation in the world which provides a clear driver for innovation in the water sector.

One of the major challenges for the European water sector remains its fragmentation. The wide diversity and the small size of most technology providers and the many different practices, policies and regulations in Member States and regions across Europe impede the transition of many of the new technologies to the demonstration phase.

At the same time the diversity of European climatic, social and economic conditions provides the European industry with a competitive test bed to develop and demonstrate full scale solutions to solve many water-related societal challenges and can thus contribute to build an international competitive advantage.

Challenges However there is a mismatch of expectations between water service providers and asset owners (long term

There is a mismatch of expectations between water service providers and asset owners and technology suppliers, which may impact the sector’s ability to exploit growing global opportunities for technological development investment, minimum financial and technological risk) and technology suppliers (shorter term returns on technological innovations). This mismatch is a potential barrier to the further technological development of the sector, which may impact on the sector’s ability to exploit the growing global opportunities.

Also, in the water sector, research and innovation has traditionally been defined either at the local level by utilities – reflecting demand-driven needs or by researchers with a vested interest in defining the contents of said research projects. To get value from investments in research and development in the water sector it should be focused more on demand and user needs to ensure the transformation of the economy from a linear approach to a circular-one, ensuring resource efficiency, materials, water and energy recovery, and reuse of recovered resources and critical materials for Europe.

The water sector has traditionally been

a low-tech industry with low expenditure on R&D. But as quality standards rise, the infrastructure deteriorates, water availability becomes more unpredictable, and as the imperative to reduce its carbon footprint grows, the role of technology and innovation must increase. At the same time the water sector is capital intensive sector with long asset lives.

To maintain its strong global position Europe needs to step up significantly its investments in RTD and innovation for the water sector.

Dirk krol

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Water Program Ad_Final.pdf

1

3/19/15

2:42 PM

Managing water scarcity through data and dialogue South Asia is one of the most densely populated, water scarce regions in the world. In India, demand for water is rapidly increasing with the pace of urbanization, energy consumption, and food production intensifying faster than ever before. India draws most of its fresh water supply from large, internationally-shared river basins. The Asia Foundation is focused on convening multi-stakeholder and multi-country dialogues on shared rivers.

Read our new report on the barriers to open sharing of regional water and climate data between and within governments, and with the public.

READ IT NOW: STRENGTHENING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON TRANSBOUNDARY RIVERS IN SOUTH ASIA

asiafoundation.org

thematic framework

7th Worldwaterforum

thematic framework The Thematic Framework consists of a set of ‘action goals’ and a set of ‘action tools’: The Future We Want (Action Goals) • Water Security for All • Water for Development & Prosperity • Water for Sustainability: Harmonizing Humans and Nature Engines for Change (Action Tools) • Community Responsibility and Solidarity • Constructing Feasible Implementation Mechanisms These, in turn, form the basis for the forum’s 16 core themes, to which the papers within this section correspond

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thematic framework

What would it take to achieve universal access to water and sanitation?

While impressive global progress has been made in access to improved water, the same cannot be said for sanitation. WaterAid’s Tim Brewer assesses the current position and the measures needed.

Fifteen years after the UN Millennium Development Goals were agreed, global progress in access to improved water has been impressive.

But this has been eclipsed by the inequality of this progress which has left many people behind, and by the lack of progress on sanitation.

Access to an improved water supply is still denied to 748 million people, and 2.5 billion people are without basic sanitation.

The UN’s Open Working Group proposals for Sustainable Development Goals to guide development for the next fifteen years include the necessary but ambitious target of universal access to these services.

A dedicated goal would have dramatic and far-reaching impacts: on health, on Below: The Karail slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Words into Action

progress will not be enough to achieve this.

However, there are precedents for achieving universal access at such a rapid pace.

WaterAid’s new research examines the experiences1 of four East Asian countries -- Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand – which all achieved total sanitation coverage while still in their formative stages as nation-states.

Their successes carry important lessons for the Sustainable Development Goals, as African and South Asian countries pursue the same goal. Many of the worst performing countries are already wealthier than the East Asian countries were during their sanitary transformation, so economic growth alone is clearly not sufficient to bring this change about. Indeed, when these countries set the course for universal access to sanitation, they were poorer than most developing nations are now.

Instead, several clear common factors can be seen in these successful states.

High-level political leadership was critical whether president, prime minister or deputy PM, in all the successful countries sanitation and hygiene were championed at the highest political level consistently throughout their development. Constant progress chasing and policy refinement were the hallmarks of this personal engagement.

Sanitation improvements were driven by a narrative of improving hygiene, cleanliness and public health to drive national development. Whether their motivation was competition with other states, an ambition to build and diversify the economy or motivation to create a more positive national identity, in each case

Photo: WaterAid/Jon Spaull

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education – by enabling children to study instead of fetching water – and on the rights of women and girls, who are all too often tasked with collecting water and who are most at risk of harassment or assault if they do not have a safe, private place to relieve themselves.

But it requires strong political will and commitment, and financing to match.

Those countries which were home to the majority of people without access to these services in 1990 are, for the most part, still struggling to provide services, with a few notable exceptions like China contributing disproportionally to global progress. Universal access means bucking this trend, and expanding services to the poorest, the marginalised and the hard-to-reach. Recent trends in

ENOUGH SAFE WATER FOR ALL

Photo: WaterAid/Jon Spaull

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME: Thailand’s Bhumibol Bridge, an infrastructure landmark in a developing economy.

the overarching need was to become a healthier, more modern state.

A well-coordinated, multi-sector approach was necessary for rapid improvement. With coordination among public health, housing, education and hygiene programmes, the result was publicly subsidised sanitation infrastructure alongside new public health policy – toilets and sewers built into new housing projects, schools and hospitals right from the start, rather than as an afterthought.

Capacity building happened alongside sanitation improvements, and was an integral part of plans and policies. Monitoring was continuous and standards were raised as goals were achieved.

Often moments of crisis also spurred action: fires in sub-standard housing, disease outbreaks or public unrest put energy into the response. We hope the ambition of the Sustainable Development Goals can have the same effect, without waiting for disasters to afflict the world’s poorest.

Though this research focused on sanitation, WaterAid’s experiences tell us that we cannot have safe water without achieving effective sanitation for all. Wherever faeces can contaminate an environment – whether it’s an overflowing open latrine or the practice of open defecation, water supplies are also at risk.

In Sub-Saharan Africa’s fast-growing

cities, there is a desperate need for a holistic approach to water and sanitation that provides these services to the whole population, including peri-urban areas and informal settlements. It is essential to recognise their impact on health, on education, on the rights of women and girls and on the productivity of the workforce if these cities and towns are to be engines of economic growth rather than breeding ground for disease.

As the UN negotiations progress, there is general acceptance of a need for a goal on water, but less public acknowledgement of the need for a goal on water and sanitation.

One cannot be achieved effectively and sustainably without the other.

Reference 1. ‘Total sanitation coverage in East Asia,’ Henry Northover, Shin Kue Ryu and Timothy Brewer, 2014, discussion paper, http://www.wateraid.org/what-we-do/ourapproach/research-and-publications/viewpublication?id=4ea98b1d-e89d-40be-acbe0d280699f40f About WaterAid WaterAid is an international non governmental organisation focused exclusively on improving poor people’s access to safe water, improved hygiene

Above: Children outside the renovated school sanitation block, Kaushal Nagar, India.

and sanitation. It works in 26 countries across Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific region, in some of the world’s poorest communities, and works with partners and influences decision-makers to maximise our impact. Since its founding in 1981, WaterAid has reached 19.2 million people with safe water and, since 2004, 15.1 million people with sanitation.

timothy brewer Policy Analyst, Monitoring & Accountability, WaterAid

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INTEGRATED SANITATION FOR ALL: CREATIVE INITIATVES IN RESPONDING TO SANITATION IN EMERGENCY CONTEXTS Sanitation in emergency contexts is characterised by diverse range of social, environmental, cultural and economic parameters to consider. No solution fits every size of the problem.

Thus our analysis and response options must be diverse and exercise options for not only the containment, but the collection, disposal, and treatment of waste. Our journey from Haiti with peepoo bags, to urine diversion latrines in Dolo Ado refugee camp, to tiger worm based latrines in Monrovia, to limed based sewage treatment in the Philippines have demonstrated creative initiatives in addressing sanitation in emergency settings.

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INTEGRATED SANITATION FOR ALL

As recent emergencies have shown – the Haiti earthquake, typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the crises in the Middle East and Gaza - there are still significant challenges in the timely provision of safe and appropriate sanitation in natural disasters or conflict. These contexts present congested urban areas with little space to erect a toilet, hard concrete floors where it is impossible to dig into the ground and communities remaining in apartment buildings equipped with cistern toilets connected to sewer networks which have been destroyed by conflict. No solution fits every size of problem. Thus WaSH practitioners need to find a diverse range of options, not just for the containment of excreta, but for the collection, disposal, and treatment of waste. This paper intends to present the greatest challenges being faced, and identify some of the creative ideas being developed in attempt to solve them.

Urban Toilets Firstly, how does one find a toilet appropriate for an urban area? In Haiti and the Philippines, the response options varied from ‘peepoo’ biodegradable bags, to raised latrines, to chemical toilets, and a standard pit latrine1. Building the toilets is the easy task, but the emptying, disposal and treatment is often the challenge. Why? This is due to a variety of reasons ranging from lack of national policy, to control and functionality of the market actors (the emptiers), where they dump their waste, the means of finding a site (land tenure) to be allocated as a treatment site, and the technical capacity in-country. In the Philippines, people’s previous expertise

played a strategic role in the response, in that the WaSH community was able to set up a faecal waste treatment system using lime. In the case of the Haiti 2010 earthquake response in Port au Prince through the active participation of organisation called SOIL urine diversion latrines manned by attendants were set up in a number of urban displaced camps where they transported the waste to a secondary composting site. Peepoo bags from the Oxfam pilot project were also composte, while other emptied toilet waste was dumped in a hole in the ground – not so effective. However, since the investment into Haiti made after the earthquake, a wastewater treatment pond system has been developed.

In a way, it would be strategic to have a toilet that does not need emptying, but not the ‘flush and forget’ mentality like we have in the Western world – say something that self-regulates. A tiger worm may be just the answer (photos left: source Oxfam in Liberia). Research with tiger worms in Ethiopia, Liberia and Mynmar shows that 2kg of tiger worms in a toilet used by 10 people can digest faecal waste into vermincompost, eliminating the build-up of solids.

This negates the need for emptying. This could be a revolutionary breakthrough, especially where latrines are inaccessible to a tanker for emptying, or where the user is unable to afford the emptying service – it may be the closest thing yet to a sludgefree toilet. It is a flushing system which uses a low volume pour flush, ensuring that no smell or flies will bother the user, and additionally the system is aerobic. A further bonus is the vermin-compost that can be used as animal feed, or soil conditioner.

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Oxfam’s preliminary trials have determined the optimum quantities of worms needed, suitable bedding, and feeding rates, and the toilets are proving successful in the urban slums of Monrovia, peri-urban areas in Dire Dawa (Ethiopia) and a camp in Myanmar.

Urban toilets under attack How does one find a toilet appropriate for a household living on the third floor of a

ranging from a jack hammer and a back hoe excavator. However, after a concerted effort by the engineers and community mobilisers, the refugees embraced the idea of building elevated double-vault urine diversion latrines (photo left: source Oxfam in Ethiopia). This was a real breakthrough given the context; an urgent situation, a refugee camp, a Somali community who either had been used to open defecation

How does one find a toilet appropriate for a household living on the third floor of a building in Aleppo in Syria when the water system has ceased to function, or a family isolated from their neighbouring community when a member has been the victim of Ebola? building in Aleppo in Syria when the water system has ceased to function, or a family isolated from their neighbouring community when a member has been the victim of Ebola? The isolated, no-toilet option in an urban setting is still a challenge. Yet there is an array of evolving ideas out there ranging from the peepoo bag, safety gels (used in NHS hospitals) which absorb liquids (urine and faeces) and converts them into a manageable, inert gel for simple and safe disposal, or a bucket incorporating containers for separation of urine and faecal matter. Whatever the choice of gadget or system, it is the collection and safe disposal which is critical for a responsible and appropriate sanitation strategy.

Toilets in areas where digging a pit is difficult How does one find a toilet appropriate for a refugee camp where it is impossible to dig into the ground due to hard rock? For a while engineers did grapple with digging pits using significant plant machinery

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practitioners embrace on a daily basis with a few of the ways they are attempting to embrace and beat them. The more response options one can develop the better – as no single option fits all. The peepoo bags, the raised latrines, the urine diversion latrines, the bucket latrines, and the tiger worm-based latrines all offer appropriate options, as long as we consider the whole chain (closing the loop as one might say) – the containment + the collection + treatment / disposal.

For collection, there are options ranging from diaphragm pumps to desluding tankers, and for treatment options include the use of lime, drying and burial, composting with a carbon source, and maybe someday a scaled model of the tiger worm approach (the later of which WASTE/IFRC/Bear Valley Ventures are trialling in Malawi via the Emergency Sanitation Project funded by OFDA).

Watch this space!

or a traditional pit latrine. A briefing paper ‘Ecological sanitation in refugee camps: implementing urine diversion dry toilets in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia’ co authored by Oxfam and UNHCR presented at the 37th WEDC Conference in 2014 presents the detail, challenges and lessons learned2.

References 1. Bastable, Andy and Lamb, Jenny (2012) Innovative designs and approaches in sanitation when responding to challenging and complex humanitarian contexts in urban areas. Waterlines Vol 31, No 1&2, pp 67-82.

Toilet spin offs Urinals are a rare sight on camps for the displaced, but this could change with the addition of new Bio fuel cell technology.

Oxfam is carrying out a trial with the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK to confirm that urine fuelled bio fuel cells can generate enough electricity to power LED strip lights to light camps. The aim is to increase the safety, mostly for women, of the camps at night by providing lighting at strategic points around the camp. The bio fuel cells, urin-tricity appears to be both the lowest cost and most sustainable way of doing this.

In summary, this presents the diverse range of sanitation challenges our WaSH

2. http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/resources/ conference/37/Ngala-1919.pdf About the authors Andy Bastable has over 25 years of practical emergency and development field experience in the sector of water and sanitation. Andy joined Oxfam in 1990 and has been involved responding to humanitarian crises in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East since that time as well as in house research and development work into new emergency response equipment, methodology’s and approaches. Andy took over the leadership of Oxfam’s Public Health Engineering team in 2002.

INTEGRATED SANITATION FOR ALL

Jenny Lamb is a water and sanitation engineering advisor with Oxfam GB, at their humanitarian department in Oxford, UK. Her role includes being part of the flexible surge team to support with the regional and country response to emergencies, ranging recently from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, CAR and the Philippines. Jenny is also the lead on WaSH innovation, and is currently seeking new and effective ways of responding to sanitation in emergencies, the use cash/vouchers and working with markets for WaSH outcomes.

Prior to being an advisor, Jenny started with Oxfam as one of their water and sanitation engineers in their emergency response team. During this time, she had been deployed to many different countries and contexts including Haiti (earthquake), Sri Lanka, Indonesia (both for the tsunami), Chad (refugee response), Zimbabwe (cholera) and Ethiopia (drought and diarrhoeal outbreak).

Before stepping up to her humanitarian career, Jenny worked for an engineering consultancy both in the UK and New Zealand, tasked with upgrading and or building new water and wastewater treatment systems in North West England,

and the Far North of New Zealand with the Maori communities respectively.

Brief of Oxfam Oxfam (originally Oxford Committee for Famine Relief) founded in Britain in 1942 campaigned for food supplies to be sent through an allied naval blockade to starving women and children in enemyoccupied Greece during the Second World War. Oxfam today consists of a global confederation of 17 independent Oxfam, where they all share a single Strategic plan: ‘The power of people against poverty’.

Oxfam focuses their work on vital issues to tackle the root causes of poverty, from life’s basics – food, water, health and education – to complex questions around aid, climate change and human rights.

Together with our partners, we work in more than 90 countries to tackle the root causes of poverty and response to emergencies. When an emergency hits, Oxfam is there. At any given time our teams are responding to an average of 24 emergencies worldwide. Today they range from the supporting the population displacement across the Middle East, South Sudan, DRC, CAR, and Ethiopia

to the ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and to the food crisis in Yemen.

Our 2013-2014 annual report highlights that 11 million people were reached directly in 52 countries, and millions more benefited from changes in governments’ policy and practice influenced by Oxfam.

Andy Bastable Head of Water & Sanitation, Oxfam GB

Jenny Lamb Public Health Engineering Advisor, Oxfam GB

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Managing new risks and uncertainties for resilience and disaster preparedness

By Charles Baubion, Jack Radisch, Simon Buckle and Xavier Leflaive of the OECD Public Governance and Environment directorates.

Governments are challenged about where to invest limited resources available for risk management. Two statistics stand out to help policy makers set priorities.

First, floods, droughts, and windstorms account for 90% of the natural disasters since 1990. Second, over the past 15 years, floods and droughts have caused more than 70% of the estimated $2.5 trillion in economic losses caused by natural disasters.

According to the latest IPCC report, climate change will exacerbate these problems with extreme temperatures, rising sea levels, and changing precipitation patterns. The time is now for governments to focus efforts on

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reducing water-related disasters.

Economic and social vulnerability to waterrelated disasters is the result of several long term trends, such as the steep increase in concentrations of people and assets in cities and coastal risk-prone areas. Hurricane Sandy caused an unprecedented $75 billion in damages to the New York metropolitan area. In a global economy, the impacts of natural disasters can disrupt global supply chains, causing propagation effects across borders. The 2011 floods in Bangkok caused a global shortage of hard disk drives, as 40% of production is located around the Thai capital. Droughts are a major contributor to the volatility of food prices, which have been linked to recent episodes of social unrest and political instability. Natural disasters can harm the economies of even the wealthiest of countries: OECD estimates that a major flood of Paris could decrease GDP in France by 3%1. In this context, all levels of government should implement appropriate risk management policies.

Aligning policy response across the risk management cycle Adequate preparation for water-related disasters requires governments to invest in risk analysis, structural protections, policies in support of prevention and emergency response capabilities. It also entails social policies and financial mechanisms to mitigate the welfare impact of losses and ensure a quick recovery and reconstruction that reduces future vulnerability. Such investments pay dividends in the long term.

The critical policy challenge is how to best prioritize investments suited to different risks. Managing water-related risks requires improved policy coherence across climate change adaptation, water management and disaster risk reduction. If coordinated effectively, these efforts can set an incentive structure that delivers more resilient societies. Governance is therefore one of the fundamental challenges to getting management of water related risks right as illustrated in the OECD Recommendation of

ADAPTING TO CHANGE: MANAGING RISK AND UNCERTAINTY FOR RESILIENCE AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

the governance of critical risks2. related risks in the long run. They require given the uncertainties caused by climate Managing water related risks begins clear articulation of policy objectives at all change and the rising cost of protection4. In the with a tough Managing new risks and uncertainties for resilience and disaster preparedness policy decision: what level of levels of government and with non-state Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the long term strategies of the Delta Plan risk is society willing to accept? Making actors regarding the distribution across and the Thames 2100 follow a phased sure that decision is informed by the society of the burdens of disaster damages.

By Charles Baubion, Jack Radisch, Simon Buckle and Xavier Leflaive of the OECD Public Governance approach: infrastructure development is best scientific knowledge is crucial.

In What does that imply for who bears the and Environment directorates driven by scientific knowledge and focuses recent years hazard mapping and the costs of disaster risk reduction? What is the

on strategic locations. Meanwhile, softer understanding of water related risks appropriate scale to develop partnerships Governments are challenged about where to invest limited resources available for risk management. and greener policy options are encouraged, has improved exponentially, as has the that can bear some of the costs that Two statistics stand out to help policy makers set priorities. First, floods, droughts, and windstorms whereby communities learn to live with development of early warning systems and currently weigh on governments? floods and the adoption financial contingency tools, since 1990. Second, over the past 15 years, floods account for of90% of the natural disasters and develop self-reliance. When they avoid building which smooth the risks to life, property Investing in adaptive capacity droughts have caused more than 70% of the estimated $2.5 trillion in economic losses caused by future liabilities, innovative urban planning and architecture will and public budgets. However, projected towards resilience natural disasters. According to the latest IPCC report, climate change will exacerbate these problems contribute more to resilient societies in future changes for precipitation and sea-level Decades of investment in levees and dams with extreme temperatures, rising sea levels, and changing precipitation patterns. The time is now while presenting green growth opportunities rise under climate change are still deeply (in some countries centuries), have in many for governments to focus efforts on reducing water‐related disasters. at the same time5. Here again, governments, uncertain. This underlines the importance cases contributed to a misperception local and central, have an opportunity to ofEconomic and social vulnerability to water‐related disasters is the result of several long term trends, incorporating multiple scenarios into of disaster risk, which has encouraged incentives right to mobilise a variety of modelling that reflect a range of possible settlements in flood prone areas.

Time such as the steep increase in concentrations of people and assets in cities and coastal set risk‐prone entrepreneurs and initiatives. future conditions. That said, water security and again, however, extreme events have areas. Hurricane Sandy caused an unprecedented $75 billion in damages to the New York can never be just a technical exercise: exceeded the protective threshold of these metropolitan area. In a global economy, the impacts of natural disasters can disrupt global supply References perception matters and stakeholders protective structures, causing extensive chains, effects across damage borders. toThe floods in Members Bangkok caused global 1. a Seine Basin, Île-de-France, 2014: need to becausing involvedpropagation in the definition of the local2011 communities. shortage of hard disk drives, as 40% of production is located around the Thai capital. Droughts are a Resilience to Major Floods – OECD Review appropriate level of resilience3. of the European Union have agreed to major contributor to the volatility of food prices, which have been linked to recent episodes of social of Risk Management Policies, http:// assess extreme flood events that could unrest and political instability. Natural disasters can harm the economies of even the wealthiest of Building Multi-level partnerships across www.oecd.org/gov/seine-basin-ile-deoccur within a 1000 year time frame. In 1 sectors to reduce water related risks france-2014-resilience-to-major-floodsfuture, public policy needs to encourage countries: OECD estimates that a major flood of Paris could decrease GDP in France by 3% . In this Partnerships are critical to reduce water 9789264208728-en.htm a mix of flexible and adaptive solutions context, all levels of government should implement appropriate risk management policies.

2. http://www.oecd.org/gov/risk/ Figure 1 Map of the floodplain for a 100‐year flood in Paris recommendation-on-governance-of-criticalFig.1 Map of the floodplain for a 100-year flood in Paris risks.htm 3. For more details, see OECD (2014), Water Security for Better Lives, OECD Publishing, DOI: 10.1787/9789264202405-en (http:// www.oecd.org/env/resources/Water%20 Security%20for%20Better%20Lives-%20 brochure.pdf) 4. For more details see OECD (2014), Water and Climate Change Adaptation. Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters, OECD Publishing, DOI: 10.1787/9789264200449en (http://www.oecd.org/env/resources/ Water%20and%20Climate%20Change%20 Adaptation-%20brochure.pdf) 5. For more details, see OECD (2015), Water and Cities: Ensuring Sustainable Futures, OECD Publishing. The report will be launched at the OECD side event, at WWF7

on 13 April.

Aligning policy response across the risk management cycle

1

Seine Basin, Île‐de‐France, 2014: Resilience to Major Floods – OECD Review of Risk Management Policies, http://www.oecd.org/gov/seine‐basin‐ile‐de‐france‐2014‐resilience‐to‐major‐floods‐9789264208728‐en.htm

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Water is key to disaster resilience The international community has responded to the increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazards by adopting a new agreement charting the course for disaster risk reduction for the next decade. Margareta Wahlström, Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), explains its approach and highlights the ongoing challenges

hazards such as droughts, floods or typhoons affect tens of millions of people around the globe every year.

We face an increase in the frequency and intensity of such events, driven by climate variability and change. All too aware of this, the international community last month (March, 2015) adopted a new agreement charting the course for disaster risk reduction for the next decade, updating the Hyogo Framework for Action which had guided efforts from 2005 to 2015.

Many of those most impacted are among the planet’s poorest inhabitants – precisely the people for whom access to water can already be an ongoing struggle whether they live in a rural community or a fastexpanding megalopolis.

The ever-present health threats posed by the limited availability of adequate drinking water and sanitation – for example, diarrheal diseases and other potential killers -- can be compounded if water infrastructure and supply systems are damaged or contaminated by household

and industrial waste washed in by a storm.

When floods recede, the stagnant water they leave behind can be a breeding ground for mosquitos, thus fuelling an increase in cases of diseases such as malaria.

Drought is the other side of the water coin. While flooding can be spectacular and costly, slower-onset disasters involving water shortages may actually pose a higher risk in the future. Water is essential for human consumption as well as agricultural and industrial use. Land degradation, the destruction of wetlands, desertification

Above: Cyclone Pam, Vanuatu South Pacific, March 2015: A topical reminder of the crucial need for systems to be in place to cope with aftermath of devastating natural events.

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and pollution are only part of the problem.

They combine with bad habitat planning and resource constraints, compounding the water stresses faced by the most vulnerable populations and spreading that very vulnerability to other parts of society. On top of that, access to water can become a source of conflict within and between societies.

Management of evolving water-related risks is therefore a core issue as we seek to make societies as resilient as possible.

Whether or not the affected community already faces water challenges, a crucial area of disaster preparedness is to have systems in place so that, in the aftermath, the population and rescuers alike can be supplied rapidly with clean water. It is a matter not only of ensuring drinking supplies but also of enabling basic hygiene for households and medical services. Doing so heads off the risk of disease taking hold in areas where there has been an increase in overall vulnerability due to population displacement, economic disruption and coping mechanisms being pushed to breaking point. As a life-sustaining element, water is an essential tool for resilience and recovery.

Water and disasters should not be viewed purely through the lens of emergency response, however. Disaster risk reduction is part and parcel of broader sustainable development.

Increasing access to water and sanitation in both marginalized urban areas and rural communities is just one part of the answer. Equally important is ensuring the sustainability of those systems as part of broader habitat planning, notably by increasing local capacity to maintain such critical infrastructure. Risk-sensitive policy decisions and community involvement are essential. Failing to take that into account raises the risk of designing and building services that gradually deteriorate and malfunction. It may sound simplistic, but

a leaking pipe is part of the process that undermines resilience to hazards.

One challenge is the broad range of actors in the water and sanitation sector, from policymakers to administrators, and service providers to consumers.

That complicates the definition and understanding of roles and responsibilities, potentially causing confusion over who should do what in terms of disaster prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response.

In an effort to plug such risk gaps, governments have over the past decade committed to a multi-stakeholder approach which was at the heart of the Hyogo Framework for Action and remains so in the successor agreement. This approach facilitates efforts to work towards a common goal, avoiding potentially contradictory decisions which can undermine resilience and increase the risks of disaster when a hazard strikes. It also involves building networks and exchanging knowledge with other groups, such as the land planning and management sectors, ministries of health, education and

finances, non-governmental organizations, businesses and researchers.

Bringing together local players has been a key issue for UNISDR since it launched the Making Cities Resilient Campaign in 2010. Some 2,500 local governments have signed up to the campaign, helping build an international network of cities of various different sizes, with different characteristics and risk profiles. Water has been one of the prominent themes of the campaign, which enables communities to learn from each other to implement disaster risk reduction measures.

Margareta Wahlstrรถm Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

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Infrastructure Au Naturel: one way to sustainability The cost of extracting and delivering water to human settlements, based on conventional infrastructure, has become prohibitively expensive, even for developed countries. GWP’s Danka Thalmeinerova and Steven Downey propose a more economical, and sustainable, alternative CiviliSation’s challenge has been to extract and deliver water to human settlements where it is needed for surviving and thriving. From aqueducts to pumps, reservoirs, dikes, treatment plants, and irrigation channels – all this is water infrastructure. Developed nations invested billions of dollars over decades to build infrastructure in their countries to provide clean water. Some say these

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investments and their related technological innovations were significant drivers of economic growth.1 But the luxury of this conventional infrastructure is less affordable today for developed countries and even less so for developing ones because the costs of new – and aging – steel and concrete are high. It is time

to turn to alternative solutions such as constructed wetlands to treat wastewater, converting wastewater into useful byproducts, using sand filters to purify water – solutions that are called natural water infrastructure because the river basins, watersheds, and ecosystems have an economic value similar to conventional water infrastructure, but at much less cost.

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Where do we go from here?

While the MDGs contributed to greater coordination and implementation of development initiatives, there was a failure on the part of some countries to translate political statements into the necessary investments in water infrastructure. There are many reasons for this, but one is that it is difficult to engage financing institutions and governments in water infrastructure investments.2

governments must recognise that most benefits will not flow back to the water sector, but will come through improvements in health, economic growth, or productivity.

The second shift is one that many countries like to ignore. Water infrastructure is usually a matter for local communities.

However, water management has a broad impact on the whole river basin, and many of those basins (263 to be precise4) cross national borders. The economic

The first shift to sustainability is for governments to recognize that conventional water investments ignore the environmental costs associated with the neglect of hydrological interdependence, ignore the basin component of natural (green) infrastructure...

Countries are now negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and it is clear that sustainable infrastructure is on the agenda in many sectors – water, energy, and transport – to move nations from poverty to prosperity. But it won’t be easy. There’s a “perfect storm” which requires sectors to take an integrated approach: for example, it is impossible to build and operate a wastewater treatment plant without reliable energy; it is difficult to feed city dwellers without transport routes from the fields. Moreover, as urban population booms, consumption patterns change which impact hugely on water and other resources.

So the first shift to sustainability is for governments to recognise that conventional water investments ignore the environmental costs associated with the neglect of hydrological interdependence, ignore the basin component of natural (green) infrastructure, and ignore the economic role of river basins themselves3. In addition,

assessment and technical solutions of future sustainable water infrastructure and services will not be possible without sophisticated planning and involvement of all stakeholders. To shift to sustainable water and sanitation provision, countries must integrate sanitation into sustainable development planning, institutions, and policies that helps maximise the benefits and minimise trade-offs.

Engineering and ecosystem approaches are complementary The third shift is that sustainable water infrastructure in the future needs to focus more on managing consumption rather than meeting demand. In other words, current water infrastructure in many industrialised countries has reached its ecological limits. Let’s avoid the same engineering path in developing countries.

Today we know that natural water infrastructure – such as constructed wetlands – can be used for water treatment

or sanitation services. Forest protection and floodplains can protect against water related disasters. Sustainable water infrastructure decisions need to be based on an analysis of the costs and benefits of both natural and hard (human-constructed) infrastructure options.

Integration The fourth, and hardest, shift of all is that implementing sustainable water infrastructure and services go far beyond the water sector – it requires land use planners, ecosystem specialists, economists, and the public to work together. This cross-sectoral approach goes against the “every sector for itself” mentality that pervades industry practice and government policy. The concept of integration has been around for decades.

What is lacking is the political will to make it happen. Sadly, it may take a major crisis – collapse of the power grid, a long and severe drought, or food price rises unacceptable to consumers – that will trigger a long-overdue change in policy and practice.

References 1. Securing Water, Sustaining Growth: Report of the GWP/OECD Task Force on Water Security and Sustainable Growth, University of Oxford, UK, to be published April 2015 2. UNU and UNOSD (2013), Catalyzing Water for Sustainable Development and Growth 3. IUCN: Strategies for a Green Economy: Investing in Nature as Water Infrastructure, Policy Brief, undated 4. UN-Water (2008), Transboundary Waters: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities About the authors Danka Thalmeinerova is the Senior Knowledge Management Officer at Global Water Partnership (GWP) and Steven Downey is the Head of Communications.

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EnvisionTM – A Rating System for Encouraging Sustainable Water Resources Management and Services in the United States A combination of economic, environmental and societal pressures, in addition to climate change concerns, is forcing United States infrastructure professionals to re-examine how infrastructure projects are planned and delivered. A new infrastructure sustainability rating system helps provide a roadmap

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for a new approach to meet some of those challenges.

Though the United States covers an area of 9.526 million km², much of the country’s water resources infrastructure was not developed until after the mid-1800’s and continued to be developed throughout the 20th century.1,2 While efforts were focused on building new communities, with new infrastructure, the need to direct significant resources towards the maintenance or replacement of existing infrastructure seemed to be distant future concern. As these communities mature, the time has come to pay attention to existing,

aging water infrastructure to meet future needs.

A report presented by the ASCE in 2011 indicted that without an extra $84 billion dollars in water infrastructure expenditures by 2020, the United States Gross Domestic Product could be reduced by $416 billion in 2020 due to the interruption of water services and other impacts.3 The report told the story of the potential for increasing infrastructure failures, such as water supply line breaks in older communities, and the accompanying threats to public health and local commerce as the water supply becomes unsafe to drink and businesses are temporarily closed, while water lines are repaired.

Simultaneously, ASCE members have been exploring the broader impact of infrastructure, recognizing that projects must address the triple bottom line by considering economic, societal and environmental issues. Analyzing national data that assesses the biological, chemical and physical state of the United States water resources on a watershed or catchment basis, has allowed a number of environmental conclusions to be drawn. For example, as land previously used for agriculture or other open space uses is developed, it is covered or made impervious to rainwater infiltration through the construction of buildings, roadways and other infrastructure systems. When as little as 10% of the catchment area is impervious, degradation of the natural waterways can be observed.4 Not only has the quality of United States water resources been negatively impacted by infrastructure development, but social changes and population shifts are putting a strain on the availability of water resources

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in some areas of the country. As the United States arid southwest region continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in the country, the increased population has placed more demand on already dwindling regional water supplies.5 As the impacts of climate change become more apparent, it is expected that these arid portions of the United States will only get drier, further straining available water resources.6 This overwhelming need for significant infrastructure investment comes at a time when tight economic conditions, in addition to environmental concerns,

Sustainable Infrastructure at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, the rating system called Envision™ was released in 2012.7 Envision™ takes a different approach to infrastructure essentially asking two important questions.

1. Is this the right project?

2. Is the project being delivered in the right way?

It challenges infrastructure planners from the project inception to consider the long term appropriateness of the project. For example,

As land previously used for agriculture or other open space uses is developed, it is covered or made impervious to rainwater infiltration through the construction of buildings, roadways and other infrastructure systems societal pressures and issues related to climate change, are forcing infrastructure professionals to re-evaluate how they plan, design, build, maintain and retire infrastructure. One approach championed

by ASCE and others uses a rating system to provide guidance and an incentive for changing how infrastructure is delivered.

ASCE, in cooperation with the American Public Works Association, American Council on Engineering Companies worked together to create a sustainability rating system for civil infrastructure in the United States, using the United Kingdom based CEEQUAL sustainability rating system as a starting point. The three organizations founded a separate entity, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), to develop and maintain that rating system. Through collaboration between ISI and the Zofnass Program for

is it better to build a new levee to protect a small group of homes from flooding or is it better to move those residents to another location safe from flooding and return the land to open space or flood control? It also challenges infrastructure professionals to determine if the proposed project is being delivered in a fashion that: • Provides for long term quality of life, • Provides leadership to assure project commitments are followed through, • Considers the impact on resources and energy, • Considers the impact on the natural world, and • Addresses climate change and issues of risk and resiliency.

Arranged in a series of 60 credits under the five headings described above,

the rating system evaluates all types of civil infrastructure projects, except for buildings. Because of the importance of water, a particular emphasis is placed on water resources in the rating system. The system recognizes water resources role in transportation; in quality of life issues; as a resource; as a habitat and conveyance system in the natural world; and lastly its role in climate change and in natural and man-made disasters. It recognizes that not all water supplies needs to be drinkable and encourages project planners to match the water quality to the water use.

EnvisionTM understands that natural waterways provide ecosystem services important to our communities. For example, a number of older communities with combined sewers that carry both waster water and stormwater runoff are using Green Infrastructure or Low Impact Development techniques to reduce the imperviousness of urban centers and encourage stormwater to infiltrate into the ground, thereby reducing the load on the combined sewers and in part addressing the issue of stream degradation referenced earlier.

As ASCE continues to encourage policy makers to provide the means to update the United States water infrastructure, they are continuing to work with the engineering community to address how water resources infrastructure is delivered through new programs such as the EnvisionTM sustainable infrastructure rating system.

Karen C. Kabbes ASCE, EWRI 2014 President

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Clean water — a future luxury?

Clean water is essential to life and the economy. All ancient civilizations developed close to water bodies. Even today, more than half of the global population lives 3 km or nearer to a surface freshwater body and only 10 percent of the population lives more than 10 km away, according to Kummu et al.

(2011)1. However, many of our freshwater bodies suffer from high and growing levels of water pollution with adverse

health impacts for humans and animals.

Moreover, freshwater aquatic biodiversity is in rapid decline and now more threatened than terrestrial biodiversity. Poor water quality is a key contributor to this decline.

Water quality refers to the physical, chemical and biological properties of water. Many substances which could influence water quality, such as organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus, are natural elements found in air and water bodies around the globe. However,

water quality deteriorates when excessive amounts of these substances are discharged into aquatic environments due to human activities and natural, climate factors. Human sources of emissions, including household waste, agricultural chemicals, and livestock waste, all find their way into water bodies and cause pollution if untreated or not managed appropriately. Non-human sources of emissions enter into water bodies from uninhabited or uncultivated lands as a result of precipitation, runoff, and other climate factors.

Water pollution is generally classified into two categories – point sources and nonpoint sources. Point source pollution stems from easily identifiable distinct sources, such as sewage treatment plants and industrial sources. Non-point source pollution generally consists of sediment, nutrients, organic and toxic pollutants, and originates from more diffuse pollution sources such as agriculture, urban storm water runoff or other land uses.

Point sources are easier to monitor and measure, and thus are generally the first to be dealt with in water pollution regulations.

In most developed countries point source pollution is already well regulated, while many developing countries are still struggling with regulation for both types of pollution.

The future of clean water Projected population growth, socioeconomic development and climate change over the next few decades cast uncertainty on the fate of aquatic environments. It is unclear to what

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen required by microorganisms in the water to break down organic material. It measures the quantity of organic pollutants in water.

Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are nutrient elements for life.

They are important to maintain the health of aquatic ecosystems.

However, too much N and P in water lead to pollution. A major consequence of excessive nitrogen and phosphorus in water bodies is eutrophication, when algae grow faster than normal killing other aquatic life by depleting oxygen. The presence of nitrogen-based compounds is also harmful in drinking water.

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WATER FOR FOOD

extent these factors will alter the emissions of substances affecting water quality, or what will be the implications of these changes for water quality. These questions require answers in order to ensure that clean water will not become a luxury for future generations.

A recent study by IFPRI for Veolia North America and under the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems examined the current status of three key water quality parameters and their future development using a global water quality modeling system developed by IFPRI (IWQM) for the agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors. Given the high uncertainty of industrial pollution changes, industrial pollution levels are kept constant over time. Thus, the study results are a conservative estimate of future pollution developments.

Using compiled data sets on population, agriculture, economic growth, climate parameters, and the status of municipal wastewater treatment facilities, the model estimates current emission rates of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P)—for the 2000-2005 base period as well as for 2050 for three alternative futures. These future scenarios incorporate changes in population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), crop harvested area, livestock numbers, fertilizer application rates, and the scale of municipal wastewater treatment.

The “Baseline” scenario is characterized by medium projected growth rates of population and GDP. Food production systems expand to meet effective demand of the growing population, largely through further intensification of existing agricultural systems. Investments in pollution control and environmental technologies grow at a medium rate as well. For fertilizers, a 20% improvement of nutrient use efficiency (NUE) is assumed for all countries, except for the least developed countries (LDCs). This scenario assumes that municipal wastewater treatment increases by 15% over base year levels.

Compared to the baseline scenario,

the optimistic scenario combines lower population growth with higher GDP growth assumptions. This goes hand-in-hand with lower expansion of cropping areas but higher demand for livestock products. This scenario also includes enhanced environmental awareness and thus a more rapid increase in investments to protect the environment. As a result, the treatment level of municipal water is

assumed to improve by 30%, and NUE of chemical fertilizers improves by 40%.

Under the pessimistic future, finally, higher population growth is combined with lower economic growth. Cropping areas continue to expand while livestock production slows due to lower food demand growth for relatively more costly livestock products. Investments

Figure 1. Estimated global BOD, N & P loadings in the base period (2000-2005)

Source: Authors.

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Figure 2. Growth rates of BOD, N & P emissions by country versus GNI per capita (under the baseline scenario)

Income class

200,000

Norway Luxembourg

30,000

GNI per capita (2012)

15,000 10,000

Spain

The Bahamas

Chile

Dominica Belarus

3,000 2,000

Albania Ukraine

China Belize

Ecuador Iran

Guyana

Lesotho Laos

1,000

Angola

Jordan

Morocco

Egypt

India Cameroon

Sudan Pakistan

Ghana Zambia Cote d'Ivory

Zimbabwe

400

Yemen

Nepal

Mali

Benin

Burkina Faso Rwanda Uganda

Tanzania Eritrea Liberia

300

Niger Malawi

200

Burundi

Congo, DRC

Mexico

Ukraine

Macedonia Algeria

Sri Lanka

Congo

Moldova

Bolivia

500

India Laos Cameroon

Tanzania Guinea

Central African Republic

400

Ghana Lesotho

200

Iraq

Peru Jordan Egypt

Mongolia Syria

Nigeria Yemen

Pakistan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Benin

Kenya

Nepal The Gambia Uganda

Madagascar Liberia

300

Turkey

Philippines

Cambodia Comoros Chad Haiti Zimbabwe

700

Oman

Honduras

Zambia

Solomon Is.

Ecuador Iran Armenia

Swaziland

Bhutan

Papua New Guinea Sao Tome & Principe

1,000 Kenya

Venezuela

China

Angola

Indonesia

1,500 Nigeria Senegal

Sierra Leone Mozambique Togo Central African Republic Guinea Madagascar Ethiopia

500

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Saudi Arabia

Colombia

Thailand

3,000

Uzbekistan

Brazil

Gabon

4,000

Cyprus

Estonia Bahrain Chile

Grenada

5,000

Israel

Slovenia MaltaSouth Korea

Russia

7,000

2,000

Kuwait United Arab Emirates

Lithuania Croatia

10,000

Syria

United States

France

The Bahamas Portugal

15,000

Iraq

Tajikistan Cambodia Bangladesh Chad

700

Germany Ireland Italy

Qatar

Spain New Zealand

20,000

Saudi Arabia

Oman

Bolivia Bhutan Philippines

Vietnam

Iceland

30,000

Algeria

Guatemala

Moldova Papua New Guinea

1,500

Cyprus

Malta Trinidad & Tobago Bahrain Brazil Uruguay Turkey Mexico Lebanon Romania St. Lucia Peru

Croatia Poland Panama Suriname

5,000

40,000

Israel

Russia

Upper-middle

Luxembourg Sweden

Australia Netherlands

50,000 Kuwait United Arab Emirates

New Zealand

Czech Republic

7,000

4,000

Australia United States United Kingdom

Lower-middle

Norway

70,000

Finland Singapore

France

100,000

Qatar

Denmark Japan

Netherlands

40,000

20,000

Upper-middle

GNI per capita (2012)

50,000

Low Liechtenstein

Lower-middle

Liechtenstein

70,000

High

150,000

Low

100,000

Income class

200,000

High

150,000

Afghanistan

Rwanda Eritrea Ethiopia

Niger

Malawi Burundi

Congo, DRC

150

150 -20%

0%

20%

40%

60% 80% 100% Growth rate of BOD emissions

120%

140%

160%

180%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60% 80% 100% 120% Growth rate of nitrogen emissions

140%

160%

180%

200%

220%

in environmental protection stagnate. As a result, no significant improvements are assumed for municipal wastewater treatment and NUE. All alternative futures are assessed under climate change which affects the distribution of water across the globe. In particular, the production and transport of pollutants from nonpoint source are highly driven by precipitation and runoff, and therefore are directly influenced by climate change.

Human activities are responsible for close to half of BOD and N emissions and two thirds of P discharge.

The estimated annual emissions of BOD, N and P during the base period (2000-2005) amount to 209, 131 and 10 million tons per year, respectively. While the release of water pollutants in the Amazon and Congo River Basins are mainly caused by heavy rainfall, all other regions with high BOD, N and P emission rates include major population concentration areas, such as north and east China, the Indo-Gangetic plains in South Asia, the US Midwest, central Europe and southern Brazil. Globally, close to half of BOD (46%) and N (52%) and more than 60% of P discharge are from human sources (Figure 1).

By 2050, the emission of BOD, N and P will increase by 9~32%, 35~62% and 15~40%, respectively; most rapid increases will occur in low and lower middle income countries By 2050, it is projected that global emissions of BOD will increase to between 227 and 275 million tons per year, or by 9-32%, depending on the scenario. Similarly, global emissions of P are expected to increase by between 15% and 40%. The most significant increases are projected for emission rates of N; by 2050, global emissions of N are estimated to grow between 35-62%.

Thanks to lower population pressure and more investments in environmental conservation, emissions are projected to increase

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less under the optimistic scenario compared to the baseline and pessimistic scenarios. Emission growth rates vary at the country level. The most rapid increases will occur in low- and lower-middle income countries, including in the Middle East, primarily due to higher population growth in these countries (Figure 2). It is therefore essential to rapidly increase investments toward arresting growing water pollution in low-income countries.

Clean water—a future luxury, unless we take action NOW This assessment reveals that the global emissions of BOD, N and P are already alarmingly high in many regions of the world. This situation is projected to become even worse over the next several decades as emissions of these substances will continue to increase, posing greater risks to humans, animals and aquatic environments, especially in developing countries. While emissions increase at a slower rate under the optimistic scenario due to slower population growth and greater investments in environmental conservation, particularly improvements in fertilizer efficiency and wastewater treatment, water quality is still projected to deteriorate dramatically under this best case scenario.

This alarming trend calls for a rethinking of our development pathways, and even greater investments in the environment and water supply infrastructure. Without significant attention to this looming crisis, the future deterioration of water quality poses a major threat to aquatic environments and the people that depend on them.

Unfortunately, water quality issues are much more challenging to address compared to water allocation and use. The dynamics of water pollution are highly complex, pollution is often not visible as such; pollution sources, particularly non-point sources, are difficult to identify and might originate far from the point of impact; and even if detected it is typically difficult for individuals to effectively eliminate the pollution problem. Finally, low-cost indicators to measure changes in water pollution are difficult to come by. As a result, command-and-

WATER FOR FOOD

Income class

200,000

High Low

Liechtenstein

100,000

Upper-middle

Switzerland Denmark

Canada

50,000

Japan

France

Iceland Andorra Spain

20,000

Slovakia

Qatar Australia United States Singapore

Greenland South Korea Malta Chile

Puerto Rico

Colombia

Saudi Arabia

Libya

Lebanon

Thailand

Botswana Dominican Republic

Peru

Ecuador Algeria El Salvador Guatemala

Jordan

Philippines Uzbekistan

Nicaragua

1,000

Zambia

India

Cote d'Ivory

Cambodia Bangladesh

500

Central African Republic

Mongolia

Egypt

Sri Lanka Bhutan Bolivia Moldova Papua New Guinea

Laos

Iraq

Iran

Fiji

Guyana

2,000

Oman

Bahrain

South Africa

China

5,000

Israel

Brazil

Hungary Russia Turkey Panama

10,000

Kuwait United Arab Emirates

Italy

The Bahamas Latvia

GNI per capita (2012)

Lower-middle

Norway

Sierra Leone Mozambique Madagascar

Pakistan Nigeria

Tajikistan Chad Nepal

Guinea

Liberia

Togo

Yemen

Senegal Mali Tanzania

Benin

Kenya Burkina Faso Afghanistan

The Gambia

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Uganda Niger

Malawi

200

Congo, DRC

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

Burundi

80% 100% 120% 140% Growth rate of phosphorus emissions

160%

180%

200%

220%

240%

from these changes in practices. These payments are typically sourced from the beneficiaries of the enhanced environmental services, usually the downstream water users. As with many other market-based systems, the appropriate institutions must be in place to collect the payments, and ensure that the conservation measures are actually being taken.

Public participation is key to successful water quality management. The involvement of the public and local stakeholders in water quality implementation and monitoring programs can lead to great advantages if thoughtfully applied. The incorporation of participatory approaches in water quality management to date has primarily been concentrated in the United States and Europe, but ad-hoc participation of communities has been observed in developing countries as well, for example, in India. Local concerns over declining water quality levels are also prompting policy responses in other countries, for example in China. Participatory water quality management can help raise awareness about water quality problems, make political processes transparent to the public and offer stakeholders an opportunity to take part in the negotiation and monitoring processes and contribute to the results.

While all these options exist and many new ones are being developed, the capacity of environmental management in many of the countries where nutrient loadings will increase the most remains limited. Cooperation with the international community is needed now to help these countries in their efforts to fight water pollution.

control approaches implemented at the national levels are typically managing water quality. Most countries have passed pollution control laws Source: Authors. that require polluting industries and municipalities to treat wastewater to prescribed effluent standards. However, implementation

and enforcement of the laws is often more problematic. Municipalities References Clean water—a future luxury, unless we take action NOW may not have the necessary resources to build sewage treatment 1. Kummu, M, H. de Moel, P.J. Ward and O. Varis. 2011. How plants without financial assistance from higher level of governments. close to we live to water? A global analysis of population distance to This assessment reveals that the global emissions of BOD, N and P are already alarmingly high in many Industries will have to invest in either individual or common treatment freshwater bodies. PLoS One 6(6): e20578 regions of the world. This situation is projected to become even worse over the next several decades as plants or would have to pre-treat their wastes if they are to use publicly 2. Woodward, R.T. and R.A. Kaiser. 2002. Market Structures for emissions of these substances will continue to increase, posing greater risks to humans, animals and owned treatment plants. In developing countries, industries have U.S. Water Quality Trading. Review of Agricultural Economics. 24(2): shown reluctance to undertake the capital cost of treatment without 366-383. some subsidy and an even greater reluctance to operate the plants “Eutrophication at a waste water outlet in the Potomac River, properly due to the costs of chemicals, power, and trained personnel.

Washington, D.C.” by Alexandr Trubetskoy is licensed under CC Tradable pollution permits are a recent means of addressing BY-SA 3.0 growing pollution problems. Pollution trading programs generally seek to achieve a certain level of environmental quality while minimizing the abatement costs incurred by polluters. The use of markets for water pollution has been gaining popularity in recent years in the United States. Water quality trading programs, if adequately administered could 1) reach environmental goals defined by laws or regulations, 2) minimize the social costs of reaching a proposed environmental CLAUDIA RINGLER Deputy Division Director, Environment and goal, 3) allow the agency to maintain control over the program while Production Technology Division, International minimizing legal risks and effort put into day-to-day program operation, Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 4) minimize participants’ transaction costs, and 5) minimize the costs of initiating the program for agencies and participants (Woodward and Kaiser 20022).

Payments for ecosystem services are another method to reduce water pollution, in particular, non-point source pollution. Several countries, most notably Costa Rica, have initiated programs that Hua Xie Research Fellow, Environment and provide payment for these services. Under these programs, typically Production Technology Division, private landowners who change their land management practices International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) receive payment for the enhanced water (quality) services resulting

Figure 2 Growth rates of BOD, N & P emissions by country versus GNI per capita (under the baseline scenario) used in

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When planning new infrastructure water and energy must go hand in hand In a report published back in 2010 by the World Energy Council we set out that water consumption to generate electricity will more than double over the next 40 years. This was a wakeup call for many. However, as the understanding of the linkages between energy and water becomes better understood we still see a significant lack of response to what will become a considerable issue in coming years.

In our 2015 World Energy Issues Monitor report the energy-water nexus ranked as the 29th most important issue out of the 40 indicators measured, continuing the trend of the low uncertainty – low impact seen in previous years. In this survey of 1,000 energy leaders and ministers the critical issues “keeping energy leaders awake at night” continues to be energy price volatility and climate framework. In Asia, which in recent years has seen the energy water nexus with higher perceived impact and certainty, we now see the issue falling back against other more pressing issues.

This is a concern, as the pressure for action is becoming more urgent. Pakistan’s continual water shortage is rapidly evolving into a national disaster and in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, water shortage is becoming an increasingly politically destabilising factor.

The combination of more users, with more uses of water, has transformed the traditional water-energy ‘ladder’ that underpins all human, social and economic development into an ‘escalator’. In addition to this, the pressure on already stressed water resources in some areas is expected to be greatly exacerbated by the effects of climate change and variations in natural conditions.

These are certainly the concerns expressed by a grouping of national utilities which together account for more that 80% of global installed generation capacity.

This Global Electricity Initiative - under the umbrella of the World Energy Council, the World Business Council for Sustainable

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Development (WBCSD) and the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership (GSEP) recently highlighted that over 60% of CEO’s considered that “The growing land and water requirements [for energy] are becoming major issues, not only in the markets where utilities operate, but also globally. This will affect the development of new power projects and other infrastructure.”

It is clear that water security and energy security are critical to social and economic development. Indeed, access to water and sanitation is not only an end in itself, but a tool for poverty alleviation. The recognition that energy requires water as much as clean water supplies and sewage disposal requires energy services ensures that the energy sector and the water sector have complementary objectives when it comes to sustainability.

But it is also clear that the linkages between both energy and water systems continue to grow more complex and interdependent. By 2050, the UN estimates that half the world’s population will live in nations that are short of water. Moving water to people and managing

supply will become even bigger issues in the years to come, which will impact both developing and developed economies alike.

The positive message is that there is much research on water and energy issues currently being carried out. However, much of this work tends to find that global solutions, as to specific energy sources and technologies, do not exist in the water sector as freshwater supplies are unevenly allocated across the globe. On the negative side, information is largely fragmented, often ambiguous or abstract and does not lead to recommendations for action.

The development of a “conceptual and analytical framework for evaluation and reporting of the energy impacts on water” recommended at the last World Water Forum in Marseille, with the objective to support the introduction and spreading of technologies reducing the water and energy footprint, is a welcome initiative. The answer to the question of how much water is needed to generate a given amount of electricity is an essential prerequisite to address the energy water

WEC’s Jazz and Symphony Scenarios setting out energy investment landscape to 2060

WATER FOR ENERGY

The World Energy Council’s Global Energy Issues Monitor 2015: highlighting 40 issues and their perceived impact, uncertainty, and urgency for global energy leaders and experts globally. In the 2015 World Energy Issues Monitor report the energy-water nexus ranked as the 29th most important issue out of the 40 indicators measured.

are to deliver economic development, social inclusion and a sustainable environment.

Footnotes World Energy Council 2010, Water for Energy.

World Energy Council, 2015, 2015 World Energy Issues Monitor: Energy price volatility the new normal.

World Energy Council, 2007, World Energy Scenarios: Composing energy futures to 2050. Project Partner Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland.

All publications can be downloaded for free at the World Energy Council’s website www. worldenergy.org

challenge, as the rising demand for cooling and process water in the power sector is in direct competition with agriculture and municipal demands in some areas.

In line with our formal relationship with the World Water Council this work will inform our new Scenarios study which will extend our Jazz and Symphony Scenarios setting out the energy investment landscape to 2060. The Jazz Scenario has a focus on energy equity with priority given to achieving individual access and affordability of energy through economic growth. The Symphony Scenario has a focus on achieving environmental sustainability through internationally coordinated policies and practices. The increasing interdependence of energy and water will impact the investment decisions in the energy sector in both Scenarios.

Our recent World Energy Trilemma report highlighted that the energy sector alone will need cumulative investments of US$40.2 trillion across the global energy infrastructure supply chain with an additional $8 trillion in energy efficiency just to keep pace with demand over the period from 2014 to 2035.

It is therefore clear that the energy water

nexus is not just an operations issue, as highlighted by the utilities in our Global Electricity Initiative, but will have significant financial implications for future investments.

This is why we have also initiated a study looking at Financing Resilient Energy Infrastructure, which will include additional research on the energy water linkage. The project aims to help mobilise investments into the energy sector by providing technical and financial recommendations for the deployment of resilient energy infrastructure. It supports the dialogue between the energy and financial communities and aims to provide regional risk profiles for emerging issues such as cyber threats, and social activism, as well as water stress, extreme weather events and the energy-water-food nexus.

There is an urgent need for further research to encourage close regional and international co-operation between the energy sector, governments and institutions. The energy water nexus issue urgently needs to move up the ranking of critical uncertainties requiring the attention of our leaders both political and business. As we plan our energy futures water and energy must go hand in hand if we

About the author Karl Rose is senior director for scenarios and policies at the World Energy Council. Based in Vienna and Graz/Austria, he is the energywater issues lead of this global network of energy leaders.

After studying Petroleum Engineering and a successful international career with Royal Dutch Shell, spanning almost 25 years and many countries and senior positions, including that of Chief Strategist for the corporation, Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Karl Rose returned to his home country of Austria in 2010. He set up his own consulting company for strategic management, Strategy Lab, and is member of the supervisory boards of several local utility and power producers in Austria.

Together with the scenarios study group and project team, Karl is currently building the World Energy Council’s flagship report World Energy Scenarios to 2050 to be launched at the 2016 World Energy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey.

Karl Rose Senior Director for scenarios and policies at the World Energy Council

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Water and Green Growth Water is vital to human lives, as well as fundamental to all development issues.

Water underpins agriculture and food production, the main source of GDP for many developing and under developed countries. Water is also a critical input for many sectors of industries, an important driver of economic growth.

In terms of challenges related with the quantity of water, it is estimated that industry use of water in Asia will increase by 65% by 2030.1 Rapid population growth and urbanization will also place an increasing challenge in securing water supply for agriculture and urban needs. The region’s current population of 4.3 billion in 2014 is expected to increase to more than 5.0 billion in 2050, an increase of around

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20%.2 More food and water will be needed for sustenance. Urban population will increase from the current 47.7% of the total population in 2014 to 63% or 3.3 billion in 2050, an increase of around 1.2 billion people living in urban environment by the year 2050.3 Yet absolute water quantity remains finite and per capita availability of water will shrink. The 2012 per capita availability of water for Asia and the Pacific was the lowest at 4817 m3 per

cap as compared to Africa at 5164 m3, Europe at 5376 m3, Latin America and the Caribbean at 31520 m3 and North America at 17060 m3.4 By 2050 the Asia Pacific per capita availability of water will be further reduced to 4055 m3 per capita.5 With increase in wastewater from industries, residuals from pesticides and fertilizers that may seep into the natural system, the pollution level will increase unless actions are being taken to ensure

GREEN GROWTH

sustainable management. Current access to improved sanitation is 59% for Asia and the Pacific region, with the rate for India at only 36%.6 Untreated polluted water cannot be used for agriculture or for industries without having serious impacts on human health as well. Improving the quality of available water and ensuring sufficient quantity of water will be critical not only to sustain rapid economic growth but also to underpin accelerated urbanization of the region while ensuring quality of life and health of the people Water related disasters also pose serious challenges for the region’s economic growth. The Asia-Pacific region is the most disaster-prone region in the world where almost 2 million people were killed in disasters between1970 and 2011, representing 75 per cent of all disaster fatalities globally.7 The most frequent hazards in the region are hydrometeorological and 93% of the impacts of climate change, hydro-meteorological in nature, are water related.8 Such disasters have severe impacts on GDP, for example, Thailand severe floods in 2011, resulted in a GDP loss of 1.1% and Pakistan experiences in disastrous floods, resulted in 0.8% GDP loss.9 Climate change and the

region’s susceptibility to extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, super storms, with more frequent and intense events are also worrying factors which are great challenges for countries in the region.

Water-related problems like water scarcity, sea level rise, landslides and erosion of coastal zones have greater recurrence and threaten social, environmental and economic sustainability

reducing emissions and such measures must be country specific and suggestions include the creation of Water Banks and the centrality of the 3Rs (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle) in all the sectors. This should take into consideration the upcoming post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals and requires empowered leadership.

Capacity development and strategic media communication to create awareness in

Applying a green growth approach to water means investing in long term water resource management and improving economic and ecological efficiency of water supply and demand Green growth is a new paradigm to sustain long term economic growth by investing in eco-system and natural resources. It reconciles short term policy focus on economic growth with long term policy goals of environmental sustainability.

It attempts to transform the way our economy produces and consumes by restructuring the visible and invisible structures of the economy. Water is a critical component of the visible structures of our economy. Applying a green growth approach to water means “investing in long term water resource management” and “improving economic and ecological efficiency of water supply and demand” so that water can continue to support rather than to limit long term economic growth prospect critical for poverty reduction and job creation.

A Bangkok workshop10 in February 2015 was convened with experts to discuss the core challenges in economy, agriculture, environment and urban areas.

The experts at the workshop agreed that it is possible to close the water-use gap by reducing the quantity, improving the quality, increasing the efficiency and

high profiling the environmental issues are important critical areas.

Challenges in closing the time/ investment gaps for long term green growth include social equity for all actors, platforms to support the discussions on water pricing, effective leadership role of governments, balanced implementation investments, which are context specific and enable the carrying out of the processes on a local basis.

Other challenges are the introduction of an ecosystem approach and the consideration of long term maintenance costs. The needs for effective local legislation are country-specific and include covering areas for differentiating water quality, different categories of users/ farmers, land policies, etc The equity principles along with the human right to water and sanitation form the social pillar of green growth. Peoples support and their understanding of the issues is important, and this can be carried out through education and fostering public participation and by balancing the roles of the various actors in government, civil societies and private sectors. The need

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Water Operational Plan 2011-2020, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. https:// books.google.co.th/books?id=ty4JBgA AQBAJ&pg=PT14&lpg=PT14&dq=colu mbia+university+water+institute+for+asi a+industry+use+of+water+in+asia+will+i ncrease+by+65%25+by+2030&source= bl&ots=vTrKFWCk65&sig=T1HTVM1A_7 f6W0GEQpp2o7Sqd1A&hl=it&sa=X&ei= cCTwVK7QFs-jugTyhIHgCw&ved=0CB8 Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=fals 2 Population’s Referernce Bureau 2013, 2013 World Population Data Sheet, http://www.prb.org/pdf13/2013population-data-sheet_eng.pdf (2013) 3 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2014). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/352).

The equity principles along with the human right to water and sanitation form the social pillar of green growth” for a vertical and horizontal integration of the political process, along with the sharing and dissemination of knowledge based information are required at all levels.

Strategic practical areas necessitating intervention are the creation of community ownership on water, development of river basin master plans and integrated urban and rural development. The poorest communities were identified as those who need most support.

The region is facing serious challenges including quantity and quality of water to sustain its long term economic growth prospects and achieving sustainable development. Rapid economic growth and accelerated urbanization, demands for water increases with huge pressure on supply of water. Unless well managed, the water quality in natural waterways will inevitably be impacted by the increasing

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4 UNESCAP, Statistical Year Book for Asia and the Pacific 2014 http://www. unescap.org/resources/statisticalyearbook-asia-and-pacific-2014 (2014) 5 Ibidem

raw sewage and untreated wastewater discharge. Water will have direct linkage with long term prospect of economic growth, necessary to reduce poverty and job creation.

Water as a valuable resource is a natural capital. By linking green growth with water resource management, Asia and the Pacific countries can better sustain their long term economic growth prospect, support rapid urbanization and drive agricultural and industrial development while improving their resilience to water related disasters and better prepared for water shortage and drought and improve their sanitation critical for the well-being of people of the region.

6 UNESCAP, Statistical Year Book for Asia and the Pacific 2014 http://www. unescap.org/resources/statisticalyearbook-asia-and-pacific-2014 (2014)

References 1 Columbia University’s Water Institute for Asia in, Asian Development Bank, 2012,

10 Bangkok Workshop, http://www. unescap.org/resources/presentationworkshop-water-and-green-growth

7 UNESCAP, UNISDR, Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2012: Reducing Vulnerability and Exposure to Disas 8 Ibidem 9 Nokeo Ratanavong,“Thailand floods damage and loss assessment: lessons learned” (http://www.itu. int/ITU-D/asp/CMS/Events/2012/ emergencyworkshop/Nokeo_ Ratanavong.pdf

GREEN GROWTH

Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank Mr Raekwon Chung, Director of Environment and Development Division, UNESCAP, for his guidance in the preparation of this paper About the authors Ms Salmah Zakaria, a senior water expert, with the United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Bangkok, has main interests in IWRM, Water & Green Growth, Water-Food-Energy Nexus and Climate Change Adaptation. She is ESCAP’s alternate focal point to UN-Water as well as APWF Governing Council, serving on various task forces and committees.

Graduating with a BE (Civil-UTM, Malaysia), all her professional life has been in water related areas. She holds a PhD in “Deep Peat Field Water Management”, Cranfield, UK, an MSc in Land and Water Resources Management, Cranfield, UK, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Hydraulics from IHE, the Netherlands.

Before ESCAP, she served the Malaysian Government for more than 30 years, including in various management positions, such as the Director General of National Hydraulics Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), 2005-2008, the Director of Corporate Development Division, Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia - 2002-2005 and the Director of River Engineering Division, DID Malaysia -1999-2002. Her substantive experiences at national level include corporate development and institutional restructuring, river basin studies, urban water management, peat water management, planning & design of irrigation and drainage schemes and construction supervision. She supervised the publication of first edition of the Malaysian Storm Water Management Manual (1999-2002) A Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) she chaired the ASM Task Force on Climate Change Adaptation.

She is also an Associate Fellow, Institute

of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia. She previously served in various committees at international and national levels including CATALYST (Capacity Development for Natural Hazards risk reduction and Adaptation group), APWF/ADB Steering Group team on the APWF/ADB Water Knowledge Hub for Climate Change Adaptation, Lead Author, IPCC SREX, GWPSEATAC, GWPO Steering Committee, AguaJaring Southeast Asia Capacity Building network, ADB, Panel Reviewer, Apex Water Bodies, Secretary to MyWP (Malaysian Water Partnership). She is currently a Board member of the Selangor Waters Management Authority (LUAS), Malaysia Sara Demartini was an intern with the Environment and Development Division in the Energy Security and Water Resources Section at UNESCAP from October 2014 until March 2015. Also, from October 2013 until July 2014 she was an “Environmental Information Expert” trainee in the Energy Office

of the Environmental Department of the Municipality of Lecco (Italy). She has a Master’s Degree in International and Diplomatic Affairs with a major in Economics and Development Policies from the University of Bologna in Forlì and has recently completed a Master’s in Human Development and Environment.

Min Woo Kim graduated from Division of International Studies in Korea University.

He focused on international development and water resource management. He wrote a paper on “A Guide to the Post2015 MDGs: Improving Water Sanitation in Southeast Asia” and won the Grand Prize from United Nations Academic Impact. He is currently enrolled in Korea University Law School J.D. program, focusing on international commercial law and environmental law. He interned for 6 months in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Environment and Development Division under Salmah Zakaria. He is planning to work in international organizations after graduating law school.

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Water stewardship, inequality and Green Growth By providing a framework for diverse water users to develop transparent rules for the management of their collective resource, water stewardship can support more equitable development within a Green Growth model

Our daily news makes the extent and significance of inequality1 hard to ignore, and its political repercussions are being experienced in several economies, whether rapidly growing (example India) or steadily stagnating (example EU). A Green Growth model has the potential to be a positive force in tackling inequality; it should not just lead to more efficient use of natural resources, but also to improved livelihoods and more equitable distribution of wealth2. Yet in a climate of economic and political uncertainty, powerful economic forces can easily revert to the familiar ‘development versus environment' discourse, and advocate dropping the ‘green’ and focusing simply on ‘growth’. This situation clearly affects levels of investment in the sustainable management and governance of natural resources, including water.

In natural resource management the traditional role of governments has been to legislate, regulate and enforce up to a minimum compliance standard.

A Green Growth model could help to provide incentives to go beyond minimum requirements, but faced with multiple pressures to stimulate economies and create jobs, it is probably safe to assume that most governments’ ability to do so is limited. Yet to an ever-increasing extent, minimum standards are not sufficient to ensure the sustainability of

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ecosystems and disadvantaged communities.

Faced with this situation, voluntary, marketbased approaches designed to drive more sustainable and equitable outcomes are increasingly appealing. These systems create incentives for companies to shift their horizons from minimum compliance standards to becoming the drivers of best practice. In recent years market-based approaches have also become better at both supporting ‘traditional’ catchment management infrastructure and broader policy on natural resource management. Coordination between different voluntary approaches has also increased, for example between commodity standards and natural resource management initiatives.

As one such approach, water stewardship draws on the principles outlined by Nobel Prize-winning political economist Elinor Ostrom3 who demonstrated that ‘common pool resources’ can be successfully managed through systems of transparent rules that are developed and enforced by the users of the resource. Water stewardship understands that water is best managed by those who use it, and that by engaging multiple users at the appropriate level it is possible to reconcile diverse needs and achieve outcomes of more equitable water use, protection of the resource and

economic growth, i.e. Green Growth. Water stewardship also demands transparency and supports disclosure, thereby addressing asymmetries of information that contribute to income inequality. The AWS International Water Stewardship Standard provides an internationally-consistent framework within which such local and user-based processes can flourish alongside market recognition to incentivise participation of major water users.

An example of water stewardship’s potential to simultaneously advance more equitable water use, mitigate corporate water risk and support public water policy objectives can be seen from on-going work in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

When UK retailer Marks & Spencer and its South African counterpart Woolworths asked WWF to help them examine their water risk exposure, the focus fell on suppliers of stone fruit (peaches, nectarines etc.) in the upper Breede-Overberg Catchment, with surprising results. By using the AWS Standard as a neutral framework to engage different water users, it was established that the catchment’s

GREEN GROWTH

main water quality threat was not fertilizer use as may have been assumed, but inadequate sanitation in the informal settlement for farm labourers. But the real value lay in the stakeholder-inclusive processes that enabled different water users and catchment managers to understand the issues and start to build the trust needed for a collective effort to effectively address inequality in provision of sanitation.

Water stewardship can only work if the system is credible and transparent, allowing claims of best practice only when the needs of diverse stakeholders have been met. To secure this credibility stewardship processes must be neutral, (designed by a diverse group of stakeholders), inclusive (relevant stakeholders are aware and ‘invited’) and accessible (ensuring that poorly resourced groups are also able to participate).

Similarly, a water stewardship system can only work if it enables major water users to show true leadership, not in the sense of one individual company finding the solution, but in what Otto Scharmer4 would term “igniting a field of inspired connection and action”.

Water stewardship is not the easy path, and it challenges existing power structures, but it is a path sits comfortably within a Green Growth model and holds promise to make a real contribution towards more equitable water use.

References 1. OXFAM, 2015: “Wealth: Having It All and Wanting More”, http://www.oxfam.org/sites/ www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/ibwealth-having-all-wanting-more-190115-en. pdf 2. OECD, 2012: Green Growth and Developing Countries, a Summary for Policy Makers, http://www.oecd.org/dac/50526354. pdf 3. Ostrom, E, 1991: “Governing the Commons. The evolution of institutions for collective action”, Cambridge University Press 4. Scharmer, O, 2009: “Leadership development is not about filling a gap but about igniting a field of inspired connection and action”, http://www.ottoscharmer.com/ sites/default/files/2009_FieldBasedLeadDev. pdf

Supplementary information For more information on the water stewardship project in South Africa with AWS, WWF, M&S and Woolworths, please visit http://www.wwf.org.za/?12401/Waterstewardship-experiences-in-the-WesternCape https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cVGjkpLb1Ss What is AWS? AWS is a global partnership dedicated to promoting the responsible use of freshwater.

AWS has built and oversees a globallyconsistent water stewardship system which drives, recognizes and rewards improved water stewardship performance.

At the heart of the AWS system is the stakeholder-endorsed International Water Stewardship Standard (the AWS Standard) which provides a voluntary framework for major water users to understand their water use and work collaboratively for sustainable water management within a catchment context. The AWS Standard was developed through a four-year, global multistakeholder process.

A network of regional partners makes the AWS system accessible to a wide range of stakeholders from industry, agriculture, public sector and civil society, allowing global consistency to team up with local expertise. This innovative approach puts AWS at the leading edge collective responses to water challenges.

AWS brings together leading organizations from around the globe who are committed to the principles of water stewardship.

AWS’s Founding Partners are American Standard, CDP, Centre for Responsible Business, Centro del Agua para America Latina y el Caribe, Ecolab, European Water Partnership, Fundacion Chile, Fundacion FEMSA, Future500, General Mills, The Gold Standard Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Foundation, Inghams Enterprises, Marks & Spencer, Murray Darling Basin Authority, Nestle, Pacific Institute, Sealed Air, United Nations Environment Programme, the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate, The Nature Conservancy, The Water Council, Veolia, Water Environment Federation, Water

Footprint Network, Water Stewardship Australia, Water Witness International, WaterAid and WW. info@allianceforwaterstewardship.org www.allianceforwaterstewardship.org About the author As Executive Director, Adrian Sym leads the pioneering work of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), a global partnership to promote the responsible use of freshwater.

Through its innovative and multi-stakeholder approach, AWS is at the leading edge of driving collective action and consensusbased responses to water challenges. The centrepiece of AWS’s work is the International Water Stewardship Standard which provides a voluntary framework for major water users to understand their water use and work collaboratively for sustainable water management within a catchment context.

A development and sustainability professional, Adrian has significant experience in social and environmental standards, having previously worked with Fairtrade International.

Prior to this, Adrian spent seven years in Bangladesh and Nepal where he worked on disability and development programs.

His diverse experience, together with his academic background (Masters in International Policy and Diplomacy), has helped to shape Adrian’s view on sustainable development, believing that true development can only be achieved through effective partnerships amongst and between stakeholder groups. http://www.allianceforwaterstewardship. org/

Adrian Sym Executive Director Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS)

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Wetlands – for water and life!

Wetlands occur wherever water meets land. These deltas, marshes, rivers, lakes and watersheds are the water systems that link the natural world and human societies, and make it possible to clean, store and provide water to grow food and run businesses.

Wetlands have the greatest value of any ecosystem for human well-being1, yet they are the most rapidly degrading on Earth.

In the last decades more than half of our wetlands have been lost through drainage and conversion and much of the rest have been degraded.2 Wetlands now face extreme threats as competition for land and water intensifies, while the cost to society and nature due to continued loss and degradation is huge and growing.

Wetlands International is the only global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to sustaining and restoring wetlands. We are driven by the knowledge that positive action on wetlands can help to secure

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a sustainable water future for people and nature. This means more than just protecting special places, it means investing in functioning systems in the landscape – wetlands as natural water infrastructure. To make this happen, we develop knowledge and apply tools that inform decisions about wetland wise use and water sharing.

For example, last year’s flooding devastation in Kashmir, India was driven by wetland conversion and degradation. The largest freshwater lake, Wular Lake, formerly functioned as a large sponge that buffered against flooding and low river flows. Now 90% of the absorptive capacity is gone and flash floods result, impacting the poorest and most vulnerable whose livelihoods are directly dependent on natural resources.

Our management plan, delivered to the State Government, offers a cost effective solution to reduce flood risk through wetland restoration.

Around the world, the poorest people

suffer most when wetlands are lost and degraded. Growing water risks and scarcity are driving societal conflicts and humanitarian disasters. To address these challenges, it is urgent that the value of sustaining wetlands is better recognised in development agendas, and the new 2020 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a good start.3 Building on the current Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs will set the post 2015 development agenda and drive government commitments and investment priorities in the coming years.

What’s clear is that the SDGs are not achievable without functioning water and wetland ecosystems. Not just Goal 6: sustainable water and sanitation for all, but the top Goals 1 & 2: ending poverty and hunger and achieving food security.

Key building blocks of these Goals, such as building resilience, reducing exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and environmental shocks, as well

MANAGING AND RESTORING ECOSYSTEMS FOR WATER SERVICES AND BIODIVERSITY

The SDGs signal that action is needed to sustain and enhance the role of wetlands as natural infrastructure in all regions of the world and at all scales.”

increasing the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale producers, are underpinned by the need to invest more in the conservation and restoration of wetlands in the landscape. In fact, sustaining and restoring water-related ecosystems is imperative for achieving many of the Goals.

The SDGs signal that action is needed to sustain and enhance the role of wetlands as natural infrastructure in all regions of the world and at all scales. But how can this best be achieved? In many of the river basins where we work it’s clear that re-engineering of existing structures and re-thinking of planned new infrastructure, like flood barrages or hydropower dams, is needed to optimise water sharing.

For example, it is vital to boost food and energy production in the underdeveloped countries of the Niger Basin in West Africa. However, our research shows that as originally planned, further energy and agri-developments upstream could trigger ecological and social collapse downstream around the vast Inner Niger Delta in Mali, where nearly two million people directly depend on seasonal wetlands for their livelihoods. We are engaging with

governments, stakeholders and investors to advocate for an alternative approach that secures the natural flood pulse of the Delta as an economic engine and as part of the solution for regional food and water security and climate change adaptation.

About Wetland International Wetlands International is the only global not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation and restoration of wetlands.

Our vision is a world where wetlands are treasured and nurtured for their beauty, the life they support and the resources they provide. We are deeply concerned about the loss and deterioration of wetlands such as lakes, marshes and rivers. We work through our network of sixteen global offices, our partners and experts to: 1. identify critical wetlands, build and share knowledge about their values, status and trends 2. develop and apply tools that inform decisions about wetland wise use and water sharing

opportunity and means to provide net positive impact for people and nature 6. engage with government and finance institutions, advocating for policies and finance mechanisms which enable scaling up of wetland solutions References 1. Russi D., ten Brink P., Farmer A., Badura T., Coates D., Förster J., Kumar R. and Davidson N. (2013) The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Water and Wetlands. IEEP, London and Brussels; Ramsar Secretariat, Gland.

2. Davidson, N. 2014. How much wetland has the world lost? Long-term and recent trends in global wetland area. Marine and Freshwater Research 65, 934–941.

3. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ sdgsproposal.

For more information, contact: Dr Chris Baker, Programme Head Water Resources Chris.Baker@wetlands.org www.wetlands.org

3. connect stakeholders and forge innovative partnerships to enable collaboration over wetland resources 4. enable local communities to take action to safeguard and restore wetlands, enhancing their livelihoods and resilience to natural hazards 5. collaborate with businesses to tackle water-related risks and to identify the

Dr Chris baker Programme Head Water Resources, Wetlands International

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ASIAN WATER ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT: A PARTNERSHIP FOR IMPROVEMENT Rapid urbanisation, a sharp increase in population and industrial development in Asia have resulted in intense pressure on the water environment, which may become a great obstacle for sustainable development of the region.

Over the last 15 years, the international community has made headway in its efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)’ sanitation goal, which aims to increase the proportion of the population using improved sanitation by 2015. As a result, more people have access to basic sanitation facilities. Those same efforts have also contributed to the improvement of the water environment. However, Asian countries are still struggling to deal with the effects of water pollution from these facilities, which have resulted, in part, from insufficient attention to the consequences of effluent emissions, such as treated

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wastewater and sludge, which now represent issues requiring action. Untreated and insufficiently treated wastewater from households and industries also remains an issue that requires action for the sake of good water environment and to ensure wellbeing for all in the region.

A partnership of 13 Countries for Better Water Environment The Water Environment Partnership in Asia (WEPA) program, of which the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) has

been assigned the role of Secretariat, was proposed at the 3rd World Water Forum in Japan and launched in 2004 by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The program aims to improve water environmental governance through knowledge sharing and capacity development activities.

WEPA conducts its activities on a 5-year cycle and so commenced the third phase of those activities in April 2014. The activities it conducts are based on the partnership of 13 member countries, namely Cambodia, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Lao PDR,

Experiences of water environmental management in Asia that WEPA has been accumulating should provide lessons to countries in other regions.�

ENSURING WATER QUALITY FROM RIDGE TO REEF

WEPA database - An information platform of water environmental management

Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan.

The Remaining Challenges on Water Environment for Next 5 Years in WEPA Member Countries In the last 10 years since WEPA commenced operations, significant progress has been observed within the area of water environmental management.

However, WEPA partners share a common view that the following actions need to be further strengthened to maintain this positive trend.

Review of existing legal frameworks.

This should be conducted with the socioeconomic context and current state of the water environment in mind and should include a review of effluent standards that relate to industrial makeup and effluent quality.

Strengthening of water quality monitoring and evaluation. To tackle mid- and longterm challenges of climate change, the importance of time-series data for longer

terms should be highlighted. In addition, disclosure of monitoring results to the various stakeholders is a key element in data and information management.

Identification of pollution sources and loads on the ground-level water environment. This is critical for appropriate, efficient and localised actions to prevent water pollution.

More attention to the impact of grey water on the water environment, especially in densely populated areas, in order to prevent water pollution caused by domestic wastewater.

Improvement of wastewater treatment facilities. This should be associated with enhancement of human and institutional capacity to maintain them and selection of site-specific treatment technology that accounts for natural and socioeconomic conditions and level of development.

Other elements to be considered are: cost, environmental soundness and social acceptability, simplicity in use and maintenance compared to conventional wastewater treatment approaches.

Strengthening the implementation and

enforcement of regulatory frameworks applicable to water quality management, especially for wastewater and sludge management.

Utilisation of more scientific knowledge in water environmental management. This includes promotion of dialogue among policymakers and researchers, to improve the water environment.

Ensuring financial sustainability in wastewater and sludge management through innovative and effective financing and incentive mechanisms.

Promoting involvement and coordination of different stakeholders, such as the private sector and communities in water environmental management. Further encouraging the introduction of appropriate Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models under a given context.

Commitments for Continued Improvement of the World’s Water Environment from WEPA Member Countries Envisaging the wellbeing of populations and sustainable development in the region, the WEPA partners further their efforts to improve the water environment in each country and WEPA continues to support their efforts through a knowledge sharing platform. In the third phase, WEPA starts a program to support actions of partner countries to tackle key challenges within water environmental management.

Experiences of water environmental management in Asia that WEPA has been accumulating should provide lessons to countries in other regions. WEPA shares information collected under WEPA through the WEPA Database, which is open for all stakeholders. WEPA’s efforts will contribute to improve water environmental governance, capacity building by the relevant stakeholders, and implementation of the 2015 Post International Development Goals.

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Sustainable Management of Available Water Resources with Innovative Technologies (SMART) Implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) The concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is now well recognised and has been introduced into the water policies of a majority of countries throughout the world, especially during this decade.

According to the UN-Water Report on Water Resources Management 2012, ‘Since 1992, 80% of countries have embarked on reforms to improve the enabling environment for water resources management based on the

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application of integrated approaches as stated in Agenda 21 and affirmed in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation’.

However, in contrast to socio-economic changes, which are rapid and often drastic, the speed of the progress of IWRM is very slow. Making progress towards IWRM is not straightforward.

Complex social issues and uncertainty about the future make it difficult to secure consensus among stakeholders at all levels, based on existing and

traditional IWRM methodology. Extensive efforts have therefore been and continue to be made, at international level, to collect and disseminate positive case studies, showcase innovative actions and develop success stories resulting from the development and use of scientific and technological devices. Strong calls for all countries and regions to incorporate climate change adaptation into their IWRM planning and policy making evidence the extent to which IWRM has become recognised as a tool for adaptation to climate change.

On the other hand, due to the lack of the natural hydrological data, it is quite difficult to measure and grasp the potential of water resources in the basin, especially in developing countries, and this is also the major obstacles to the development of an IWRM master plan for the basin. However, thanks to scientific and technological advances, in particular the means for analysing satellite data, it is easy to simulate and predict the near and long term future using advanced hydrological models to bridge data gaps and forecast, for example, the events that may have a negative impact on climate change.

We now understand the changes that have occurred and how water availability is drastically decreasing due to rapid economic and population growth and climate change. In addition, we recognise the importance of the operational and management viewpoint as well as that of the development viewpoint. We know that science and technology can solve water issues, but also that it must operate in tandem within an institutional framework at all levels to achieve sustainability.

Moreover, we have already recognised that

SMART IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IWRM)

The outcome of discussions is expected to help us to recognise the necessity for the introduction of smart water policies and technologies for the conservation of water and establishment of integrated water resources management (IWRM) systems. we had already had ample knowledge on IWRM not only in social science but also in science and technology in many fields and regions. The issue is how we make use of it in an effective and smart way at the practical level. The ‘Budapest statement’ which was released as the summary of the Budapest Water Summit held in October, 2013 insisted on the necessity to create a ‘smart target’ for water. The summit identified SMART as ‘Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound’, resulting in the term’s inclusion in the Report of the United Nations SecretaryGeneral on the International Year of Water Cooperation released on August, 2014. Accordingly, the term is now well understood within the water sector when solutions to water issues and sustainability are considered.

Bearing this in mind, ‘SMART Implementation of IWRM’ will be discussed as one of the themes of the 7th World Water Forum, led by UNESCO and the Global Water Partnership. The outcome of discussions at these sessions is expected to help us to recognise the necessity for the introduction of smart water policies and technologies for the conservation of water and establishment of integrated water resources management (IWRM) systems. In addition, the necessity for the involvement and establishment of network and fostering capacity development of all stakeholders will be stressed to implement IWRM in a smart way.

At this juncture, implementing IWRM is difficult, especially in transboundary river basins. There are 276 transboundary river basins on earth and 148 countries are

related . This means that there are gaps between borders of countries and river basins. The sessions will provide opportunities to not only share existing experience and knowledge on IWRM but also discussion on how to implement IWRM in a smarter way and to explore the smart way of best mix of policy and science and technology to bridge the gaps at all levels by considering the post-2015 development agenda

Tadashige Kawasaki IWRM Specialist, Int. Affairs Division, Water Resources Engineering Division, Japan Water Agency Lead secretariat of Network of Asian River Basin Organizations

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Financing Water Infrastructure: new opportunities for a water secure world

By DaeHyun Bae, Hannah Leckie and Xavier Leflaive, OECD Environment Directorate The scale of investment required for water infrastructure in both developed and developing countries is substantial. Investment is required to improve access to water and sanitation services to the billions of people without them, to upgrade and renew existing

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infrastructure, to alleviate water stress, and to adapt to climate variability and change, population dynamics and societal expectations. Recent studies by the OECD and partner organisations provide new empirical evidence that can inform policies and investment decisions for a water

secure world.

We better understand how investment in water infrastructure can drive sustainable economic growth.

The Global Dialogue on Water Security for Sustainable Growth, a joint initiative by the Global Water Partnership and the

ECONOMICS & FINANCING FOR INNOVATIVE INVESTMENTS

OECD, has gathered empirical evidence to guide investment in water security. Their findings demonstrate that economic growth is vulnerable to hydro-climatic variability and that investment in water security is an investment in enabling economic growth.

The work of the Global Dialogue further shows that not all water-related investments will be equally beneficial. Capital costs can be substantial, may not lead to the intended benefits, may result in unintended impacts to people and the environment, or may close off beneficial future investment opportunities. The most beneficial investments will be part of a sequence of projects along pathways that combine infrastructures, institutions and information to achieve water security.

Recent developments related to financing for water infrastructure provide new opportunities for investment.

Over the last decade, the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure (chaired

by Michel Camdessus, 2003) and the GurrĂ­a Task Force (2006) have revived the political agenda on financing for water infrastructure. However, much still remains to be accomplished to align financial resources devoted to water infrastructure to needs.

The High-Level Panel (HLP) on Financing for a Water Secure World, a joint initiative by the World Water Council and the OECD, has documented new sources of finance, which can benefit water investment: institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds have signalled interest for water-related infrastructures; climate finance and green bonds increasingly benefit water investments; new international development banks, such as the BRICS Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, are likely to invest in a water portfolio; land and property developers can cover the costs

of connection to water systems and of protecting their assets from waterrelated risks; and private equity funds have invested in water-related assets, such as wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants, freeing public funds for other purposes.

The need for action to finance a water secure world Recognising that there is no one best way to finance water infrastructure, governments of developed and developing countries and international organisations

understanding the risk-reward calculus of water investment. Strategic financial plans can assess the best combination of the different sources of finance (taxes, tariffs and transfers), match financial resources with realistic policy objectives, and attract private sector participation, which can aid in bridging the financial gap and improve the quality of water and sanitation services.

Affordability issues are better addressed by targeted social measures for the poor than by cheap water for everybody. Water risks should be allocated to those who are best equipped to deal with them.

The High-Level Panel (HLP) on Financing for a Water Secure World, a joint initiative by the World Water Council and the OECD, has documented new sources of finance, which can benefit water investment can explore the following options to finance investment for a water secure world: Improve the operational efficiency of existing infrastructures and services. This can be achieved through amalgamation of small services, targeted maintenance, or building institutional and financial capacities at all levels of water management.

Minimise investment needs. Harness both technical and non-technical innovations, which can achieve water security objectives at least cost to society. For instance, investment in green infrastructure can provide multiple regulating, provisioning and cultural services; and reservoirs can provide water supply, irrigation, hydropower and flood protection. Barriers to the diffusion of such innovations need to be systematically assessed and, where beneficial, phased out.

Attract new sources of finance by better

Progress has been made in the recognition that governance matters.

Particularly critical are: coordination efforts across sectors that affect water availability and demand, and across layers of governments that participate in spatial planning and water policy; transparency and accountability; and stakeholder engagement (as water security increasingly depends on stakeholders’ behaviour and buy-in).

The 7th World Water Forum provides a unique opportunity to take stock of recent developments and commit to an ambitious agenda that will pave the way towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Human Right to Water and Sanitation, and more generally enhance water security for sustainable growth. The OECD and its partner organisations stand ready to engage.

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Access to Water in Rural Areas and Villages We incessantly hear experts in our field claim that there is no lack of financing for drinking water and sanitation projects in villages and rural areas and that the problem is a lack of good field projects to be implemented.

I rather believe that stakeholders are having a difficult time innovating and thinking outside the box. We must take risks and completely rethink standard practices. If we truly believe that water is the key to a shared prosperity, we must go above and beyond the status quo and redefine the rules of shared governance.

An Evolving Global Context • According to a recent Oxfam report, a very small, elite population owns an increasing

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majority of the world’s wealth. In 2014, the richest 1% globally held 48% of the world’s wealth, while the remaining 99% of the population held 52%. The majority of the latter is in the hands of the wealthiest 20%, which means that the poorest 80% own just 5.5% of the world’s wealth.

• Middle class spending power is diminishing and the poor are only getting poorer.

• Current economic trends favour cities and urban areas.

• The practices that underlie a healthy economy are fragile, and there is no consensus as to what future solutions will be needed. The average citizen faces massive layoffs, a slowing job market, and an increased number of dependents (the elderly, the jobless, economic migrants,

etc.). Climate change repercussions that are wreaking havoc on our ecosystems are also part of the picture.

• Uncountable negative effects are being triggered, such as corruption and illegal trafficking.

• The institutional landscape needs to be re-balanced.

• International cooperation and related practices are subjected to situations of heavy stress and potential war. Thousands of innocent people are kidnapped and killed in the name of territorial issues based on ethnicity and religion.

Taking a Hopeful Stance • Fight to ensure that local communities (municipalities, villages, municipal

ECONOMICS & FINANCING FOR INNOVATIVE INVESTMENTS

groupings, regions, etc.) are acknowledged, legitimised, and capable of taking action in their own name. There are two reasons for this: the first is to bridge the divide between citizens and decisionmakers, and the second is to encourage and promote local expertise.

• Be able to create project portfolios for either one or a group of regions. Local communities should no longer settle for projects worth €30,000; they should rather set their sights on groups of projects integrating the notion of a hydrographical basin, with financing worth upwards of 2 million Euros. This would also allow involved institutions to devise innovative financial and human management strategies.

• Use original methods to harness the regions’ territorial, cultural, economic and social unity.

• And finally, rethink the procedures of sovereign guarantee.

Stakeholders are having a difficult time innovating and thinking outside the box. We must take risks and completely rethink standard practices

Conclusion Please, let’s stop creating new “Funds” when what we actually need are appropriate management mechanisms.

Decentralised financing and cross-financing mechanisms are financial tools used to satisfy a local economic development that is consistent with fundamental human rights, especially that of the right to drinking water and sanitation.

Decentralised financing and crossfinancing, which are managed locally, regionally or nationally, are either donations, interest-free loans, voluntary contributions, tax transfers, or a percentage of interests, among others, and can have a leverage effect on other standard forms of development aid financing.

They are implemented voluntarily and in the spirit of solidarity and synergy consolidation between stakeholders (users, State representatives, operators, elected officials,

issue. So it is like this that he organizes in 1990 an international Forum called «S.O.S. Water is Life» in Montréal, Canada, bringing together more than a hundred participants that stated a world declaration known as the Montréal Charter, a pioneering document that pointed out the key aspects of water supply, management and sanitation that should be afforded internationally, and especially in the poorest communities.

This Charter also identified the necessity to create and international secretariat that could strengthen collaboration, efforts and understanding on water issues internationally.

So it is with this civil society’s mandate that Raymond Jost promotes the creation of the International Secretariat for Water in 1990 and Solidarity Water Europe in 1998. Since then, he has worked intensively through these organizations to develop sustainable interventions in more than thirty countries,

the private sector, civilian organizations, etc.) to help bolster local capabilities and to facilitate appropriate technology transfer.

About the author Raymond Jost was born in 1943, in Strasbourg, France. After working many years helping children and young people with social problems, he gathered in 1989 a group of people and professionals to stand up about a worldwide problem: The water

with infrastructure projects, advocacy campaigns and work with the youth. Mr. Jost currently leads a program called «The Water Sages» bringing together knowledge and experience on water, to create partnerships for action around the approach of integrated water -and its territory- management.

About The International Secretariat for Water The International Secretariat for Water (ISW) is an international non-governmental organisation created in 1990 in the context of the Decade for Water and Sanitation.

Based in Montreal, the ISW adopted as a first mandate the four principles stipulated in the Montreal Charter on Drinking Water and Sanitation which are: i) Access to water and sanitation is first and foremost a policy issue, ii) All actions in this field must be conceived in support to the populations concerned, iii) Access to water must be integrated into an overall development approach, iv) All water related programmes must include the education and training of the populations. Since then, the ISW works worldwide enhancing water governance, trough advocacy, international networking and strengthening youth commitment. At the same time, the ISW also implements projects in different countries with local partners, to validate water management approaches and to scale-up successful experiences, while helping the poorest communities to meet their basic needs.

Raymond Jost Sages for Water President

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Financing water supply systems:

The case of Korea and implications for other countries Sound management of water resources is a prerequisite for economic development. Water issues vary across countries depending on their levels of development, their natural environment, and the socioeconomic contexts. Korea is not well endowed with water resources.

The total annual rainfall per person is only 13% of the world average and two-thirds of rainfall is concentrated in four months of the year. Droughts and floods are also a frequent occurrence. Faced with this situation, the Korean government decided to construct multi-purpose dams serving the functions of flood control, water supply and hydropower generation in the early stage of development. During the first five-year economic development plan of 1962-66,

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Korea allocated 19% of total investment to constructing these dams, filling the financing gap with additional funds from international sources. In recent years Korea has spent 2~4 % of GDP on water resource management.

Thanks to the multi-purpose dams and steady expansion of the network of piped water, the coverage of tap water increased from 21% to 95 % of population between 1965 and 2012, and a water reserve of 358 tons per person was secured. Also, unaccounted water dropped from 35% to 16% over the past 20 years by metering and leakage reductions. Domestic water use is stable at about 176 per capita per day and the quality of tap water is up to the WHO standard.

Korea’s water supply system is divided into regional networks managed by K-Water, a state enterprise, and local networks managed by local water companies affiliated with local government. The sewage system is managed by local government, with a substantial amount of outsourcing to private contractors.

Korea implements increasing block rates for water tariffs based on the metered water usage. The tariff structure aims for full cost recovery but the current tariffs recover about 80% of costs on average, a drop from 86~89% in the early 2000s.

Korea has been reasonably successful in developing and managing water resources over the past fifty years. The country is faced with new challenges now. Some regional networks and many local networks carry

ECONOMICS & FINANCING FOR INNOVATIVE INVESTMENTS

Finding innovative ways to finance investments in existing and new water infrastructures is a global issue, and the Korean experience may offer several implications for pricing and financing of water services.�

excess capacity due to over-investment and sluggish growth in demand. Local networks also suffer operating losses resulting from high costs and failure to adjust tariffs when needed. The losses are covered by local tax revenue. There are large investment needs to upgrade or replace the existing water treatment plants and distribution networks that are becoming obsolete.

Finding innovative ways to finance investments in existing and new water infrastructures is a global issue, and the Korean experience may offer several implications for pricing and financing of water services.

First, financing needs vary depending on the choice of water system technologies.

Network technology provides a long-term

solution that can achieve scale economies but it is capital intensive and requires a large initial investment. There are alternative technologies that are much less costly and are more relevant in those countries in which extending access to water is given first priority, but these options are only an interim solution.

Second, adequate pricing is essential for sustainable water systems management.

Pricing is an effective tool for demand management and minimising waste and avoiding excessive new investments.

Recovery of operating and maintenance costs through pricing is a precondition for mobilising funds for upgrading and expanding infrastructure. It can also start a virtuous cycle of good service and higher revenue collection from the users. Some combinations of water tariffs, taxes and transfers should be arranged to achieve full cost recovery.

Full cost recovery may render water services unaffordable for some segments of the population. It should be addressed with transparent and targeted subsidies combined with a tariff structure that includes the belowcost portion for ‘lifeline quantities’.

Third, new and innovative financing mechanisms should be sought from various sources, equity and debt, private and public sector, central and local government, and domestic and international, as the availability and the terms of finance change over time and vary across countries as well. Revenue from taxation should be secured to the fullest extent possible. In particular, property tax is a legitimate source of financing local water services. The role of commercial banks is shrinking and that of public development

banks is likely to expand subject to the public debt constraint. Project bonds and municipal bonds are also promising sources. Sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors such as pension funds can be new sources of long-term funds. ODA money plays a marginal role in most countries but it can be used as a leverage to tap additional sources in some developing countries. The availability of ODA money may decrease further in the wake of the global financial crisis. Countries should be opportunistic in exploring the best available options.

About the authors Kyung-Hwan Kim is President of Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS). Previously, Dr. Kim taught at Syracuse University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Singapore Management University. He also served as urban finance advisor at UN Habitat, consultant to the World Bank, President of the Asian Real Estate Society and on various government committees in Korea.

Mr. Kim received his PhD in economics from Princeton University in 1987.

Chong Won Kim is a senior research fellow and head of the National Urban Disaster Management Research Center at KRIHS. He has conducted many research projects in the fields of environmental planning, natural resource policy and econometric analysis over the past 20 years and has published many papers on water resource management and policy issues. Mr. Kim received a PhD in natural resource economics from West Virginia University, Morgantown in 1997.

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An NGO approach to promoting cooperative use of shared water resources

Almost 800 million of the world’s poorest people have no access to safe drinking water. That is the human face of the global water crisis. But water challenges also pose broader concerns for peace, the environment and development, writes Marie-Laure Vercambre of Green Cross International The scarcity and strategic importance of water carry with them the potential to ignite conflicts – international, regional or local. Green Cross has worked at all of these levels to promote sustainable – and peaceful – management of shared water resources.

Green Cross officially launched its Water Conflicts Prevention Programme in 1996.

Since then, the Programme’s underlying goals have been to: (1) support the elaboration of good and participatory basin governing bodies; (2) promote cooperation between states sharing water resources; and (3) mediate and engage with civil society when contentious situations arise.

Globally, this is an issue that remains

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inadequately addressed. There are 276 international watercourses around the world, generating about 60 per cent of global freshwater flow. But just 40 per cent of the basins fed by these rivers and underground reservoirs benefit from any sort of water management agreement between riparian States.

Where agreements exist, 80 per cent are between only two countries, regardless of how many states the watercourse in question actually passes through. Many of the treaties have significant failings.

Some do not consider long-term changes in water availability and the need to revisit water allocations, and are unlikely to ensure

sustainable and cooperative national responses to the effects of climate change.

Such failings, and the absence of management frameworks, represent serious threats to the rising global water demand.

Some 54 per cent of all accessible water is already being used, and this proportion is expected to rise with population growth and economic development. Feeding a planet of 9.6 billion by 2050 will require approximately 50 per cent more water, according to the World Bank.

National sabre-rattling over water – especially the hundreds of trans-boundary watercourses – and aquifers may intensify as resources become increasingly scarce and

COOPERATION FOR REDUCING CONFLICT AND IMPROVING TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENT

contaminated, in developed and developing countries alike.

So progress in economic, social and environmental terms can only be supported if water crises are solved. This means ensuring all people have access to an adequate quality and quantity of water.

Shared responsibility and shared benefits must both be recognized when it comes to providing and conserving water between nations and competing stakeholders. Action on these fronts is vital for the promotion of sustainable development.

Green Cross-backed activities since 2000 have focused on six international river basins: the Danube (Central Europe), Jordan (Middle East), Okavango (South-West Africa), Parana–La Plata (South America), Volga (Europe) and Volta (Western Africa).

Promoting Global Water Governance and Cooperation Green Cross’ regionally-focused projects have been complemented by research, awareness-raising and policy work at the international level. These have helped make the issue of transboundary water resources far more prominent on national and international policy agendas.

In 2000, Green Cross embarked on a campaign to promote the UN Watercourses Convention.

This is the only global treaty establishing basic standards and rules for cooperation between states on the use, management, and protection of international watercourses.

But, despite three decades of negotiations and backing from more than 100 UN delegations to adopt it in 1997, the convention remained unratified – leaving the world without an instrument that would govern and provide legal coverage to the world’s 276 international watercourses and connected groundwater.

Green Cross gathered the views of major experts and political figures, including President Gorbachev, into several publications. In 2006, the Water for Life and Peace Programme engaged in formal

National sabre-rattling over water – especially the hundreds of trans-boundary watercourses – and aquifers may intensify as resources become increasingly scarce and contaminated, in developed and developing countries alike. advocacy campaigns to promote the Convention’s ratification, with partners including the WWF. These campaigns consisted of consultations with governments and other national stakeholders. The stakeholders exchanged ideas on the challenges around transboundary waters on their territories, and were informed about the relevance of the Convention in addressing them. Support and guidance were provided to countries that share river basins without any existing legal framework.

Green Cross campaigns have been conducted jointly with national partners in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Argentina, South Korea, France, Italy and Poland.

About Green Cross International: GCI is an independent non-profit and nongovernmental organization founded in 1993 by Nobel Peace Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev. It addresses the inter-connected global challenges of security, poverty and environmental degradation through

global advocacy and local projects. GCI is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and has a network of national organizations in 27 countries.

About it’s Water for Life and Peace programme: GCI’s Water for Life and Peace programme works to improve global water governance and promotes a rights-based approach to the sustainable and equitable use of freshwater resources. GCI uses advocacy, education and practical projects around the world to improve people’s access to water and sanitation.

Marie-Laure Vercambre Director, Green Cross International, Water for Life and Peace Programme

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Shared Waters:

Cooperating for Future Generations

SIWI’s vision is that of a water wise world. A world aware that it would not survive without water – as the fundamental resource underpinning economic and social development, and as a human right. The wise use of water today is critical for the water users of tomorrow.

In 2014, the International Centre for Water Cooperation (ICWC) was established in Stockholm, Sweden. Hosted by SIWI, this UNESCO Category II Centre focuses on transboundary water issues and cooperation, and their role in addressing the needs of future generations.

Cooperation over our shared water resources is an essential mechanism for securing water for future generations. It can

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open new opportunities for riparian states to sustainably develop their common water resources. It can assist decision-makers and practitioners at local, national and regional levels to reduce conflict and increase economic development and growth.

SIWI advances equitable and cooperative development in transboundary water management through facilitating dialogue and connecting actors, both in individual basins and globally. It encourages multilateral development and management of shared water resources to maximise benefits to co-riparians, increase resilience to climate change and reduce the risk of geopolitical hostilities.

Tensions over shared water resources often influence national security priorities.

They are also closely linked to a wider set of economic, social and geopolitical issues. Water diplomacy enables countries to negotiate agreements on the allocation and management of internationally shared water resources.

It is a dynamic process that seeks to develop reasonable, sustainable and peaceful solutions to water allocation and management while promoting regional cooperation and collaboration.

Sound legal frameworks at the global, regional and basin level can also be conducive to stable and reliable cooperation and for preventing conflicts

COOPERATION FOR REDUCING CONFLICT AND IMPROVING TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENT

in shared basins. The past two years have brought major developments in this regard. Two global legal frameworks are now in place to foster cooperation. Firstly, the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UN Watercourses Convention) reached the required ratifications threshold to enter into force in 2014. Secondly, the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UNECE Water Convention or Helsinki Convention) was opened for accession worldwide.

Effective and sustainable legal and institutional frameworks at the basin level (Transboundary rivers and lake basins and/or aquifers) are also necessary to assure water resource sustainability and to help increase water security for competing uses across sectors and borders. Developing a joint organization

Sound legal frameworks at the global, regional and basin level can also be conducive to stable and reliable cooperation and for preventing conflicts in shared basins.� for a transboundary river or aquifer basin requires a clear mandate from decision-makers, a solid and efficient governance structure, and financial and human capacity.

The management of these vital resources faces many challenges, including the need for the regular

exchange of data and information.

Such an exchange is fundamental for establishing good cooperation between countries, whether for routine water resource operational management or for medium or long-term basin planning.

Cooperation on transboundary waters often results in benefits reaching well beyond the water sector. Common to most country development agendas are goals to provide for sustainable development and improved livelihoods; water-, food- and energy security; and the need for healthy ecosystems. While country-by-country development across the water, agriculture and energy sectors is prone to sub-optimal solutions for riparian countries, cooperation can increase benefits to basin countries.

A nexus approach to managing the interlinked resources within a transboundary basin can enhance water, energy and food security by increasing efficiency, reducing trade-offs, building synergies and improving governance across sectors and borders.

At SIWI we recognise the contribution we can make to a water wise world. It is our hope that any such contribution is captured in inter-generational equity, ensuring that future generations will be able to meet their own water needs.

SIWI - Stockholm International Water Institute SIWI is a policy institute working for a water wise world. SIWI does independent research, generates knowledge and provides expert analysis and advice on water issues to decision-makers and other agents of change. SIWI organises the World Water Week in Stockholm the leading annual global meeting place on water and development issues - and hosts the Stockholm Water Prize, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize and the Stockholm Industry Water Award.

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The Future of Water:

When and How Will It Arrive?

The theme of the 7th World Water Forum, April 12-17, 2015 in South Korea, is Water for Our Future2. This strikes me as a most appropriate focal point, as we enter the final year of the Millennium Development Goals3 and get a headstart on the Sustainable Development Goals4.

At some point in our future, everyone on this planet will have access to safe drinking water and a safe place to go the bathroom.

As stakeholders assemble in South Korea to discuss Water for Our Future, I'd ask them to consider one pivotal question: When will that future arrive – 2030 or 2300? And how will we get there? When will each of the seven+ billion of us be able to count on sustainable and affordable access to safe drinking water for our household, agricultural, and industrial needs? The policymakers, technical experts, corporate leaders, and advocates in South Korea are well-positioned to influence the answer to that question, and I assert the answer will be sooner than many expect.

My colleagues and I traffic in political will at WASH Advocates, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington DC entirely dedicated to solving the global safe drinking water,

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sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenge.

Our job is to help create and strengthen political will for WASH across the developed and developing world. But our job is not to convince political leaders that water and sanitation are important. Every political leader in the world wants each of his or her constituents to have safe, affordable, and sustainable access to WASH. Our job is rather to minimise the political risk associated with WASH, and thereby make it possible for all political leaders to do what they already want to do: prioritise WASH in their national and subnational budgets, policies, and programs.

The United Nations estimates that in 2015, 748m people still live without water and 2.5b live without proper sanitation facilities5.

I assert this problem endures because of a lack of political will, not a lack of technical solutions or financing. However, in the coming few years I foresee massive political strides being taken to get these numbers to zero.

Here are a few of the likely key players: Sanitation and Water for All Partnership6: This partnership is designed to elicit bigger and bolder political commitments to WASH

from both developing and donor countries, and is succeeding. At its latest High Level Meeting in Washington DC, 55 partners made 379 commitments7 to the issue.

The Economics of Sanitation Initiative8 of the World Bank is focused on how important sanitation is not from a public health perspective, but from an economic perspective. Inadequate sanitation costs 18 African countries around US$5.5 billion each year9. The best water minister is the finance minister, and this type of data will help health and water ministers convince their finance and prime ministers of the importance of investing in WASH infrastructure.

Two on-the-ground efforts that combine policy advocacy and direct service provision are a) the Global Sanitation Fund (GSF10) of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council11, and b) Water For People’s Everyone Forever12 initiative. Both are designing and implementing initiatives to get more water and sanitation to more people in developing countries, aligning with the governments in those countries to ensure both sustainability and scale.

There is a powerful combination of

WATER CULTURES, JUSTICE AND EQUITY

It’s not a matter of convincing our political leaders of the importance of safe drinking water.

It’s about changing the variables in the political risk equation to make it possible do what they already want to do: prioritise WASH in their budgets and policies high-level and grassroots advocacy efforts underway across the globe, ensuring the WASH message is heard not just in sector meetings but across broader platforms.

The efforts of the Global Poverty Project13 and End Water Poverty14 are key to watch and support.

Perhaps the most timely and ambitious example of political will has been Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to the Clean India (Swachh Bharat) Campaign15, including a commitment to achieve universal coverage of sanitation in India by October 2, 2019, Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birthday.

It’s always in style to make a commitment like that, and now the job of the international community is to find ways to make sure Mr. Modi succeeds. Mr. Modi’s success will make it more likely that the next head of state or head of government (in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia and so on) will make similar ambitious commitments to universal coverage.

A conversation I had a couple of years ago with a former Prime Minister of a southern African country reinforced these lessons. I asked the former Prime Minister what made it possible for him to increase the budget and strengthen policies for safe water and health in his country. He told me he needed a) to

hear about the problem and opportunity from his own people, and b) he needed to have a good understanding of actions he himself could take to accelerate progress.

So I assert that it’s not a matter of convincing our political leaders of the importance of safe drinking water. It’s about changing the variables in the political risk equation to make it possible for those political leaders to do what they already want to do: prioritise WASH in their budgets and policies.

And it’s not a matter of if we will all have safe drinking water, but when. The delegates from the public and private sectors in South Korea are in a position to significantly compress the timelines until we get to the future of water and sanitation: universal coverage.

The future of water, that date by which each person will have access to safe drinking water, is closer than we think, and speaking frankly about water and political will in South Korea and beyond will bring that future even closer.

References 1. WASH Advocates, www.WASHadvocates. org (2015) 2. 7th World Water Forum 2015, http://eng. worldwaterforum7.org/main/ (2015) 3. UN Millennium Project, http://www. unmillenniumproject.org/goals/ (2015) 4. Sustainable Development Goals, https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/ sustainabledevelopmentgoals (2015) 5. Joint Monitoring Programme, http://www. wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/ JMP-A5-English-2pp.pdf (2015) 6. Sanitation and Water for All Partnership, http://sanitationandwaterforall.org/ (2015) 7. All Commitments – SWA, http:// sanitationandwaterforall.org/commitments/ all-commitments (2015) 8. Economics of Sanitation Initiative, http:// www.wsp.org/content/economic-impactssanitation (2015) 9. Inadequate Sanitation Costs Africa, http:// www.wsp.org/FeaturesEvents/Features/ inadequate-sanitation-costs-18-africancountries-around-us55-billion-each-ye (2015) 10. Global Sanitation Fund, http://www. wsscc.org//gsf (2015)

11. WSSCC, http://www.wsscc.org/ (2015) 12. Water For People / Everyone Forever, http://www.waterforpeople.org/whatwe-do/ (2015) 13. Global Poverty Project, http://www. globalpovertyproject.com/ (2015) 14. End Water Poverty, http://www. endwaterpoverty.org/ (2015) 15. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_ Abhiyan (2015) About the author John Oldfield leads the efforts of WASH Advocates to increase the amount and effectiveness of resources devoted to solving the safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenge throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He believes strongly that the global WASH challenge is far more solvable than difficult. John has been a Vice President at a New York private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts and corporate divestitures, and has extensive international management experience with USAID and U.S. Department of State contracts, including training programs for election officials, civil society, and foreign media in post-conflict countries in Africa.

About WASH Advocates WASH Advocates is a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative dedicated to helping solve the global safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenge. Its mission is to increase awareness of the global WASH challenge and solutions, and to increase the amount and effectiveness of resources devoted to those solutions throughout the developing world.

John Oldfield CEO, WASH Advocates

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2iE’s Education model: An innovative solution for capacity building in Sub-Saharan Africa

Without an increase in access to higher education, Sub-Saharan Africa cannot satisfy its acute need for highly-qualified, skilled professionals in the high priority sectors of water, environment and energy. Prof. Amadou Hama Maiga, Dr. Mariam Sou Dakoure and Prof. Hamma Yacouba describe the unique model 2iE has developed in response to unique challenges

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ENHANCING EDUCATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has one of the highest population growth rates in the world: with 54 % of people under 20 years old [UN, 2012]. At the same time, the enrollment rate in higher education is the lowest in the world at 5% (while high income countries are at 60%). In addition, several SSA countries are struggling to maintain this low enrollment level [Bloom et al. 2006]. It is now recognised that one of the biggest challenges SSA has to face is human capacity development in all political, social and economic sectors. In the high priority sectors of water, environment and energy, there is an urgent requirement for a large number of highly-qualified staff with specific skills to sustain SSA development [UN Water/Africa, 2014]. Such skills cannot be efficiently developed without a significant increase in access to higher education.

Africa needs technicians and engineers to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to meet huge private sector demand. In the case of water and sanitation, for instance, several West African countries delegate water and sanitation management to local authorities through a decentralisation process. Such delegation is not effective for now since the expertise is, in general, not available at the local level to support such requirements. Africa also needs experts at PhD level to develop solutions adapted to its own realities. African states need to create attractive conditions to retain their engineers and researchers within the continent. Indeed, since 1990, approximately 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals, per annum, have left the African continent (IOM and ECA estimates).

Post-2015 vision of Africa Three of the six pillars of the African development priorities adopted at the 22nd Summit of African Union Head of States and Governments in January

2014 [UN Water/Africa, 2014] are of special importance in demonstrating the commitment, at continental level, to the prioritisation of human capacity development in the member states’ post2015 agenda, with special emphasis on natural resource management through research and education [ACBF, 2014]: • • •

Science, technology and innovation (pillar two) People-centered development (pillar three) Environmental sustainability, natural resources management and disaster risk (pillar four)

Such continental strategies lead to a great response at regional and national levels.

This highly selective project aims to support participating universities’ efforts to promote specialisation in areas that address regional challenges and strengthen the capacities of these universities to deliver quality training and applied research.

2iE’s model Face to Africa needs in capacity building, 2iE (International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering) is an innovative model responding to the post-2015 vision of Africa. 2iE was created in 1970 as an interstate school of engineers by 14 African countries based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It is now an international PrivatePublic Partnership institution focusing the needs of African development through Education and Research in four mains

Since 1990, approximately 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals, per annum, have left the African continent (IOM and ECA estimates) At regional level, the post 2015 agenda for education in SSA defined in 2012 by the five Regional Economic Communities (REC) of SSA is in accordance with the African post 2015 vision. Although the RECs still place emphasis on primary and secondary schooling, vocational training and the promotion of higher education institution are nevertheless included in some agendas [UNESCO, 2013]. The World Bank has also started to consider higher education and research beneficial to African countries’ development. As a strong sign of this new commitment, it recently launched the Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project for Africa.

areas: Water, Sanitation, Renewable Energy, Civil Engineering and Environment.

From public to private public partnership Prior to 2005, 2iE was dependent, for the most part, on financial support from the 14 African countries. This made it quite vulnerable since it was reliant on those countries fulfilling their commitments.

In 2005, however, a new private-public partnership was established to allow more diverse sources of funding with a major element coming from students themselves - and also private companies. In this new partnership, students’ employability and private companies’ demand are the central concern of 2iE. In a permanent consultation

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process, all the training curricula of 2iE was revised to meet the market needs and demands. These challenges are made possible by strong governance and internal organisation based on three pillars: (1) quality of education – with a diploma recognised both in Africa and Europe; (2) very active, high-standard, research based scientific laboratories and platforms and strong partnership with high level universities from Africa, Asia, North America and Europe; and (3) Entrepreneurship promotion to early open private sector opportunities for students.

References United Nation (2012), World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, Department of Economic and social affair – population division, population estimates and projection section. Data available online at http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/ Excel-Data/population.htm (20-02-2015) Bloom David, Canning David and Chan Kevin (2006), Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa.

Harvard University. http://ent.arp.harvard. edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/ BloomAndCanning.pdf (20-02-2015) ACBF (2014) Africa Capacity Report 2014 – Capacity Imperatives for Regional Integration in Africa. The African Capacity Building Foundation. www.acbf-pact. org/.../files/Africa-Capacity-Report-2014. pdf (20-02-2015) UN Water/Africa (2014) The Africa Water Vision for 2025: Equitable and Sustainable Use of Water for Socioeconomic Development. http://www.afdb.org/ fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/ Generic-Documents/african%20water%20 vision%202025%20to%20be%20sent%20 to%20wwf5.pdf (20-02-2015) UNESCO (2013) Outcomes of the Consultation Meetings held under the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda (October 2012 – February 2013) 8 March 2013. https://en.unesco.org/ post2015/sites/post2015/files/EN-%20

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Education%20Post-2015%20-%20 Regional%20Consultations.pdf (20-05-2015) About the author Professor Amadou Hama MAIGA, Director General of the International Institute for Water and Environemental Engineering: 2iE in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Prof Amadou Hama MAIGA graduated as Civil Engineer in 1979 . He holds a PhD in Water and Environment Sciences and Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Before joining the 2iE (formally EIER-ETSHER in 1986), he worked as an Engineer and lecturer at various companies in Switzerland and Mali At 2iE he has held the positions of lecturer, Head of the Department of Sanitary Engineering , Director for Research. and Deputy Director Général.

He has developed and led its Pollution Control and Water Treatment laboratory.

He funded the 2iE Journal “Sud Sciences et Technologie”. He is member of many scientific committees and international consortia and associations such as The Scientific Council of the Canadian Consortium for Research on Climate Adaptation: Ouranos; the Board of the African Water Association: AfWA; the Board of Section I “Water and soil” of the International Commission of Agricultural Engineering: CIGR; the Scientific Council of the French Inter-Agency for Research and Development (AIRD). Prof Amadou Hama MAIGA has been Governor for the World Water Council since 2012.

Professor Amadou Hama MAIGA was awarded the 2009 Grand Prix of the Foundation of Suez Environment - for his research and innovative works on water supply to underprivilieged populations.

A culture of Excellence Since 2005, 2iE has graduated more than 5,000 technicians and engineers who are working in approximately 36 African

countries. 2iE is a Centre of Excellence for World Bank, ECOWAS, WAEMU and NEPAD. It was also cited as success story in the 2012 WISE Book and, in 2009, received the Grand Prix of the Foundation of Suez Environment - Water for All - for its research and innovative works on water supply to underprivileged populations.

As Governor at the Board of World Water Council, 2iE organised the Africa Water Forum in June 2014 as a preparatory process to the 7th World Water Forum. This forum gathered more than 500 participants from 30 countries. Final recommendations will be debated during each process at the 7th World Water Forum.

Prof. Amadou Hama MAIGA Director General, Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement: 2iE, Governor of World Water Council

Dr. Mariam SOU DAKOURE Lecturer in charge of Sanitation Research Program , Joint Research Center on Water and Climate, 2iE

Prof. Hamma YACOUBA Director of Research, 2iE

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02/03/2015 12:16