Credit: Bigstock

By Torgny Holmgren
STOCKHOLM, Mar 20 2018 (IPS)

Going into World Water Day, I have an ambivalent feeling. This year’s theme The Answer is in Nature can sound almost like mockery considering how badly parts of the world have been hit in recent years due to water-related natural disasters, be it floods, storms or droughts.

The relationship between humans and the rest of nature is not always easy. We have entered the Anthropocene – an era in which our species has emerged as a major force of nature. This is particularly visible in relation to water, where human interventions occur throughout the hydrological cycle: Change in land use alters evaporation which in turn can change atmospheric movements of moisture and cause droughts or floods in distant river basins.

Once on the ground, the fate of rainwater is largely determined by human activities, culture and infrastructure. Who gets how much water, and of what quality, often depends as much on human laws as it depends on the laws of nature.

And now we are supposed to look back at nature for answers? It might seem contradictory, but there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that, in this era of ‘alternative truths’, nature is a fact. It doesn’t budge, scare or care. The second thing to remember is that nature’s solutions are tried and tested over thousands of years.

Torgny Holmgren

The smart thing is to work with nature and learn as much as we can from it.  One important step in that direction is to guide the so called ‘human nature’ to align with the rest of nature. This is a matter of water governance, balancing our demands and activities against what nature can sustainably provide and withstand.

We cannot, for example, influence the frequency of hurricanes in the short term, but by restoring or retaining spongy surfaces in and around cities we can decrease the risk of storms resulting in flooding.

Green spaces in a city can also help to capture rain and allow infiltration. Paving over the saw-grass prairie around Houston reduced the city’s ability to absorb the water that hurricane Harvey brought in August 2017.

In Singapore, green spaces have become a vital tool for capturing rainfall. Ranked as one of the most water-stressed countries in the world 2015, the city-state is turning into a poster town for urban water management, partly because of its decision to invest in expanding urban greenery.

A wonderful thing about these green infrastructure solutions is that they are inherently multi-functional. City parks capture rain, but they also boost quality of life, improve the city’s microclimate and often look good doing so.

Another great feature is that green infrastructure solutions are often much more resilient. They tend to bend under pressure, rather than break, and they can repair themselves and restore their functionality even after significant damage.

The smart thing is to work with nature and learn as much as we can from it. One important step in that direction is to guide the so called ‘human nature’ to align with the rest of nature. This is a matter of water governance, balancing our demands and activities against what nature can sustainably provide and withstand.

Around the world, we have long acted under the assumption that grey infrastructure, purpose-built by humans, is superior to what nature itself can bring us in the form of mangroves, marshes and meadows. To some extent and under certain circumstances it may well be.

Grey infrastructure in the form of dams, levees, pipes and canals, are very efficient at fulfilling a single purpose, such as transporting water. Storing water in liquid form against the pull of gravity high up in a catchment for power production isn’t what nature does best.

Although trees have an incredible system for extracting soil moisture from the ground and lifting it – sometimes a hundred meters up-  pumps and pipes are unmatched when it comes to supplying residents of the top floors of high-rises with water.

The point is that it isn’t a question of either/or. We need both green or grey, and we need to be wise in choosing what serves our current and potential future set of purposes best. To make sure that this deliberation takes place, we need governance systems that help us by posing the right questions and by incentivizing behaviours that align individual desires with societal good.

In addition to the current governance systems, increasing water variability with more frequent and intense extreme water events requires us to plan more for the unexpected. It may become necessary to have parallel water governance strategies: one that guides us in times when water availability is close to the historical normal and one that helps us get through times that are abnormally wet or dry.

Water management in the Anthropocene will require smart combinations of green and grey infrastructure. Technology and infrastructure to manage water is desperately neededto enablehuman and economic growth and development. It is needed to service people and businesses with the right amount of water at the right time and of the right quality.

But inorganic infrastructure solutions are often inflexible making them less suitable in changing environments and increasingly uncertain times. Nature and ecosystems can offer softer, more malleable solutions.

Biotechnology offers an illustrating example of working with nature: by creating suitable conditions for the kind of microorganisms that carry out functions that we are after, we can make water treatment more efficient and transform a pollution problem into valuable resources. Finding the right physical structures that match the microbes demands, and the desired difference in quality between incoming and outgoing water requires knowledge, skills and patience.

Here lies the crux of the matter. The wonderful diversity in ecosystems, in political preferences, and in the way water varies within and between years, makes it impossible to pinpoint a singleright balance between grey and green.

Managing water will always be as much about politics as it is about physics.If we can manage it, the payback will come in the form of reliable, rich and resilient lives and livelihoods for all of us.

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Bellandur Lake, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Credit: SIWI

By Torgny Holmgren
STOCKHOLM, Mar 21 2017 (IPS)

Water is a finite resource. With a growing population, an expanding global middle class and a rise in energy and industrial production, the demand for water is reaching new levels. According to the OECD, global demand for freshwater will increase by 55 percent between 2000 and 2050. By 2050 it is expected that roughly 6.4 billion people will live in cities, making urban water management an essential building block for resilience and sustainable growth.

A growing number of users with competing demands further propels the issue of global water scarcity. A variable climate with unpredictable precipitation patterns intensifies this issue. It is now more important than ever to find ways to be more careful with the water we have and to better balance competing water needs between different users.

The good news is that we know we can be far more efficient in our use of water, and many actors, such as cities already are.

At SIWI, we believe that a circular economy in which water is reused and waste is managed as an economic asset are important parts of the solution to this challenge.

By 2050 it is expected that roughly 6.4 billion people will live in cities, making urban water management an essential building block for resilience and sustainable growth.
The opportunities for exploiting wastewater are enormous. When properly harnessed, wastewater is an affordable and sustainable source of water, energy, nutrients and other consumables. This is one of the many reasons why the theme of the world’s leading annual event on water and development – World Water Week in Stockholm – is ‘Water and waste: reduce and reuse’.

The Week will address the challenges presented by two ambitious targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Goal 6, target 3:
“by 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally”

Goal 12, target 5:
“by 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse”.

These are just two of the 169 SDG targets, that along with the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the annual Global Risk Report by the World Economic Forum, highlight our challenge to achieve sustainable development in a changing world.

Water is a great connector and is at the core of sustainable development. It is the ‘blue thread’ that runs through the SDGs – without reliable access to water almost none of the Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved.

In recent years, business leaders and city mayors have become more engaged in water and sustainable development, becoming important partners in achieving a water wise world.

Torgny Holmgren

Cities are increasingly recognized as critical to achieving the SDGs. They are the frontline for institutional, economic and social change; they are the future for humanity and the stage upon which the SDGs will unfold.

While wastewater isn’t only an urban challenge, cities can serve as a hub for wastewater innovation as they present some of the greatest wastewater challenges. Challenges from sewage management, stormwater runoff and urban flooding are further exaggerated by intensified urbanization and climate change.

Water supply, sanitation and stormwater are integral components of the urban water system, yet they are often not planned or operated in an integrated way. Viewing them as a single system can greatly enhance the utility of water, both in the context of everyday use and under stress.

This calls for new approaches to ‘smart cities’, with greater emphasis on integrated urban water and wastewater management, with stronger links to spatial planning and inter-institutional collaboration.

Success in urban water management relies on people, good governance and cross-sectoral collaboration. World Water Week offers a place for addressing this by bringing together scientists, policy makers, and private sector and civil society actors to network, exchange ideas and foster new thinking. I invite you to join SIWI at World Water Week, 27 August – 1 September, to help develop expertise and discuss today’s biggest water-related issues.

Torgny Holmgren is Executive Director at Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)

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By Torgny Holmgren
STOCKHOLM, Oct 30 2014 (IPS)

It demands repetition: water is a precondition for all life. It keeps us alive – literally – while being a prerequisite for or integral part of most of our daily activities. Think hospitals without water, think farms, energy producers, industries, schools and homes without our most needed resource. All sectors, without exception, are dependent on water.

The 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos reported that water security is one of the most tangible and rapidly growing current global challenges. But: water is a finite resource. And along with more people entering the middle class, a growing global population, and rapid urbanisation, comes an increased demand for freshwater.

Courtesy of SIWI.

More food needs to be grown, more energy needs to be produced, industries must be kept running, and more people will afford, and expect, running water and flushing toilets in their homes.

Global demand for freshwater is, according to OECD, projected to grow by 55 per cent between 2000 and 2050. These demands will force us to manage water far more wisely in the future.

However, how to manage water is still a luxury problem for the two billion people in the world who still lack access to clean drinking water. Without clean water you cannot safely quench your thirst, prepare food, or maintain a basic level of personal hygiene, much less consider any kind of personal or societal development.

In addition to being a breeding ground for diseases and human suffering, as seen during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa, a lack of water keeps girls from school and women from productive work. On a larger scale, it keeps societies and economies from developing.

Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is firmly advocating for a dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on Water in the Post-2015 development agenda. A water goal needs to address several key aspects of human development. It is needed for health.By 2050, business-as-usual will mean two billion smallholder farmers, key managers and users of rainwater, eking out a living at the mercy of rainfall that is even less reliable than today due to climate change.

In addition to the two billion people lacking access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. One billion people are still forced to practice open defecation. On the positive side, every dollar invested in water and sanitation equals an average return of four dollars in increased productivity.

A dedicated water goal is needed for sustainable growth. The manufacturing industry’s demand for water in the BRICS countries is expected to grow eight times between 2000 and 2050. Water scarcity and unreliability pose significant risks to all economic activity. Poorly managed water causes serious social and economic challenges, but if managed well can actually be a source of prosperity.

A water goal is needed for agriculture. Today, 800 million people are undernourished. In combination with a growing population’s dietary needs, it is projected that by 2050, 60 per cent more food will be needed as compared to 2005.

How to grow more food, without having access to more water, is a potent challenge. In a recent Declaration, SIWI’s Professor Malin Falkenmark, along with Professor Johan Rockström of Stockholm Resilience Centre and other world-renowned water, environment and resilience scientists and experts, said that better management of rain is key to eradicating hunger and poverty.

They said they are “deeply concerned that sustainable management of rainwater in dry and vulnerable regions is missing in the goals and targets proposed by the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals on Poverty, Hunger and Freshwater.”

By 2050, the scientists said, business-as-usual will mean two billion smallholder farmers, key managers and users of rainwater, eking out a living at the mercy of rainfall that is even less reliable than today due to climate change. Setting out to eradicate global poverty and hunger without addressing the productivity of rain is a serious and unacceptable omission.

The proposed SDGs cannot be achieved without a strong focus on sustainable management of rainwater for resilient food production in tropical and subtropical drylands, said the scientists.

An SDG for water is needed for energy.

Today, an estimated 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity. Most of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 90 per cent of global power generation is water intensive. To be able to deliver sustainable energy globally, we must manage our water resources more efficiently.

We need a water goal for our climate. Climate change over the 21st century is projected to reduce renewable surface water and groundwater resources significantly in most dry, sub-tropical regions. Climate change is also projected to reduce raw water quality and pose risks to drinking water quality, even with conventional treatment.

Floods, droughts and windstorms are the most frequently occurring natural disasters and account for almost 90 per cent of the most destructive events since 1990. Wise water management that builds on ecosystem-based approaches is essential for building resilience and combatting adverse impact from climate change.

I believe that the adoption of a dedicated SDG for water will help avoid fragmented and incoherent solutions, and contribute to a fairer handling of any competition between different water users.

I believe that water also needs to be addressed and integrated into other SDGs, in particular those addressing food security, energy, climate and health. These areas must then be integrated in a water goal. There is an urgent need for reciprocity. We simply cannot afford to disregard water’s centrality in all human activity.

2015 will put the world to the test. Are we willing to commit to and act upon goals and targets that are necessary to accomplish a future for all? This question needs to be answered, not only by politicians and decision makers, but by us all. Water, as we have shown, plays an important role in securing the future we want. And the future we want is a joint effort.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

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