Remarks by Ahmed M. Saeed, ADB Vice-President, Operations 2, at the Asia International Water Week, 14 March 2022
Your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning, afternoon, or evening in all cases a very good day to you all. On behalf of the Asian Development Bank, it is my pleasure to join you at the Asia Water Ministers Meeting being held as part of the 2022 Asia International Water Week.
As the world recovers from the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, I would like to speak to you today on a topic that is both globally significant and personally very important —the importance of building water security to support a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery.
Water security in Asia and the Pacific
Water is the foundation of all life on Earth, necessary for healthy ecosystems, social wellbeing, economic growth, and for everything that we hold dear. Water is connected to each and every one of the Sustainable Development Goals, and it is of course central to climate adaptation.
As reported by ADB’s Asian Water Development Outlook 2020, water security is gradually improving across the Asia Pacific region. But this improvement comes from a low base, a half billion people across the region are still without access to even basic water supplies and over 1.1 billion lack access to sanitation. About 80% of wastewater generated by cities is discharged untreated into water bodies.
Four out of five people affected by natural hazards globally live in developing Asia. Between years 2000 and 2018, the region accounted for 55% of the global disaster death toll and 26% of global damage. On average, over 20 million people a year are forced out of their homes by extreme weather. Weather-related events are the cause of almost all disaster displacements in 2020—98% to be precise. These range from intense floods and cyclones to typhoons and monsoon rains. They affected most the highly exposed and densely populated areas.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The impact of COVID–19 in Asia and the Pacific has been nothing less than devastating. It underscored the underlying drivers of vulnerability, including poverty, limited social safety nets, weak health systems, social exclusion, and structural gender inequality. ADB has estimated that relative to a ‘no-COVID’ scenario, an additional 75-80 million people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, delaying the path on poverty reduction by 2 years.
This pandemic has reminded us of the critical role that water plays in maintaining public health, and the need to double down on efforts toward universal access to water and sanitation—especially for vulnerable, marginalized and disadvantaged groups.
Climate change risks
As highlighted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent 6th Assessment Report, climate change is intensifying the water cycle, meaning that we can expect more extreme rainfall, as well as worse drought. Every increment of global warming is likely to increase damages from water-related extreme events. Around 60% of adaptation interventions to deal with climate change impacts are in response to water-related hazards such as floods, droughts, rainfall variability and depletion of groundwater resources. Adaptation to climate change is about building water resilience.
Building a resilient and water secure Asia and Pacific
Water plays a central role in ADB’s climate adaptation strategy. As we all know, water is the primary medium through which we feel the climate and through which we feel climate change.
ADB’s investments in water will contribute to achieving our Strategy 2030 and its related operational priorities, each of which are linked to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
As part of our effort to support a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery across the region, water sector investments will prioritize long-term resilience through nature-based solutions, resource recovery, adoption of digital and innovative technologies, addressing underlying vulnerabilities, and importantly promoting inclusiveness. Efforts will also be made to harness greater levels of private sector financing to help fill sector financing gaps. We expect ADB’s investments in the water sector in the coming 3 years to remain at over $10 billion. We will accomplish this both through our loan and technical assistance support. And it will also include planning institutional and policy reforms to strengthen water sector governance.
ADB will continue to expand the ambition and impact of our operations, particularly in climate financing. In 2021, ADB elevated our ambition to deliver climate financing to $100 billion before 2030, with $66 billion targeted for climate mitigation finance and $34 billion for scaling-up transformative adaptation projects and enhanced resilience. With cofinancing, this figure should be much higher. We will also ensure that by 2030 at least three-quarters of our projects address climate change mitigation and adaptation.
We will identify options for scaling up resource mobilization and cofinancing while fostering partnerships with development partners, philanthropies, foundations and companies, and aligning with the G20 Principles on Quality Infrastructure Investment.
Resilience through nature-based solutions
Nature-based solutions, sometimes referred to by the catchy acronym NBS, contribute to climate change resilience primarily through flexibility and adaptability, and they deliver multiple benefits across many sectors. In Asia and the Pacific, rapid urbanization and population growth are forcing governments in the water sector to consider NBS a core ingredient to creating healthy, resilient, and livable cities. For example, the ‘sponge cities’ concept promotes the use of planned and protected urban green spaces in order to reduce flood risk and better manage water resources, while also making urban areas greener.
Equally important is nature loss and other powerful destabilizing factor. That is why ADB supports Nature-Positive Investments. We are developing knowledge about natural capital and nature-based solutions. We apply natural capital accounting to help our planning and investment decision-making processes so we can create financially sustainable projects for biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. At the same time, we support our members significantly scale up green and blue financing.
Resilience through digital technologies
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments have prioritized the digital economy to improve innovation and inclusion, and to build resilience of both assets and communities. Acceleration of digital transformation, including within the water sector, has been unprecedented as a result. In fact, it’s been found that utilities that start digital programs before the pandemic, have been more resilient as technologies adopted enabled practices such as remote monitoring of operations.
As water demands increase in the face of growing water scarcities, increasing use of digitalization, Internet-Of-Things-based monitoring and big data tools such as artificial intelligence will be critical in ensuring water security through better water management practices.
We are supporting many technology start-ups in emerging markets. These will continue to evolve, and we hope to provide cost effective and suitable solutions for developing Asia.
Resilience through crowding-in private sector financing
To achieve universal access to improved water and sanitation across the region, projections indicate that most countries in Asia Pacific will need to allocate between 1 and 2% of annual GDP to water supply and sanitation infrastructure over the period between 2015 and 2030. Irrigation investment needs could vary between 0.05 to 0.25% of annual GDP between the same time period, depending on scenarios and subregions.
Asian countries rely almost exclusively on public investment for water infrastructure investments. However, this will be insufficient to fund the huge gap in water infrastructure. Unlike other development sectors such as energy, transport and communication, investments in the water sector can be less financially viable, even though they are necessary for national development and the social and economic benefits that result, such as improved public health and environmental quality. As a result, the private sector has not yet taken sufficient interest in investing in the water sector.
Closing
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me emphasize in closing the fundamental role that water plays in building climate change resilience in helping us all achieve the SDGs—our shared global objectives. As we enter the post-pandemic recovery phase, we need to continue to promote investment in water infrastructure and in disaster risk reduction and preparedness. In these uncertain times, ADB will continue to look for new ways to build a foundation of stability and prosperity through water security. Let us continue to work together to achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future for Asia and the Pacific.
Thank you for the privilege of being with you today.