Water

Coping with Water Scarcity
A Challenge for the 21st Century
March 2007

When Gandhi said that the earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed, did he include water in his equation?

The UN reported that the 21st century will see dramatic changes in the availability of water, with “water scarcity” becoming a household term. Global water use is already growing at twice the rate of population growth. And climate change is expected to raise the stakes, accounting for 20 percent of the global increase in water scarcity. Recognizing the severity of the issue, German Chancellor and G8 President Angela Merkel has pledged that the G8 summit will again focus on climate change when it meets in June 2007.

Water is a shared responsibility, said UN Water, the group of water-related UN agencies, in their message to mark World Water Day 2007. This year’s focus is on coping with water scarcity. According to their definition, water scarcity occurs whenever the ways in which we use and distribute water cannot fully meet the demands from households, farms, industry, and the environment.

The African Development Bank used World Water Day 2007 to underline the need for higher investments in water services to alleviate the shortages. Although Africa only uses 4% of its renewable freshwater resources to date, the continent’s development is already scarred by water scarcity and climate change. Asia, in comparison, uses 15 percent of its renewable water resources, with countries like Pakistan using over 72 percent, India 34 percent, and the People’s Republic of China 20 percent, according to estimates of the Pacific Institute. In the drier regions within these countries, the rate of water use is much higher.

The Asian Development Bank marked World Water Day with a conference on increasing water investments in Viet Nam, one of the target countries of its Water Financing Program 2006-2010. Speaking at the conference in Hanoi, government analysts showed that water demand will soon outstrip supply in the Cau river basin in the Northern region, with more basins expected to follow the same trend in the coming years.

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Meanwhile, the impacts of climate change are by no means limited to the developing world. North America, Europe and Australia are also feeling the heat. Australia’s drought has brought water to the top of the national agenda. And in Europe, a series of unprecedented floods have become regular front page news. A 2006 study by the UK Meteorological Office was quoted by the UN as concluding that, with no mitigation of climate change, the severe droughts that now occur only once in every 50 years will occur every other year by 2100.

Inspired by the work of the International Panel on Climate Change, the world community now recognizes that rising sea levels, rapid melting of glaciers, and frequency and ferocity of recent typhoons, floods, and droughts are evidence of climate change that will impact on development in the 21st century. Developing countries and poor communities are likely to be hit first and hardest.

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Armed with such forecasts, experts around the world have sounded alarms that water scarcity will become a cause of conflict in the 21st century. Others, however, share a more positive vision that water scarcity will bring about better cooperation among water users at all levels. Speaking five years ago at ADB’s first Water Week in 2002, then ADB President Chino said in a landmark speech that the water crisis is essentially a crisis of water governance, and that ADB’s Water for All policy is therefore governance-oriented.

This view was echoed by 2006 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Asit Biswas when he visited ADB recently. The next 20 years, he said, would see unprecedented changes in how the world uses water. Improving water governance was key, he continued, arguing that Asia is now taking the lead in developing solutions that work. He quoted examples of policy and leadership that have pushed nonrevenue water below 10 percent in Phnom Penh and Singapore.

In Viet Nam, the conference participants seemed to agree with Professor Biswas’ views when they emphasized the need for the government and ADB to invest in developing human capacity as well as water infrastructure. And that sentiment was shared when the management of Hanoi’s reputed water resources university met with ADB’s team led by Urooj Malik to propose a complete overhaul of the university’s program and facilities. The current curriculum, they said, was no longer adequate to meet Viet Nam’s requirements for water management in the 21st century.

At ADB’s Water Community of Practice Catchment Series in March 2007, Ramon Alikpala of the Philippines’ National Water Resources Board paid tribute to Manila Water Company for turning government employees into Employees of the Year. The company’s nonrevenue water has come down from 62 percent in 1997 to 30 percent today. Indeed, investing in people lies at the heart of coping with water scarcity in the 21st century.

*Wouter Lincklaen Arriens is the Lead Water Resources Specialist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Since 1994, he has coordinated ADB’s work to support its member countries in water policies, reforms, knowledege management, capacity development, and regional cooperation. He serves as ADB spokesperson for water work, and recently coordinated the preparation of ADB’s Water Financing Program 2006-2010, which seeks to double investments and results in rural and urban water services and water resources management in river basins. In this column, Wouter contributes his thoughts on water challenges and solution strategies in the Asia-Pacific region.