Lend a hand for the future

Proclaiming 2013 as the “International Year of Water Cooperation”, the United Nations seeks to promote action at all levels and raise awareness of water cooperation. 

“The importance of water cooperation lies in the fact that water is a cross-cutting issue which demands attention at all levels and across sectors. Water cooperation will be a cornerstone to achieving the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], and ensuring ‘water security’ and a sustainable future. Consequently, the 2013 International Year on Water Cooperation calls on leaders to bring water to centre stage, acting as the basis in which to establish stronger ties between nations, states and communities,” the international body said.

Some good examples of cooperation have been unveiled to the world, including the effort to revitalise the water resources for the Indian city of Bangalore. 

The third most populous city in India and home to 10 million people, Bangalore currently draws about 1.4 billion litres per day of water from the Cauvery River, which meets just over half the city’s needs. The remainder is drawn from fast-depleting groundwater resources, the quality of which is also deteriorating. 

Decades of failure to protect lakes around the river were followed by corrupt forces encroaching on the lakes for real estate, while gross administrative neglect contaminated them, resulting in the prevailing dismal state of affairs. 

Now, however, community-government-corporate action is under way, under the supervision of the judiciary, to rehabilitate the condition of these crucial water sources.

The “Asian Water Development Outlook”, released earlier this month, echoes the need for cooperation. Created by the Asia-Pacific Water Forum and the Asian Development Bank, the publication estimates that the entire region needs US$59 billion (Bt1.72 trillion) in investments for water supply and $71 billion for improved sanitation, to ensure water security in five dimensions, including sufficient supplies for household use and resilience to natural disasters. 

But, these goals could be missed without water governance. 

“Leaders of government, the increasingly dynamic private sector, and the region’s diverse and resourceful civil society are the gatekeepers of a water-secure future in Asia and the Pacific. They set the pace of reforms and signal the urgency of the transformation through their own leadership styles and visions for a water-secure society. 

“They have the proven potential to drive and expedite changes in the water sector – changes that have profound effects on the lives and livelihoods of millions of individuals and on the economies of Asia and the Pacific. These leaders must raise the standard and demonstrate their confidence and their commitment to taking on the challenge of maintaining water security,” the report said.

What leaders can do

The report sets out 12 areas in which leaders can achieve crucial results:

1: Make the best use of already developed water resources by investing in and incentivising “reduce, reuse, recycle” systems.

2: Unlock the performance of water utilities through corporatisation. Helping water utilities to corporatise will increase their autonomy and accountability. These are key success factors for improving performance through better water governance and for attracting much-needed financing to expand networks and improve the quality and sustainability of water services.

3: Invest in better sanitation to boost health, productivity and the economy. Investing $1 in clean water and comprehensive sanitation from toilet to river can unlock as much as $8–$12 in health and economic benefits.

4: Mobilise rural communities for equitable and just access to water and sanitation. Make water everybody’s business by promoting local collective action in rural communities to reverse an alarming trend of widening inequitable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation. Social justice for poor and vulnerable groups will enable such groups to benefit from investment in water and sanitation projects.

5: Embrace the challenge of the water–food–energy nexus. Water, food and energy are inextricably linked. Setting clear productivity targets will reduce withdrawals by food and energy producers.

6: Start managing groundwater as a valuable and limited resource.

7: Revitalise irrigation institutions for transformation of irrigation services. Adopting service-oriented irrigation will deliver better results from public investments in medium- to large-scale irrigation systems. Improved irrigation performance in small- to medium-scale systems may be better achieved through collective management by system users. It is time to implement more responsive institutional models in irrigation operations, maintenance and management.

8: Make integrated water resources management a priority. Integrated management approaches enable basin managers to better allocate resources among sectors and users to support economic development, ecosystem services and biodiversity critical to river-basin health.

9: Mobilise additional resources to clean up rivers. Of the region’s rivers, 80 per cent are classified as being in poor health. Public investment, supplemented by increased involvement of private-sector entities and market-based approaches, can promote reduced pollution and finance the restoration of rivers to good health. Experience in the region has shown that $1 invested in a river restoration programme can return more than $4 in benefits.

10: Forewarned is forearmed. Invest more in systems for disaster alerts.

11: Create insurance mechanisms to minimise reliance on disaster relief.

12: New problems demand institutions crafted for current challenges. Governments must ensure that the institutions and organisations responsible for water resources and services are best matched to the emerging challenges of increasing water scarcity and the growing uncertainties due to increasing population, changing lifestyles and climate change.

“National policies will need to take a holistic approach to water governance so that socioeconomic goals can be achieved,” the report said. 

“Leaders in Asia and the Pacific today have unprecedented access to information, knowledge, technology and funding resources to tackle water security with an integrated approach and to support development paths that are appropriate to local conditions. It is imperative and urgent that renewed efforts are applied to address immediate water challenges while balancing today’s needs with those of future generations. Adopting an inclusive strategy that draws on all sectors of society will enable all, including poor and vulnerable communities, to benefit from a water-secure future.”