Water as a victim and driver of the climate crisis: A call for collective action at scale

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Water as a victim and driver of the climate crisis: A call for collective action at scale

Humanity faces a looming water crisis, that is exacerbated by climate change. Here, Maitreyee Mukherjee and Cecilia Tortajada make a plea for urgency on how water is valued and governed across countries. Too often water is only considered as a local problem whereas they make the case that water needs to be framed as a global common good, and its governance must cut across multiple dimensions.

The recently launched report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW, 2024), warns of a looming global water crisis, something that is often overlooked in discussions on climate change. The GCEW report was conducted by leading scientists and economists. It draws on a comprehensive review of the state of the global hydrological systems and water resources management practices. The report’s key findings highlight the transboundary inter-connectedness of water through green and blue water cycles, and how a growing imbalance is adversely affecting global food security, economies, eco-systems, social equity, public health, and international politics.

While the report recommends viewing hydrological systems as a global common good, it must be kept in mind that water has been historically treated as a local resource. Water has also been the centre point of several cross-border disputes over human history. This narrative must be rephrased such that water governance is a subject of global collective response, while being prioritised in national agendas for local action.

Connecting water across SDGs, local contexts, national and regional scales

Given its importance and the growing threat, it faces, we call for an urgent shift in how water is valued and governed across countries. First, policymakers need to realise the cross-cutting implications of water across all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, Eckert et al. 2023). Water sits at the heart of the global efforts to tackle climate change and biodiversity losses. By prioritising good governance for water, governments can ensure progress across several indicators in their respective national development objectives as well as Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets. This also creates an opportunity to connect local water governance best practices with global outcomes for SDGs and climate action.

Water is considered as a local problem, but governance tools are often grafted from external best practice cases, without considering the local socio-economic and political contexts. This leads to failed outcomes resulting in mismanagement of water resources, inequitable access, and ecological degradation. By developing evidence based customised solutions to address local water issues, policymakers can generate both impacts and confidence for governments to scale up regionally.

China has launched a broader systematic ecological approach since 2016, combining water governance with regional socio-economic development. Its River Chief system empowers local governments to collectively implement national policies while linking them to performance indicators for the respective government officers (World Bank, 2018). This approach has shown results, by motivating government officials to take ownership of the local water management programs as part of their professional development portfolio.

Autonomy promotes efficient governance

The very cross-cutting nature of water as essential for the welfare of people and the planet, gives rise to institutional challenges like defining clear-cut jurisdictional boundaries or creating convincing business models. To address this, water managers need both authority and autonomy to design innovative ‘fit-for-purpose’ policy tools that suit local needs, while paving the way for regional and global cooperation in knowledge sharing, capacity building and finance opportunities.

Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority from southeast Asia represents an outstanding example of this. It transformed from bankruptcy to an award-winning water utility in 17 years. Through stable leadership, long-term visions, transparent policy plans and internal capacity building, it has achieved remarkable success in water provision and services (Biswas, et al., 2022). Further, through an excellent track record of implementing its master plans, the utility has maintained investor confidence, ensuring steady finance sources for its infrastructure expansion projects. The city is now focusing on developing a comprehensive plan for wastewater management and climate resilience.

Pricing water, recognising its true economic value, would make water utilities financially viable. Governments often tend to subsidise water excessively, leaving water utilities fund deficient for carrying out any long-term plans. Several urban utilities (Singapore, Phnom Penh and Manila) have shown that pricing water adeptly is politically feasible and well accepted by the public, when it ensures adequate revenue generation, improved services and equitable access through cross-subsidies.

The centrality of water across sectoral policies

The interconnectedness of water must also be acknowledged in national policy plannings. Water cuts across all sectors, from agriculture, energy, environment, industry, public health, transport and more. Hence, a visionary leadership would recognise its importance and ensure that all sectoral policies are aligned with the national and local water governance frameworks.

Since its formation, Singapore has identified water as an integral part of its national security strategy (comprising geo-political, socio-economic and climate related risks) (Tortajada et al., 2013). This has resulted in the city-state undertaking a long-term planning approach in water, considering not only the risk perception of failing to ensure water security, but also the opportunities (new businesses, employment generation, SDG achievement) arising from adapting governance tools and emerging technologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in water resources management.

These initiatives include diversifying water sources to reduce dependence on cross-border supplies, showcasing agility and flexibility to experiment with emerging technologies in the water sector, such as pioneering water reuse uptake, investing in energy efficient desalination technologies, along with digital integration to promote evidence-based water demand management and improved customer services. Being a low-lying island state, the nation is also pro-actively engaging in coastal flood resilience through a mixed approach of developing flood-resilient infrastructure, nature-based solutions and public awareness.

Data-driven water governance can transform urban water resources management. Seamless data access enabled through cloud connected smart meters, can engage consumers effectively, while empowering utilities to take informed management decisions. Simultaneously, mandating water-related disclosures in corporate sustainability reporting, would incentivise businesses to invest in water efficiency.

Collective action at scale

Transformative solutions for managing water resources are available, but scaling those need policy certainty, funding, private sector participation, knowledge transfer and capacity building. But these won’t happen organically. Given the urgency of the state of the art of global hydrological systems, as highlighted by the GCEW report, there is no time for experimental trial and error approach. Hence countries need to accelerate adopting solutions through a global collaborative framework that sets a common platform for just, equitable, and efficient water governance practices.

The concept of water as a common good is well-established. In Governing the Commons , Elinor Ostrom explored how communities manage shared resources, such as irrigation water, through negotiation, institutions, and participatory approach. Likewise, an eminent global water crisis exacerbated by climate change requires collective action at scale. The global hydrological cycle interconnected through food systems, economies and climate threat, must now be treated as a global common good , with coordinated policies, actions, and multi-level (local, regional, global), cross sectoral collaborations.

Summing up, shifting from the narrative of considering water as a local problem, to water as a global common good would be challenging. Hence, innovative, unconventional approaches are necessary to ensure that clean water remains available for both people and nature in a climate-compromised world in the future.

References

Biswas AK, P Sachdeva & C Tortajada (2021). Phnom Penh Water Story: Remarkable Transformation of an Urban Water Utility . Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4065-7

Eckert M, R Gupta & CP Hue (2023). Water is central in achieving all 17 SDGs. But how? Stockholm International Water Institute, News. Available at: https://siwi.org/latest/water-is-central-in-achieving-all-17-sdgs-but-how/  (accessed 06/11/2024)

Global Commission on the Economics of Water, GCEW (2024). The economics of Water. Valuing the hydrological cycle as a global common good. Available at: https://watercommission.org/  (accessed 06/11/2024)

Tortajada C, Y Joshi & AK Biswas (2013). The Singapore Water Story: Sustainable Development in an Urban City State . London: Routledge.

World Bank (2018). Watershed: A New Era of Water Governance in China — Synthesis Report. World Bank, Washington, DC.

Maitreyee Mukherjee , Research Fellow, Centre for Water Policy, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Cecilia Tortajada , Professor in Practice, School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, UK, and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

This article was published by GLOBAL WATER FORUM, December 5, 2024.

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