Blog: We need action on global water resilience challenges

Inspired by World Water Day, David Smith, chief strategy officer for MWH Global, is calling on companies and countries to do more to improve water resilience. He says lack of action now will not only damage our economies and well-being but that of future generations.

Almost all human activity, from growing wheat and catching fish to powering industries and communities, has water at its base. Today, around one-third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed areas and 1.8 billion people still drink unsafe water. Plus, severe flooding and drought is occurring more often, with more devastating effects all over the world

These challenges illustrate why ‘water crises’ have remained in the top ten of global leaders’ priorities for several years. Similarly, global leaders at the 2016 World Economic Forum (WEF) put ‘climate change mitigation and adaption’ as their top risk in terms of impact on people and countries with ‘water crises’ third. Further, ‘water crises’ is the number 1 global risk of highest concern to global leaders over the next 10 years.

This echoes World Water Day’s 2016 focus on ‘how water can change workers’ lives and livelihoods – and even transform societies and economies’. They say almost half the world’s workers (1.5 billion people) work in water related sectors and nearly all their jobs depend on water and its safe delivery. This highlights the importance of creating water resilience to counter drought in the world’s most productive farmlands and bring health through safe drinking water to the billions of people still without access.

The hydrologic system is tied to climate, and climate change will profoundly affect water security worldwide. Global Risks 2016 report says that the nexus of water, food, energy and climate change “is one of the overarching megatrends that will shape the world in 2030.” According to the United Nations worst-case projections, ‘engulfing rains or deep droughts’ could slash crop yields by 25 per cent by 2050.

But it’s not all doom and gloom

Huge advances in meeting the global resilience challenge are creating real optimism. For example, new technologies, use of digital real time systems, precision agriculture, water reuse, cheap desalination, nanotechnology, and ‘at-tap’ treatment systems could all be game changers.

If we could introduce more efficient ‘precision agriculture’ to monitor, automate and manage water usage huge reductions could be made. For example: linking to weather reports, so fields are not irrigated when rain is expected would have a massive impact on agricultural water usage – which uses around 70 per cent of all global water. Similarly, imagine if we could create a low energy, inexpensive solution to desalinate sea-water?

Cities could be the catalyst for change

Cities populations continue to grow and coastal mega-cities are forming which are more vulnerable to climate change extremes and intense human activity. But these mega-cities may drive the innovations and new behaviours we need to tackle water resilience.

MWH technical director and sustainability expert Adrian Johnson believes the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change could be the catalyst for improved water resilience and reduced water-related energy use in our cities. “Cities and urban areas have the most intensive water demands and are most exposed to the impacts of water-related risks – floods and droughts. Many are now driving change towards more resilient water services and a lower carbon future.”

Positive Action

The challenge is to provide clean drinking water and sanitation for our increasing global populations alongside the pressures of climate change.

Australia’s most important river basin, the Murray-Darling is an example of an effective solution. It provides water for two million people and 40 per cent of the country’s agriculture. Their long drought, which ended late in the 2000s, forced water managers to rework the water allocation system for farmers, cities, and ecosystems. Less water was made available for farmers and more was set aside to maintain the health of the river. Leaders took difficult political decisions to abandon traditional management practices in favour of data-based decisions and scientific merit resulting in the world’s most advanced system for analysing water flows in a river basin.

Companies, NGOs and governments are now working together to protect water, design more resilient cities and improve efficiency. Water withdrawals in the United States peaked in 1980 and have trended downward ever since. Australian cities, after their devastating drought cut water consumption by as much as 40 per cent. Effective water, sanitation and health programmes in developing countries are saving lives and building better futures for families.

But more is needed. Failing to act now would be a tragedy for future generations. World leaders are right – water crises present one of the top risks to our global security and the health and sustainability of our people and planet. We need to work together across borders, governments and politics to share knowledge and innovative solutions. It can be done and we all need to play our part.