2010 Blue Paper

Contact us Sustainable Water Solutions for a Changing Urban Environment www.siww.com.sg For enquiries on Singapore International Water Week, please contact: Michael Toh Managing Director Singapore International Water Week 40 Scotts Road #10-01 Singapore 228231 Tel : +65 6731 3160 / 6731 3169 Fax : +65 6731 3055 Email : info@siww.com.sg

Sales and marketing information: Ruth Cheah Sales Excutive Singapore International Water Week Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 2 Level 3, #038-017 Singapore 819643 Tel : +65 6542 8660 ext 152 Fax : +65 6542 8683 / 6546 6062 Email : marketing@siww.com.sg ruthcheah@siww.com.sg

Organised by: Singapore International Water Week Pte Ltd A company set up by Singapore’s Ministry of the Environment & Water Resources and PUB, Singapore's national water agency. Copyright@2008 Singapore International Water Week. All Rights Reserved.

Co-organiser: Singapore Airshow & Events Pte Ltd

BluePaper Singapore International Water Week 2010

2

Blue Paper

CONTENTS 02

A Note from Professor Tommy Koh

03

Clean and Affordable Water Makes Cities Liveable

08

The Governance Challenge

16

The Technology Challenge

21

The Finance Challenge

26

Looking ahead

28

Acknowledgements

Singapore International Water Week 2010

1

A Note from Professor Tommy Koh Dear friends, It was my honour to assume the role of Water Leaders Summit Chairperson for the Singapore International Water Week 2010.

The Singapore International Water Week is the global platform which brings policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world.

This year’s Singapore International Water Week, which was held together with the World Cities Summit, and comprised various key events including the Water Leaders Summit, Water Convention, Business Forums, Water Expo and the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Award Ceremony, saw a record increase in the number of attendees to over 14,000 from 112 countries/regions. Adding to the buzz was 120 co-located events including the 14th Board Meeting of the United Nations SecretaryGeneral’s Advisory y Board on Water inaugural Asia& Sanitation, the ina Pacific Water Ministers Ministe Forum and the River Basin & Delta Workshop.

Management Worksh

This booklet contains the Blue Paper, which documents the discussions of the Water Leaders Summit, the dialogue with Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew that took place during the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Award Ceremony and Banquet, as well as the discussions at the inaugural Asia-Pacific Water Ministers Forum and the River Basin & Delta Management Workshop.

We hope that the water leaders of the world will continue to strive towards good governance, innovative technology and sound financing strategies to bring about sustainable water solutions for cities.

I hope you will find this paper useful.

Professor Tommy Koh Chairman Singapore International Water Week 2010 Water Leaders Summit

2

Blue B Bl llue ue u eP Paper ap a per er

Clean and Affordable Water Makes Cities Liveable Our planet might look blue but how blue are our cities? Cities are where most of the world’s population will live for next few decades.

Without clean and affordable water as well as sanitation, no city can claim to be ‘liveable’. This intimate connection between cities and water shaped the context for the second World Cities Summit (WCS) and the third Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) held concurrently in Singapore from June 28 to July 2, 2010.

“Towns and cities are established where water is available. As they grow, cities can strain and exhaust the water sources that first gave them life, stifling their own future growth prospects,” said Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence of Singapore at the Opening Ceremony. “As water is a scarce resource in many parts of the world, it is even more critical for cities to manage this resource well to secure their own future.”

In keeping with the previous years, a key pillar event at the water week was the Water Leaders Summit which brought together more than 350 influential stakeholders for stimulating discussions on subjects that will only become more crucial in the coming years. Organised by Singapore’s PUB and supported by

the Institute of Water Policy (an arm of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore) and the International Desalination Association, the flagship programme of the water week saw discussions pertaining to the theme of “Sustainable Cities – Clean and Affordable Water”.

At the Joint Opening Plenary, Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT pointed out that it was not always this obvious that we are heading for an urban future.

“Even in the year 2000, it was difficult to convene a forum on this subject at this level,” she remarked while complimenting Singapore for becoming a model of good governance and sustainability.

billion people without ‘improved’ sanitation. As Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of UNESCAP pointed out, “If we get it right in the Asia-Pacific, we get it right for two-thirds of humanity.”

While experts might quibble about what ‘safe’ or ‘improved’ water and sanitation mean, the fact is that a large part of the world’s population is deprived of facilities that ought to be guaranteed to every human being, given the advanced state of science and technology we have reached.

“We must never give up the vision of cities without slums,” said Professor Tommy Koh and called for making all cities liveable.

ENVISIONING CITIES WITHOUT SLUMS

THE COMPLEXITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Some of the issues presented at the Joint Opening Plenary will reverberate beyond the confines of the water week. A map of the world showing where the slums are concentrated revealed that large swathes of Africa and Asia are swamped with millions of people living under pitiful conditions.

Climate change has added a new layer of complexity to the global water challenge. While water utilities struggle even with the day-to-day running of treatment plants and supply lines, the forces of climate change are bringing floods, droughts, storms and other unexpected extreme events that are putting additional burden on the system.

In the Asia-Pacific alone there are 494 million people without access to ‘safe’ water and 1.9

When the Copenhagen Conference Singapore International Water Week 2010

3

From left: Mrs Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN-HABITAT, Dr Han Seung Soo, ex Prime Minister of Republic of Korea and Honorary President of the Korea Water Forum, Mr Wim Kuijken, Government Commissioner for the Delta Programme, the Netherlands and Dr Sadayuki Sakakibara, Chairman and CEO of Toray Industries Inc.

on Climate Change was held in December 2009, it was probably the first time since the term ‘climate change’ was coined that the attention of such huge numbers of people was focused on the subject.

And yet, the connection between climate and water is often not obvious to the public at large or even the policy-makers.

The World Water Council (WWC) regarded the Copenhagen event as a key opportunity to remind the international community that sensible water infrastructure investments can help adaptation to climate change and that better management of water is central to many future energy solutions. “If we recognise the importance of addressing future climate change, we also demand that today’s water crisis is addressed,” said Loic Fauchon, President of the WWC.

4

Blue Paper

“Powerful hurricanes and cyclones such as Katrina, Nargis and Ike are clear reminders that global warming is changing our climate on an unprecedented scale and pace,” warned Dr Han Seung-Soo, former Prime Minister of South Korea and Honorary President of the Korea Water Forum.

A chart on the rise of sea-levels shown at the Joint Opening Plenary indicated that out of the people at risk in cities, 78.3 million lived in China, 31.5 million lived in India, 29 million in Japan, 22.7 million in Indonesia and 20.3 million in the USA. “The challenge of climate change can only be addressed if all the creative forces of humanity are mobilised,” said Dr Han. He highlighted that his country has adopted the national vision of “Low Carbon, Green Growth” on

August 15, 2008. This vision aims to transform the current “paradigm of quantity-oriented growth into a new paradigm of quality-oriented, low carbon green growth”. Several policy measures have been put in place to implement this vision.

According to Dr Han, the Korean government has announced a cut in its carbon emissions by 30% from the Business as Usual scenario by 2020. This target is the highest level of mitigation recommended by the IPCC for Non-Annex 1 countries in order to stabilise the global temperature rise to under 20C by the end of this century.

Sadayuki Sakakibara, Chairman and CEO, Toray Industries pointed out that Japan was a key manufacturer of the components and materials needed by the world’s ‘high-tech’ industries such as electronics, computers, automobiles and

membrane separation. Thus, Japan’s investment in green innovations could make a big difference.

It was stressed by speaker after speaker that the ‘growth first, clean-up later” approach has come at a huge price. The audience was reminded that with more than 50% people living in low-lying areas in constant danger of natural disasters, we do not have the luxury of growing first and cleaning up later.

CITIES ARE THE PROBLEM… AND THE SOLUTION The unanimous view expressed at the Joint Opening Plenary was that we need to transform the way we plan, build and manage our cities.

We need to ensure that profits are generated with the welfare of the commons in mind. Communities should always be involved in decisions that impact them. We need to manage our wastes better and to foster the spirit of learning from one another.

Wim Kuijken, the Government Commissioner for the Delta Programme in the Netherlands was at hand to talk about the urgency with which his country is responding to the need for both protecting the people from water

as well as ensuring that there is enough of it for everyone.

“Over half of the Netherlands is vulnerable to rising water, and it is precisely this part of the country that is the most densely populated urban area,” said Mr Kuijken. “This is where two-thirds of our GDP is earned and where our main ports are located.”

Despite being the “best protected delta” in the world, the Netherlands is facing challenges caused by changing climates, rising sea levels and subsiding soils. Their planners realise that if they have to stay secure, they must “work with nature”.

In the past, the Dutch protected reclaimed land with dikes but now that thinking has yielded to a preference for maintaining coastlines as naturally as possible and “by replenishing sand rather than by building high sea walls”.

Rivers have been given the room they need; water is accorded a prominent place in cities for storage and recreation, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the living environment. “In this way we make water our ally and our country safe,” explained Mr Kuijken.

While the Dutch are adapting and refining their water strategies, India does not have the luxury of ushering in change so easily. When the world’s largest democracy and second most populous nation contemplates renewing its infrastructure, the issues to consider can be staggering.

Amitabh Kant, head of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation revealed the gigantic planning exercise that his organisation has been tasked with – to build the “largest industrial corridor in the world”. In collaboration with Japan, the development project which includes water infrastructure aims to create a ‘new India’ in the process.

Management and planning ideas will have to come from the region, and not from traditional examples such as the well-planned US cities, which, at that time, had the advantage of cheap access to energy.

The basic principles of strong governance, prioritising and proper allocation of resources, stakeholder engagement, innovation and international collaboration are key towards building sustainable cities.

As Singapore’s Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan put it, “Precisely because of their

Singapore International Water Week 2010

5

Key TakeAways from Joint Opening Plenary • We need to transform the way we plan, build and manage our cities in order to make them liveable and sustainable; • The creative forces of humanity have to be harnessed to combat the complexity of climate change; • Cities have to both protect citizens from both the excesses and shortages of water;

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao city

high human density and economic capabilities, the economic and human capital, as well as the technology, to counter the problems that they have caused.

In the face of rapid urbanisation, it is clear that cities hold the key towards preserving our future.”

6

Blue Paper

• Culture can be an important driver, as exemplified by Bilbao City in Spain, where it helped to mobilise diverse resources, brought all stakeholders together and led to the renaissance of Bilbao.

Renewed Urgency for Political Will and Regional Collaboration on Water Security At the first Asia-Pacific Water Ministers Forum (APWMF) held during the Singapore International Water Week, public sector leaders and influential policymakers convened for a dialogue session chaired by Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large.

APWMF provided a timely platform for water leaders to exchange best water governance practices. Concrete steps to bring about sustainable water solutions to communities were discussed at the forum, which was facilitated by Seetharam Kallidaikurichi, Director of the Institute of Water Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

The gathered leaders renewed a sense of urgency for water security and the sustainability of water resources in the long-term especially in light of climate change. According to Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, the challenges faced by countries in the AsiaPacific region have less to do with an absolute shortage of water than with the uneven distribution of water resources, the lack of access and the inefficient usage of this limited resource.

Yoshiro Mori, President of the AsiaPacific Water Forum elaborated that the poor, marginalised and those in disaster-prone and ecologically-sensitive areas are at the greatest risk. The need for

better governance of this resource was pointed out by Noeleen Heyzer, the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

According to Ms Heyzer, governments need to manage water equitably since water functions as an economic resource that is often shared across the border. It is important to address the persistent inequalities of access as well as competition for scarce resources especially among the poorest households who have less than 20 litres of water for their basic needs.

During the Roundtable, the ministers reiterated that many of these issues can be addressed through good governance, adequate investment in sustainable solutions and better management practices. There was also an overall consensus for stronger political will, collaboration among countries and an inclusive participatory approach for sustainable water management.

There was a strong focus on developing innovative technologies such as solar-driven desalination to address water crisis especially among the small Pacific islands such as Samoa, Maldives and Tuvalu, which are experiencing drastic changes in weather patterns. As climate change has resulted in an uncertain future, there is an increasing need to make water resource management more adaptive and responsive to the rapidly changing circumstances.

Overall, in addition to good governance, financing and innovative technology, the dialogue emphasised on water demand management and proper wastewater disposal to ensure the sustainability of water supply. Mr Mori expressed his wish for ministers to place water security at the top of their home countries’ agendas, while helping to articulate regional concerns and solutions in addition to creating sustainable partnerships across the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

7

The Governance Challenge When it comes to the water and sanitation sector, almost all the problems can be traced back to bad governance and virtually all the solutions flow from good governance. Not surprising then that the theme chosen for the First Roundtable Discussion at the Water Leaders Summit was Good Governance for Water Sustainability.

Chaired by Professor Michael Rouse, the panel of experts sought to examine the key aspects of good governance that help in the effective delivery of water services and sanitation.

ADOPT A SYSTEMS APPROACH It was recognised by the panelists that despite the policies on water, agriculture, energy, industry and environment being closely interlinked with each other, the water sector is managed as if it was independent from all other sectoral issues.

“In many countries, water is not just with one ministry,” said Erna Witoelar, Co-chair of the Governing Council of Asia Pacific Water Forum, and Chair of the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia. She pointed out that

8

Blue Paper

various ministries involved with different aspects of water were all pulling in different directions.

“Water has to be managed holistically either through a minister in charge or a high-level coordinating mechanism,” she asserted.

The need for an integrated systems approach had come up for discussion at the Water Leaders Summit held in 2009 and is also the subject of a Global Water Policy Dialogue being held every year at the Institute of Water Policy, the thought leader behind the summit.

“Water should be taken out of its policy silo and be a part of a much broader governance strategy,” said Theo Toonen, Dean of the Faculty, Technology, Policy/ Governance and Management of the Delft University of Technology.

He was referring to the need to have a strategic approach to water management which included all impinging areas such as climate change. According to him, water was often an after-thought in the planning process, and gave the example of eco-cities where the main focus during design was usually on energy-savings.

CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT DECISION-MAKING Clear and transparent decisionmaking is one of the key aspects of good governance. While there are several levels of decision-making on water in the government, it is important to have an integrated approach to the environment.

Within Europe for example, there are different levels of decisionmaking and accountability from the EU to the individual national governments down to the utilities with clear guidelines about water management.

Philip Fletcher, Chairman of Water Services Regulation Authority (OFWAT), which regulates the

water and sewerage services of England and Wales outlined a few points to achieve integrated decision-making: • Decisions should be taken at the most appropriate and preferably the lowest level to achieve an effective outcome; • An objective analysis of costs and benefits as well as risks should form the basis of decisions. The trade-offs should be well understood; • There should be a preference for market-led solutions where appropriate but always within a context of broad regulation which is likely to achieve the best outcomes both for the environment and the consumers.

In countries such as India, where the policies on water resources management are made at the national level, while the supply of services are in the hands of individual states and municipalities, the lines of decision-making are blurred. This leads to wrong choices, which results in enormous hardships for the people and degradation of the natural environment.

Umesh Panjiar, Union Secretary to the Indian Ministry of Water Resources said that there should be clarity and transparency about the roles of different organisations, about procedures and legal provisions as well as about policies and strategies related to water management. Transparency in decision making is essential for establishing credibility and faith of the people in governance.

Bindu Lohani, Vice-President at Asian Development Bank (ADB) is optimistic that water governance will improve in the region especially as ADB was working closely with developing member countries through loans and technical assistance. However, the change would only take place over a long period of time, not immediately.

“One of the five drivers of change in our Strategy 2020 is good governance and capacity development,” he said.

INVOLVE THE PEOPLE – IT’S ALL ABOUT THEM If there was one refrain that rang through the entire summit, it was about involving communities in management – the end users for whom the entire infrastructure is built.

Bilbao City, which won the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize earned plaudits for its policy of close consultation with key public and private stakeholders. This “instilled in the citizens a sense of ownership and responsibility in the sculpting of the city, catalysing the vast improvements in Bilbao”.

In Asia and Africa, many sanitation programmes have failed in the past because the people were not consulted in the planning stages nor did they feel a sense of ownership. Where there has been success with water programmes, it has often been attributed to the active involvement of stakeholders.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

9

of water is being rejected due to the ‘yuck’ factor.

However, mere public participation in not an end in itself. It should be the means to an end which, in this context is good water governance.

If sufficient information and training on various issues are not imparted to the stakeholders and if there is no clear mechanism to reconcile different interests, there will only be a deadlock.

PUBLIC OR PRIVATE? REGULATION IS THE KEY Recycled water, branded NEWater in Singapore is widely accepted in Singapore, thanks to a comprehensive public communications plan that reaches out to all sectors of the community.

In the water sector of England and Wales, the service providers keep abreast of the community needs through frequent user group surveys.

It was acknowledged that Singapore offers a good example of community participation with its 3P (People, Private, Public) approach where ‘people’ are included in the equation. This is one of the reasons why there is a high public acceptance of water reuse in Singapore unlike the other countries where a valuable source

10 Blue Paper

In most parts of the world, water services have been delivered through the public sector. In the past, due to some high-profile failures of water privatisation projects, there have been numerous debates about the efficacy of public versus private management of water services. In reality, successes and failures are found in both the public and private sectors.

In some regions, there is a growing realisation that whether water is managed by the public or private sector, what matters is that there is a clear policy and that the roles of various stakeholders are welldefined and regulated. Several

public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been formed to operate the water and wastewater infrastructure in the countries of the Middle East and in China.

Montazar Muhalhal of the National Water Company (NWC), Saudi Arabia explained how his country had adopted PPP as a strategy for “increasing the sector’s efficiency and effectiveness”. The kingdom’s Ministry of Water and Electricity regulates the operations of the NWC. Currently, the water company manages the two major cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. By the end of this year the cities of Mecca and Taiff will also be covered.

Mr Muhalhal said there had been improved water supplies, huge improvements in customer relations and maximum utilisation of resources since the time the private sector had stepped in.

“NWC will continue applying the performance-based management contract as a preferred PPP scheme in managing the water and wastewater facilities in the kingdom,” he added.

Mr Fletcher cited the example of the water utilities in the UK, which performed badly before

the privatisation exercise.

However, maintenance of water assets became a priority after privatisation. He said that effective regulation had helped to lower leakage levels by 35%, allowed consumers to obtain high-quality drinking water and kept bills as low as necessary for the companies to deliver their obligations.

FIND WAYS TO CONNECT THE POOR In many of the world’s big cities, the urban poor usually live in slums and do not have access to piped water supplies. The water service providers do not extend their networks to shanty towns since the poor are usually not able to pay the large installation charges for house connections. That is why many poor families buy water from vendors who charge more for water than the municipal authorities.

At the summit, Professor Tommy Koh pointed out that there is a common misconception that the poor cannot pay for water.

Compared to the tariffs paid by households connected to a water network, the poor often pay as much ten times more for each cubic metre of water than the rich. It

has been demonstrated in many cases that if the connection charges were subsidised for the poor as for example in Phnom Penh, the poor can afford to pay the regular price of water. Similarly, there are many examples to show that the poor are willing to pay for and build their own toilets.

It is a failure of governance when the poor are not connected to safe drinking water supplies or sanitation. Even if it is not possible to extend distribution systems to shanty towns in the short-term, there are many other options available. A case in point is Metro Manila, where the informal water vendors are regulated so that they supply clean water to the poor at affordable rates.

Key TakeAways from Round table One • Political will at all levels (national, provincial and local) to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to all, including the poor is imperative; • With clear and transparent policies for pricing water, it does not matter whether water is publicly or privately managed; • Close consultation with people right from the planning stage is critical.

• Policies that encourage holistic planning and coordination across various government agencies are key to sustainable water and sanitation.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

11

Singapore Water Lecture – Lessons from the Yellow River

For hundreds of years, the Yellow River was known as China’s River of Sorrow. More recently, it was one of the famous rivers that never reached the sea. But now it will be known for the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, which has been awarded to the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC).

Li Guoying, Commissioner of YRCC who delivered the Singapore Water Lecture explained that the Huang He (as the Yellow River is called in China) is one of the most difficult rivers to manage. Originating from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the river carries the highest annual sediment run-off in the world (1.6 billion tonnes) and also the highest concentration of sediments mostly originating from China’s famed Loess Plateau.

12 Blue Paper

DYNAMIC AND DIFFICULT DELTA Mr Li described how the heavy sediments and flood waters formed new estuary landforms, changing the river channel by as much as five to seven kilometres in one day, giving the Huang He one of the most dynamic river morphologies in the world.

If not managed well, dike breaches can result in devastating floods and blocked channels detrimental to the ecosystem and the people residing near the river. From 602 BC until 1938, there have been 1,590 dike breaches and 26 channel shifts.

The dike breach in 1938 resulted in massive flooding of over 25,000 km2 of land and killed 890,000 people.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND OVER-EXPLOITATION DEAL SEVERE BLOW According to the Commissioner, the period 1980-2000 saw precipitation decreasing by 7% and the run-off by 18% when compared to 1956-1979.

In the same period, the basin’s GDP grew from 91.6 billion RMB to 656.5 billion RMB. Withdrawals from the river increased. More and more areas were irrigated from the waters of the Huang He. So excessive was the exploitation of the river that it could not reach the sea for most part of the year in 1997. The cut-off left thousands of villages and approximately 1.3 million people thirsty in its wake.

Industry losses in the lower river

region accumulated to a staggering 3.15 billion RMB and food production decreased by 2.0 billion kilograms. From a river known for its floods, it became a trickle.

patterns of flows to estimate water storage capacities.

YRCC TAKES CHARGE

YRCC put forward a vision called “Maintaining the healthy life of the Yellow River”, which emphasised a harmonious co-existence between humans and nature. To implement this vision, the commission integrated the functions of government agencies overseeing water, electricity, industry, agriculture, domestic water supply, and environment protection.

The Yellow River was in crisis with the lives of millions of people at stake. But it was also a crisis which held the seeds of opportunity to rebuild and innovate. The central government, in its wisdom, empowered the YRCC to manage the river basin in 1999.

The commission first put together an annual management plan with approval from the state, which established limits of water allocation for various uses such as provincial needs, sediment transport and environmental protection. The plan took into account temporal and spatial

INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT USING INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Information technology was used extensively in water allocation and regulation. Remote sensing and automation methods were applied to collect real-time river system information and operate a series of reservoirs on the main stream and

tributaries of Yellow River in an integrated manner.

Through the ‘Yellow River Water Regulating System’, up to 78 water diversion works downstream could be remotely controlled and monitored. In addition, a drought monitoring and flow forecasting meteorological satellite system – the first of its kind in the world – was used to predict water run-off patterns. Thus, the Digital Yellow River Project as it is called, could not only evaluate the impact of different scenarios even before implementation of directives but also help the planners to look at the entire basin holistically. The impact of climate change was also incorporated into the models.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

13

GETTING SEDIMENTS OUT OF THE WAY Xiaolangdi Dam is the “last” dam along the Yellow River, and is sited where the river transits from its middle mountainous section to its lower reaches, which is characterised by the flat North China Plains coated by the deposits of the Yellow River.

Since 2002, YRCC has leveraged on the strategic position of the Xiaolangdi Dam to carry out nine flushing operations. Using precise calculations and highly coordinated efforts, these flushing operations have successfully regulated the flow of water and the amount of sediments in the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

A ‘healthy’ water to sediment ratio is critical to revitalising the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

These flushing operations have also deepened the river bed by an average of 1.5m for about 900km of the Yellow River and more than doubled the river’s maximum flow capacity from 1,800 m3/s to 3,880 m3/s, thus substantially improving flood safety.

The Commission is constantly on guard to ensure that sediments do not clog flows and lead to flooding again. The smart management of sediments forms the core of YRCC’s success.

14 Blue Paper

FACING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF POLLUTION

RESTORING FLOW AND BIODIVERSITY

Mr Li stated that pollution remains a key challenge in the Yellow River, and to manage it, the following measures have been taken:

With YRCC’s efforts, large areas of wetlands and biodiversity were restored and the millions of people living in flood-prone areas were protected. The river did not experience any cut-offs from the sea again. Over 100 million people benefitted with the reliable supply of water due to the success of YRCC’s water allocation programme and integrated management approach.

1) The river has been divided into sections and a pollution cap has been placed for each section.

Each provincial government authority is accountable for the pollution in its section; 2) Results of pollution levels are published and shared; 3) Provinces have been advised to enact a legal framework to address pollution.

Mr Li is confident that water quality will eventually improve in the future with the enforcement of these measures.

Thus, the Yellow River has not only been tamed but also transformed into a source of energy and water for households, industries and agriculture, with some left over for the environment.

The Inaugural River Basin and Delta Management Workshop Themed “Opportunities and Challenges in Response to Climate Change”, the workshop was the first of its kind at the water week, and drew close to 200 participants from 27 different countries. Speakers presented insights into river basin and climate change issues faced by their countries or organisations.

CALL FOR INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF RIVER BASINS AND DELTAS Delivering the keynote address, Tan Yong Soon, the Permanent Secretary (National Climate Change) in the Prime Minister’s Office, pointed out that while we rely on rivers for various purposes such as water supply, transport and recreation, the health of river basins is increasingly at risk of deterioration. “This is often the result of economic development, population growth and climate change. These challenges call for a greater need to manage water resources, including rivers and deltas, in an integrated manner so as to ensure their sustainability,” he said.

For rivers and deltas that straddle across national boundaries, Mitja Bricelj, President of International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, emphasised that political awareness and open dialogues are paramount to the management of international water bodies.

PREPARING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE IN A SUSTAINABLE MANNER

engagement, it helped to gain public buy-in, and thus political support.

Describing the adaptation strategy to defend the Netherlands against climate change, Wim Kuijken, Government Commissioner for the Delta Programme, explained how the Dutch government actively seeks public support and provides increased safety through a flexible, adaptive approach. It is characterised by innovative, sustainable methods, like building with nature or using sand to supplement coastlines, rather than hard structures. These methods strive to simultaneously enhance both the living and natural environment. “The Delta Programme aims to prevent disasters from taking place, rather than reacting to its consequences,” Mr Kuijken concluded. He added that the programme will make Netherlands safe for the centuries ahead.

Communication with the public is equally important. This was underscored by Theo Toonen, Dean of the Faculty, Technology, Policy/ Governance and Management of the Delft University of Technology who called for “putting people, rather than water management first”.

PROTECTING RIVER AND DELTA RESOURCES AMIDST A CHANGING CLIMATE In the panel discussion, the speakers were asked about the key factors to successfully adapt river basins and deltas to climate change.

Gerry Galloway of the University of Maryland’s Institute of Water Resources remarked that the key to managing the Mississippi River was political will. By expanding public

Mr Kuijken cited leadership and transparency as key ingredients for success. “Everybody knows that the climate is changing. You have to be, in my opinion, very honest, and also honest about uncertainties. The best way to handle uncertainties is to prepare people for the big decisions to be made,” he said.

Framing “climate change as an opportunity, rather than a threat” is one possible way to adapt to climate change, according to Arnoud Molenaar, Programme Manager of the Rotterdam Climate Proof Programme. He quoted an innovative example, which is the Water Plaza. Although it was constructed to function as a floodwater retention basin, it also serves as a civic area for recreational and communal activities when it is dry most of the time.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

15

The Technology Challenge Just when we thought we were running out of freshwater, there came along membrane separation technology. When we thought we were running out of space for treatment plants, there came along low-footprint technologies which occupy a fraction of the land needed by earlier processes. Technology has the astonishing ability to completely change the paradigm.

According to the scientistentrepreneur, it is the opportunity to make money and the competition for it that drives technology creation. Governments play an important role in creating this competition by setting standards and regulating markets. “You have to find a way to make a product that’s truly competitive, not just an improvement,” he asserted.

However, there are many challenges associated with bringing new technologies to market and sometimes the new technologies themselves create new, unforeseen challenges. This formed the subject of discussion at the Second Roundtable of the Water Leaders Summit chaired by Lord Ronald Oxburgh, Member, House of Lords, UK and a distinguished thought leader on water and energy.

Outlining a possible scenario, Dr Benedek said that the UN Development Programme in India could probably solve the water problem by “announcing a competition engaging the entire world in figuring out a system for supplying 20 m3/day of good water to villages”. The system would need to be energy selfsufficient, maintenance-free and priced at about US$10,000. If the government agreed to finance the production of about 10,000 of these units in partnership with donors, then according to Dr Benedek, within a few years, “At a hundred million bucks, somebody’s gonna do it!”.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT PROFITS AND COMPETITION? If we want to “save” the 884 million people without safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people without improved sanitation, then we need to start talking about the taboo subjects – profits and competition. This was the view put forward by Andrew Benedek, winner of the first Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize in 2008.

16 Blue Paper

Charles Gordon, President and CEO of Siemens Water Technologies also took up the competition theme and recalled the awarding of Singapore’s Innovative Technology Challenge to his company in 2008. The research grant required

Siemens to create a technology breakthrough in desalination within five years by developing a process that used less than 1.5kWh of energy per cubic metre of water.

This energy consumption is half of what is currently possible with the best available desalination technology.

“We’re two years into the project and I can say that that our demonstration unit yesterday was making potable water from seawater using 1.7 kWh of energy per cubic metre of water,” said Mr Gordon.

He was confident that his company will be able to meet the energy management challenge very soon.

CUSTOMISING TECHNOLOGIES AND DELIVERING VALUE A technology which is good for one country may be completely unsuitable for another. So the next challenge after developing a “breakthrough” technology is to customise it to suit the needs of the market.

“One of the technologies we’re moving to India right now is SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactor) technology, which has been around for a long time,” shared Mr Gordon. In order to make it attractive to the Indian market, it was necessary to take a “lot of

cost out of it”. The reactor would need to generate 60-70% solids lesser than the conventional SBR technology. This meant taking a technology that was developed in the US and completely repackaging it for the Indian market.

The water services sector is regarded as a “high-risk” market because innovative technologies are not embraced eagerly. Since it is highly capital-intensive, there is a tendency to go for tried and tested technologies that would last for at least 10-15 years. It is this risk-averse characteristic that has confounded technology-developers for many years.

There are several new technologies that are waiting to be brought to market such as: membrane distillation, forward osmosis, porous zeolite technology combined with reverse osmosis, osmotic power generation through differential salinity and many others. Kenji Matsumoto,

Director-Board Member and Senior Corporate Vice President of Nitto Denko described how researchers in the US and Japan were engaged in developing more effective technologies.

The challenge is to develop technologies that bring value to the customers and to encourage customers to look at the life cycle cost rather than just the upfront capital cost.t.

NO LONGER JUST WATER OR ENERGY BUT BOTH When water and energy were both cheap and abundant, it did not matter if they were considered separately. But as populations double and quadruple, this luxury of separation is no longer possible.

“Water and energy are inextricably linked and interconnected,” said Leon Awerbuch, Chairman of International Desalination Association (IDA) Programs and President/CTO of Leading Edge

Technologies. This intimate linkage has important implications for technology development.

As long as desalination is energyintensive, it limits possibilities for application in the water sector. But the situation is changing rapidly. In seawater reverse osmosis, efficient energy recovery devices have resulted in efficiency increases in the range of 75% to 98%.

Energy forms a large part of the cost of water and wastewater systems because of the pumping required at various stages. “Energyefficient wastewater and sludge pumping can deliver consistent energy savings of greater than 25%,” said Gretchen McClain, President of ITT Fluid and Motion Control. In the conventional processes of biological wastewater treatment, aeration accounts for up to 65% of energy usage. “By adopting highly energy-efficient solutions for secondary treatment,

Singapore International Water Week 2010

17

additional and sustainable energy cost savings can be achieved,” added Ms McClain.

The integration of energy and water is becoming evident in the manner that energy companies such as GE and Siemens and oil companies such as Shell and BP have begun to get involved in water treatment and production.

Perhaps the biggest potential of energy generation lies in wastewater.

Professor Perry McCarty, winner of the 2007 Stockholm Water Prize, asked whether efforts were being made to develop technologies that would help to harness energy from wastewater treatment.

The answer was that a key ongoing R&D project with Siemens was the development of an energy-neutral municipal wastewater project by

18 Blue Paper

combining adsorption technology with anaerobic digestion. If the project was successful, there would be enough energy created through biogas to make the treatment plant energy neutral and the solids would also be reduced by 50%.

But the biggest challenge was to commercialise the product and find a market for it.

“Ultimately the answer is to appropriately price water and energy so that the true value of efficiency measures is reflected,” said Glen Daigger, President-Elect of International Water Association.

According to him, appropriate pricing will help to accelerate the development and implementation of energy and water saving technologies.

WHERE THERE’S A NEED, THERE’S A TECHNOLOGY Today, our wastewater contains several lesser-known endocrine disrupting chemicals that originate from personal care products such as perfumes, sunscreen lotions and shampoos as well as pharmaceuticals such as painkillers, birth control pills and others. Many of these contaminants, even though present in minute concentrations could be responsible for the new illnesses tormenting our world.

Lord Oxburgh asked the panel if there was a way to remove these contaminants or if the developed world was doomed to “suffer from its own ills”.

The panel was of the opinion that we all need to do our part to reduce the use of products which contain endocrine disrupting chemicals. Pharmaceuticals and

personal care products should be reformulated so that they do not pollute the environment with such harmful contaminants. At the same time more research needs to be done about what is the price to be paid if these contaminants were not removed from the wastewater.

A major driver of technology is ‘need’. The unanimous view was that if the need to remove endocrine disruptors is clearly established in human terms and if appropriate standards are set by regulatory authorities, it is only a matter of time before a technology revolution takes place to serve that need.

BUT WHAT DOES THE SOCIETY NEED? “Sometimes, society can’t ask for something different until it understands that it can get something different,” reflected Mr Daigger.

Today many of the world’s natural resources are under strain because we are “taking the old model of development and putting it on steroids”. Rather than understanding what the society really needs, there is a focus on using more efficient ways to thoroughly exploit resources.

If we examine where we have become unsustainable, four areas emerge: energy, nutrients, water and chemicals. If a way could be found to deliver water and sanitation to everyone such that nutrients and chemicals are recovered, energy is generated and water is reused, that would be a “value proposition” for society in the real sense. Perhaps, this is the ultimate challenge for the water sector.

Key TakeAways from Round table Two • The dynamics of the water– energy nexus is setting the scene for technological innovations.

There are many untapped possibilities such as generating energy out of used water which need to be vigorously pursued.

• Society needs a new valueproposition which considers the whole of the environment.

• Technology complements the role of governments in water management, so companies must be given incentives to innovate in technology.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

19

Dialogue with Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew Constant innovation and a resilient mindset are the key for staying ahead, says MM Lee, who has applied these principles to Singapore.

A highlight of the 2010 Singapore International Water Week was the award of both the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize and the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, both presented by the Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

like Singapore can be damaging and irreversible. This concern subsequently manifested itself into anti-pollution measures that shaped most of the country’s policies towards foreign investment.

A dialogue session between the Minister Mentor (MM Lee) and some 700 global leaders and policy makers, business leaders and academia was keenly heard during the event.

When asked about Singapore’s dramatic transformation, MM Lee replied that careful attention to environment and growth, industry and services as well as infrastructure and logistics helped to propel Singapore to a first world oasis.

He emphasised the importance of human capital in the development of a nation. He also praised the resilience of the Singaporean society in addressing the challenges of a growing nation especially upon separation from Malaysia. According to him, part of this resilience comes from a careful cultivation of a disciplined mindset.

Quoting the example of Singapore, MM Lee highlighted the need to balance the preservation of the country’s delicate ecosystem with the demands of a rapidly industrialising nation. Although he acknowledged the difficulty in managing that balance, he reiterated that effects of pollution especially for a small island

He also mentioned that technology is only as good as the people and the political will behind it.

Strong leadership is required to effect meaningful changes from issues of climate change to water conservation. He cited how water reclamation that was once thought to be an impossible feat has now

The World City Prize was awarded to Bilbao City Hall for its integrated and holistic approach in urban transformation, whereas the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC) received the Water Prize for bringing about widespread social and environmental benefits to more than 100 million people.

20 Blue Paper

materialised into a significant source of water for Singapore as a result of concerted efforts in developing membrane technology. MM Lee also stressed the importance of conserving every drop of water through efforts such as minimising water leakages and industrial pollutants in addition to maintaining various catchment areas.

When asked if and how Singapore will maintain its upward climb, MM Lee replied that Singapore will maintain its cutting edge by maximising its advantages and opportunities as well as excelling in the maintenance of all its hub spaces. He also highlighted the role the present and future generation will play in the country’s progress.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew

The Finance Challenge “The central challenge of the water sector is that it needs four or five times more capital investment than the next most capital-intensive infrastructure business,” stated Christopher Gasson, the publisher of Global Water Intelligence at the Third Roundtable of the Water Leaders Summit. He was setting the scene for a discussion on sound financing strategies for the water services sector.

For every US$4.60 of assets that Singapore’s national water agency PUB owns, it earns a revenue of just US$1. This is the case with one of the most efficient water utilities in the world.

According to Mr Gasson, the ratio of fixed assets to revenue earned

by US water utilities is 8.2 while in India’s Chennai Metro, it is 10.5. “In contrast, an energy utility would need to spend approximately two dollars on fixed assets for every dollar of revenue while a telecom company would need to spend just one dollar,” he said.

Despite the huge upfront capital investments required by water utilities, they can rarely recover the costs from the tariffs they charge for supplying water.

UTILITIES ARE DEPRIVED OF FREE CASH FLOWS Municipally-owned water utilities in developing countries largely struggle to finance their capital investments, either because they have no credit rating, or because they are reliant on central government guarantees.

Since tariffs are kept very low by governments, sometimes even the operating costs are not covered by tariffs. Full-cost recovery through

tariffs, though desirable is a rare phenomenon.

Being dependent on subsidies from the government, utilities are usually unable to run in a professional manner. Most of the water distribution networks are in disarray due to poor maintenance.

With no money to spare for rehabilitating infrastructure, the numerous leaks in the system cause huge physical losses of water from the networks. The staff employed by utilities are poorly trained and has little motivation.

Until there is a sustainable self-financing model for water infrastructure, it is difficult to bring in a positive change.

THE IRONY ABOUT LOW TARIFFS Most governments keep tariffs for piped water low in the interests of affordability. But the irony is that most of those who have access to water connections are welloff. The people who can really be

Singapore International Water Week 2010

21

categorised as poor rarely have access to water from taps. Thus, the low tariffs usually do not benefit the poor people they are meant for. On the other hand, with little incentive for water conservation, this is often leading to huge levels of consumption.

“Today the price of 15m3 of water from our network is equal to the price of a can of soda,” said Mr Muhalhal of Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company. “Unless tariffs are changed to help the society consume less water, the consumption will always increase and huge capital expenditure will be required.”

Where the poor are not given access to piped water, they often steal water from main lines which increases the non-revenue water.

Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, in many developing countries, unregulated small-scale water service providers are finding ways to re-sell the municipal water to the poor at exorbitant rates.

22 Blue Paper

Unfortunately, as pointed out in the discussion, many civil society groups do not appreciate the importance of utilities having their own cash flows generated from tariffs. By preventing the utilities from operating on sound financial principles, these lobbies are actually allowing the festering of corruption in the water sector.

WELL-REGULATED PUBLICPRIVATE-PARTNERSHIPS CAN WORK Manila Water Company is a fine example of a public-private partnership (PPP) which is delivering water to the eastern part of Metro Manila in a far more efficient manner than ever before.

“Over the past 12 years, our company has been successful in reducing non-revenue water from approximately 63% to 15%,” said Luis Juan Oreta, Chief Financial Officer of Manila Water Company.

The customer base of the company has gone up from three million to six million in the same period and 99% of the customers enjoy 24-hour water service. “This expansion has

been achieved without sacrificing price affordability to our customers and without having to increase water supply,” revealed Mr Oreta.

The concession agreement between Manila Water and the government allows for full reimbursement of operating and capital expenses incurred in meeting service obligations in water provision, sanitation and sewerage with a guaranteed rate of return.

The stability of the concession agreement provides the solid bedrock for Manila Water in acquiring financial support for its investment in a politicised commodity.

According to Mr Oreta, transparency in terms of its business plans and objectives to its stakeholders and partners in the government and in the civil society has been key to the sustainability of its business.

Rate rebasing, which is conducted every five years, is transparent and based on a clear structure. Public consultations are conducted prior to the enforcement of rate increase.

Water tariffs remains below 3% of average household income, still ten

times cheaper to the poor than what they are charged by private water vendors.

The pressure to maintain affordability of water is challenging due to the lengthy capital recovery period which is inherent in the water business. However, Manila Water has benefited from the strong financing support of multilateral institutions such as the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank, and the European Investment Bank. Furthermore, Manila Water’s strong credit rating enables it to obtain support from Philippine banks, financing 50% of the company’s investments.

Leveraging on community support and public acceptance, Manila Water has been strengthening its education campaign and public awareness programmes on water and sanitation. “Our customers have come to realise the value proposition of our company,” said Mr Oreta.

He called for a “mechanism to move the money around in the market” through collaboration between public and private institutions.

MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS PLAY VITAL ROLE Are multilateral financial institutions making any difference on the ground? This was the question posed by Mr Gasson to the panel at the Third Roundtable.

A multilateral development bank is an institution, created by a group of countries that provides financing and professional advice for the purpose of development. Their members include both developed donor countries and developing borrower countries.

“From 1968 to 2010, our institution has lent a total of US$25.4 billion under its water financing programme,” said Dr Lohani, VicePresident of Asian Development

Bank (ADB). Unlike commercial banks, profit is not the ultimate objective of ADB, he informed for the benefit of those who think that all banks function in the same manner.

Describing how ADB often works in places where no commercial banks would ever venture, Dr Lohani explained that it was important to prepare the scene to enable the government to help its own people.

“We have to make a difference on the ground and we don’t need to do projects which others can do easily,” he explained.

ADB has introduced new lending mechanisms to suit the needs of its various clients, such as multitranche financing facility, and subsovereign and nonsovereign lending. In order to promote increased efficiency in the delivery of basic services, ADB is also pushing to make service providers more accountable and autonomous.

Meanwhile, there are examples of water services being delivered efficiently by the public sector such as the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority and PUB but these too operate on sound financial principles with a clear governance strategy.

According to Hiroshi Watanabe, President and CEO of Japan Bank for International Cooperation, there is no dearth of finance for the water sector; only it is “kept in the closets of individual investors”.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

23

in Singapore and more recently at US$0.55 per cubic metre in the “riskier” market of Algeria.

However, Ms Lum gave full credit to the Algerian government for guaranteeing the costs of financing, electricity and land, which freed up the bidders to “just bring along the most innovative technologies”.

“The bank’s general approach is to combine lending with the required reforms and capacity building for the satisfactory implementation of a particular project, thus supporting the broader water sector goals and objectives,” elaborated Dr Lohani.

Both the governments and the private sector are becoming more receptive towards partnerships because of the efforts made by multilateral banks such as ADB. Of course, this has involved much dialogue with national banks, governments, private sector players and others.

Starting from 2011, ADB plans to introduce the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility. This will provide guarantees on local currency denominated bonds issued by companies in the region. Such guarantees will make it easier for firms to issue local bonds with longer maturities. This will help reduce the currency and maturity mismatches which caused the 19971998 Asian financial crisis and make

24 Blue Paper

the regional financial system more resilient to volatile global capital flows and external shocks.

Innovative instruments for financing water projects and promoting PPPs have also been pushed forward. An example is the ADB’s first water bond issued in April this year.

FOR THE PRIVATE SECTOR, INNOVATION IS THE KEY “Through our innovative financing, we are able to do less than a dollar of asset to a dollar of revenue,” said Olivia Lum, Group CEO and President of Hyflux. Whether it was through project financing or joint ventures or collaboration with Japan Bank of International Cooperation, she believes that innovative ways of financing were important to negotiate the thorny water market.

Thus, Hyflux has been able to deliver water at a record-breaking US$0.38 per cubic metre from the desalination plant at Tuas

On the other hand, the Chinese government does not offer any guarantees, which leads bidders to “take the ultimate risk as a concessionaire”. Thus, the appetite of a company for risk determined the projects it would bid for.

Explaining the company’s strategy, Ms Lum said that if there were no clear guidelines, no off-take volumes specified, no functional industrial parks, not enough population and no sustainable tariffs, Hyflux would “walk away” from such a PPP project.

Also, companies such as Hyflux do not find it attractive to take up small projects in China for which project financing is not sustainable.

“What we do is to group all these small projects together and enlist them in a water trust,” said Ms Lum. According to her, the model of water trust listing had been very successful in financing small projects in China.

A belief in the powers of innovation and the will to stay on long enough until the market sorted itself out was also the view taken by Steve Bolze, President, GE

Power and Water. Recalling the early years of bumpy business in wind energy, which is now offering steady returns, Mr Bolze said he perceived the water business would also improve in the long term. “20% of the world’s water consumption occurs in industrial processes and that’s where a lot of demand and growth will be for us,” he said.

Key Take-Aways from Round table Three

With the world’s water demand outstripping supply, international players such as GE see a bigger role for themselves in times to come.

• Multilateral development banks and financial institutions play a significant role in preparing the ground for other players to step in;

• A well-managed public-private partnership can combine the best of public and private sector;

• Water utilities should be allowed to be profitable in order to encourage efficiency and proper maintenance of assets;

• Low tariffs do not help the poor unless they are connected to piped water first.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

25

Looking ahead It is said that the way we see the problem is the problem.

Seetharam Kallidaikurichi, Director of Singapore’s Institute of Water Policy (IWP) recalls how in the earlier years of his career, he spoke mainly about the ills afflicting the water sector – the lack of good governance, the absence of political will, the gaps in funding and the shortage of capacity. Now, he thinks differently.

operators around the world are helping to build capacity in myriad ways.

“What we need to do is to highlight the successful cases of water management, and there are many of them even in Asia,” explains Dr Seetharam. “The better performing utilities have gone through the learning curve and documenting their cases will enable the others to learn from them”. Thus, by establishing a community of good practices in water management, it is possible for utilities to pick and choose whichever model suits them best.

Meanwhile, the Singapore International Water Week this year witnessed the announcement of S$2.8 billion worth of investments, tenders and research agreements, up by 27% from last year. The event is bringing in performanceoriented people with a stake in urban water, who wish to usher in more efficiency into the sector. This year a wider audience was reached through the BBC World Debate on Water when some of the most relevant issues pertaining to water were highlighted by experts for worldwide dissemination.

An important step has been taken in this direction with the launch of the publication titled ‘Every Drop Counts: Learning from Good Practices in Eight Asian Cities’, during the water week.

Training programmes for senior water executives are ongoing and several partnerships between water

Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Yaacob Ibrahim announced the theme of the Singapore International Water Week 2011 as ‘Sustainable Water Solutions for a Changing Urban Environment’.

The Minister highlighted the

26 Blue Paper

importance of continued dialogues amongst stakeholders as one of the key strategies to tackle our future challenges.

Once again, it is hoped that people, well-versed in their water disciplines will engage in interesting discussions, strike sparks off each other and trigger new ideas for a water-secure world.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources

Institute of Water Policy -- Enhancing Thought Leadership through Research Excellence In line with its mission to promote thought leadership and to shape effective water policies, the Institute of Water Policy (IWP) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, supported the SIWW 2010 through a series of contributions designed to further enhance the Week’s take-away value.

As co-chair of the Water Leaders Summit Programme Committee, IWP provided strategic direction and shaped the Summit’s content.

IWP launched two books: Developing Living Cities: From Analysis to Action and the Index of Drinking Water Adequacy supporting the core themes of the SIWW. IWP organised the first-ever BBC World Debate on water bringing together a panel of water experts and a diverse international audience.

IWP hosted the second Global Water Policy Dialogue Research Seminar and a roundtable on Developing Living Cities. It showcased research on the Index of Drinking Water Adequacy; Asia Water Governance Index; Government-Corporate-Society Framework in Urban Water Management and a special presentation on water management in Japan.

Singapore International Water Week 2010

27

Acknowledgements The organizers of the Singapore International Water Week 2010 would like to thank the chairpersons and speakers of the Water Leaders Summit, our strategic partners, the International Desalination Association and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, as well as all the delegates for their kind contributions and participation in the discussion sessions. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions from Sahana Singh, Editor, Asian Water Magazine, Chong Su Li, Martin Stavenhagen, Edith Louise Tuazon Batac, Hnin Wut Yee and A.M.M. Adeeb from the Institute of Water Policy (IWP).

Singapore International Water Week and World Cities Summit Joint Opening Plenary “Sustainable Cities: Leadership and Governance” Chairperson: • PROF TOMMY KOH Chair of the Asia Pacific Water Forum Governing Council and Ambassador-At-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore Speaker: • DR HAN SEUNG SOO Ex Prime Minister of Republic of Korea and Honorary President of the Korea Water Forum • MRS ANNA KAJUMULO TIBAIJUKA UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN-HABITAT • HE DR JUMAA AHMED AL KAABI Minister of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture, Kingdom of Bahrain • DR NOELEEN HEYZER Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

28 Blue Paper

• MR HUANG QIFAN Mayor of Chongqing, China • MR WIM KUIJKEN Government Commissioner for the Delta Programme, the Netherlands • DR SADAYUKI SAKAKIBARA Chairman and CEO of Toray Industries Inc. • MR AMITABH KANT CEO & MD, Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC)

The Singapore Water Lecture Chairperson: • PROF KISHORE MAHBUBANI Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Speaker: • MR LI GUOYING Winner of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2010

Roundtable 1 – Good Governance for Water Sustainability Chairperson: • PROF MICHAEL ROUSE Independent International Consultant on Water Industry, UK Panelists: • MDM ERNA WITOELAR Vice Chair, Governing Council, Asia Pacific Water Forum • PROF THEO TOONEN Dean, Faculty of Technology, Policy, Governance & Management, Delft University of Technology • MR MONTAZAR MUHALHAL Executive Director of Corporate Strategy Planning Division, National Water Company, Saudi Arabia • MR PHILIP FLETCHER Chairman, OFWAT • MR UMESH NARAYAN PANJIAR Union Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, India

Roundtable 2 – Innovative Technology towards Clean and Affordable Water

Roundtable 3 – Sound Financing Strategies and Affordability of Water

Chairperson:

Chairperson:

• LORD RONALD OXBURGH Member, House of Lords, UK

• MR CHRISTOPHER GASSON Publisher, Global Water Intelligence

Panelists: • MR LEON AWERBUCH President, Leading Edge Technologies Ltd & Programme Chairman, International Desalination Association • MS GRETCHEN MCCLAIN Senior Vice President ITT Corporation and President ITT Fluid and Motion Control • MR CHARLES GORDON President and CEO, Siemens Water Technologies • DR KENJI MATSUMOTO Director-Board Member and Senior Corporate Vice President, Nitto Denko Corporation

Panelists: • MR STEVE BOLZE President, GE Power & Water • MR LUIS JUAN ORETA Chief Finance Officer, Manila Water • DR BINDU LOHANI Vice President, Asian Development Bank • MS OLIVIA LUM, Group CEO and President, Hyflux • MR HIROSHI WATANABE President and CEO, Japan Bank for International Cooperation

• DR ANDREW BENEDEK Chairman and CEO, Benedek Inc

Singapore International Water Week 2010

29