Amman, Cape Town, Mexico City, Greater Miami and the Beaches, and Hull were selected because they represent the range of water challenges facing cities around the world. With the exception of Hull, each city is a member of 100 Resilient Cities–pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation.

“More than 60 percent of the applicants to 100 Resilient Cities identified water as a chief risk–either having too much or too little of it,” Andrew Salkin, Senior Vice President of City Solutions at 100 Resilient Cities, told The Source. “We’ve seen the extreme disruption that can accompany a city’s operations. Adding a resilience lens to water management is therefore an essential component of addressing chronic stresses and/or quickly responding to acute shocks. Resilience thinking keeps large threats like hurricanes or sea level rise in mind when planning, zoning, and investing on an ongoing basis.”

The cities were selected because of their diversity in terms of population size, geographic location and economic status, as well as their commitment to taking a strategic approach to resilience.

As part of this partnership, the project will explore each city’s specific water concerns through field research and stakeholder interviews. Data and findings will be used to establish qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure city water resilience, for use in any city anywhere. The resulting City Water Resilience Framework will be a global standard for water resilience, which enables cities to diagnose challenges related to water and utilise that information to inform planning and investment decisions.

“A changing climate coupled with rapid urbanisation is increasing the frequency of water related crises facing cities,” said Mark Fletcher, Arup Global Water Leader. “Increasingly, unpredictable rainfall, flooding and droughts are impacting cities across their water cycle. By understanding a wide range of issues, being played out in different contexts, we will be able to help all cities to understand how to assess the risks they are facing, and how to prioritise action and investments to become more resilient.”

A steering group is overseeing the development framework with representatives from The Rockefeller Foundation, 100 Resilient Cities, the World Bank, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation and The Resilience Shift.

“Having a global framework for water resilience means that any city facing similar challenges can tap into lessons learned and best practices proven effective around the world,” added Salkin. “A framework will allow cities to begin understanding their challenges and systems using a similar language and approach. It allows for common conversations, enabling cities to speak the same language, share ideas, and implement ideas more quickly.”

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That was the theme of the discussion on “Argentina Day” at last year’s International Water Association (IWA) Water and Development Congress and Exhibition held in Buenos Aires, where water professionals from around the world and Argentinian officials met to exchange knowledge, experiences, and strategies.

On behalf of the World Bank, I led a discussion on regulation, together with Emilio Lentini, Advisor to Argentina’s Water Resources Secretariat; Rui Cunha Marques, University of Lisbon; and Miguel Solanes, ECLAC, Chile.

Based on the findings of our recent work on Aligning Institutions and Incentives for Sustainable Water and Sanitation Services, I started my presentation by underscoring the interlinkages between regulation, policies, and institutions and the crucial role these factors play in creating incentives to sustainable universal access to water and sanitation services. I also discussed regulation in the context of the new paradigms resulting from the need for many countries to regulate public service providers, thereby shifting from the traditional approach to regulating private companies.

In Argentina, as in other Latin American countries, state owned water companies are more common than privately operated utilities. Publicly owned utilities have traditionally not been regulated—at least in an orthodox manner—as the common belief was that government, through its control of the utility, could strike the right balance between investments, cost recovery, and affordable tariffs. In the last decade, however, regulation of public water utilities has been growing in response to the return of service provision to the government after failed private sector participation (PSP) attempts. This approach has been found to have important advantages, such as the establishment of competent technical regulatory agencies and the increased transparency through independent oversight. Countries as different as Albania, Australia, Colombia, Peru, and Portugal are using regulation and regulatory institutions as part of the mix of policy instruments that seek to ensure that public utilities offer good value and sustainable services to the public.

In Latin America, regulation arose in the context of the wider sector reforms. This included PSP and decentralisation, which in many cases, mirrored the rationale for regulation in developed countries. However, I cautioned that this approach often entailed a mismatch between the needs of the countries and the regulatory model, which functions in the context of varying capacity levels and a different political and institutional culture, and welcomed the discussion on relevant regulatory experiences in Latin America.

Among those experiences, Mr. Marques discussed subsidies schemes in Chile and Colombia that facilitate access and enhance affordability for the poor, and highlighted how direct subsidies and cross subsidies can be effective in different circumstances. He also examined arrangements in place in different countries to regulate public service providers, and underscored the importance of addressing critical challenges associated with incentives, transparency, enforcement, equal treatment of different providers, and politicisation of the regulators. Mr. Solanes argued that strengthening the regulatory function would require a significant behavioural change in water sector institutions, and suggested to hold public service providers and their managers legally accountable for their actions.

At the emblematic Palermo water treatment plant, against the backdrop of a picture displaying the continuous performance improvements of Obras Sanitarias de la Nacion (the former national water utility of Argentina) during the first half of the 20th century, Mr. Lentini highlighted current efforts of the Government in this direction. This included revisions to the tariff structures to achieve cost recovery and design of subsidy schemes to better target the poor and vulnerable groups whilst providing adequate incentives to expand the services and improve their efficiency and quality in a sustainable manner. For that reason, he welcomed the exchange initiated with this session and invited the Bank and other partners to continue sharing regional and global knowledge with Argentina.

We hope the knowledge shared will further inform ongoing efforts by Argentina and other countries in Latin America to continue enhancing the policy, institutional, and regulatory incentives to achieve sustainable access to water and sanitation for all. Stay tuned for more news on our support to the government’s efforts to strengthen water supply and sanitation (WSS) service delivery and regulatory frameworks in Argentina through a comprehensive package of projects and other activities.

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The International Water Management Institute has appointed two new executives with broad experience in the conservation and use of transboundary rivers.

Claudia W. Sadoff arrived in October 2017 to serve as Director General of the Colombo, Sri Lanka-based scientific research organisation. She brings to the post three decades of building a global network of development partners, and distinguished experience as a global researcher and development practitioner.

“Through sustained and strategic efforts, Dr Sadoff has made a major contribution toward the achievement of global water security,” said Donald Blackmore, Chair of the Institute’s Board of Governors.

Sadoff previously led the World Bank’s Water Security and Integrated Water Resources Management division where she engaged with development experts and policy makers at the highest levels addressing challenges from climate adaptation to drought and flood response, and transboundary river basin management. Most recently, she has led major studies on water security in the Middle East and on water management in fragile and conflict-affected states.

“IWMI is uniquely well placed to champion the cause of improved water management worldwide, and I look forward to offering my knowledge, experience and energy in support of the Institute’s mission to deliver evidence-based solutions for water management,” Sadoff said.

To that end, one of her first decisions was to bring on board Mark Smith as IWMI’s new Deputy Director General (Research for Development), starting in May 2018. Smith comes from 10 years serving as Director of the Global Water Programme at IUCN, where he led major, cross-sector initiatives–BRIDGE, SUSTAIN-Africa and WISE-UP to Climate–at the interface of water resources, development, conservation, food security, governance and resilience.

As Deputy Director General, Smith will lead IWMI’s science agenda to address global development challenges for water security and natural resources management. His responsibilities will include assuring research quality and relevance; leading the identification and prioritisation of innovative research areas; and ensuring that IMWI’s work contributes effectively to the SDGs, the global climate agenda, and CGIAR’s Strategy and Results Framework.

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The application and testing of the framework will be done in cooperation with an advisory group composed of members of the World Bank, the University of Massachusetts, the 100 Resilient Cities network and Arup.

“[Water] hasn’t been previously addressed as an underpinning element of a broader concept of urban growth, sustainability and resilience,” Dr Fred Boltz, CWRF Steering Group Chair, University of Massachusetts Amherst, told The Source. “I think this project is really groundbreaking in taking that comprehensive holistic approach to understanding water and informing smart development, related to the changing availability of that vital resource.”

Boltz noticed that traditional water challenges, such as unplanned and unstructured urbanisation, ageing infrastructure and inadequate governance of water systems are being compounded by environmental degradation of fresh water ecosystems and climate change.

In order to prepare cities for the water management challenges, the project will consider all elements of the water cycle, and account for changeability and periodic extremes in water related events to approach urban resilience.

The core elements of the framework are universal but can be adapted to particular characteristics of individual cities, and include:

• Infrastructure and ecosystems
• Economic benefits and social integrity
• Health and wellbeing
• Governance and strategy.

“The project is now in its research and development phase,” said Boltz. “We will be partnering with five cities through 2018 to test the framework in distinct and diverse settings, thereby ensuring its general applicability and our ability to tailor it to specific quality and demands.”

The five cities are expected to be announced early this year. Once the diagnostic and plans to support the cities are developed, the project will move to implementation phase.

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The Forum addressed one of the region’s most ecologically complex and politically sensitive issues, and elevated groundwater on the foreign policy front, leaving India and its neighbours open to multilateral engagements.

“All who came, did so with an open mind to engage and learn from each other,” said Sushmita Mandal, IWA’s India Programme Manager and one of the report’s editors. “It was an opportunity that made the issue of groundwater visible. The timing was critical, as the region was reeling under the impacts of drought, poor monsoons, and improper management of available resources in the summer of 2016.”

How reliant is South Asia? Consider that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh together pump almost half of the world’s groundwater used for irrigation. Groundwater supports the livelihoods of 60-80 percent of the population, and has, as during the Green Revolution, helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

Yet groundwater has also been undervalued and overexploited. Excessive, intensive, and unregulated use has resulted in dry wells and declining water tables. Depletion itself can be fixed. But related land subsidence, saline intrusion, or contamination from arsenic, fluoride, sewage, effluent and chemicals may be too costly or impossible to reverse.

The 100-page synthesis is comprehensive, but more valuable than its words are the unique process and diverse people who spoke them. In a thirsty region often known for quarrelling over shared water resources and transboundary basins, the gathering was marked by mutual respect and active engagement.

The Forum provided the first transnational meeting of its kind, a platform to address groundwater management and governance. By generating broad consensus that there is scope to engage, interact and learn from each other, the new report provides a stable foundation for the next.

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New partnerships and personnel appointments have given utilities a bigger role in the management of the river Danube. By James Workman

It is not the deepest, steepest, longest or strongest but from its source in Germany’s Black Forest town of Donaueschingen, to its mouth in Romania’s free port of Sulina on the Black Sea, the Danube is by far the world’s most politically complex river, traversing ten countries, and with tributaries, draining nine more. Geostrategic forces have shaped borders since ancient Rome. But as urbanisation has brought new threats, today’s Danube is primarily an urban river that runs through or past 98 cities, including four major capitals.

Yet for centuries, the river sparked rivalries rather than trust. Each city along the river acted more or less alone, despite sharing a common resource. They worked in isolation within the same country, let alone across national borders; and this worsened after World War II with divisions into the Eastern European bloc.

All too often, cities diverted upstream currents like an intake pipe for use, then disposed of urban waste (treated or untreated) back downstream as a natural sewer. But this changed starting in 1993, after the Iron Curtain fell, when a new utility alliance set out to replenish the Danube.

“There is no more basic interest than the common interest of ensuring good clean water supply,” says Walter Kling, Secretary General, International Association of Water Supply Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area, or IAWD. “Water is a common link between the people of the river basin and having mechanisms to ensure cooperation on this important resource between cities and municipalities ensures that trust and good relations exists.”

Riparian cities now seek a more assertive role, coordinating efforts through IAWD to address the double challenge: providing clean water and wastewater services, while meeting the EU’s rigorous environmental obligations or “Acquis Communautaire.”

Rather than emerge in a vacuum, this effort builds upon past diplomatic efforts. National delegations formed the cooperative Danube River Protection Convention, and set up the international commission (ICPDR) to implement it. Yet the international alliance lacked the energetic involvement by city utilities both upstream and down. Few platforms helped water professionals share experience, best practices, and coordination within its larger scope.

“The voice of water utilities is important in helping shape decisions that affect the waters of the Danube region, and that voice needs to be strong and well organised,” says Kling. “Water utilities have begun to realise that the security of a safe clean supply of water is dependent upon them actively working together to both technically use the best management and operational techniques but also to ensure that river basin cooperation is happening to protect and restore water systems.”

IAWD has strengthened the voice of the utility operators and owners in the debate about river management, says Kling. Water provision and wastewater treatment are recognised as core elements of responsible river basin management. More recent measures seek to bolster cooperation among water professionals and enhance the region’s utility sector. IAWD and the World Bank leveraged €9.5 million in funds from Austria to launch the Danube Water Program to provide analysis, share knowledge, develop capacity and unlock grants.

More recently, IAWD signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Water Association to build capacity, engage national entities, and open up more learning and networking opportunities for Young Water Professionals in the region. At a meeting in Prague on 22 September, the IWA announced that IAWD has taken on the role of Coordinator of the Danube-Black Sea Region.

And personnel choices reflect these policy priorities. Kling is Deputy Managing Director of Vienna Waterworks; IAWD current president Vladimir Tausanovic used to run the Belgrade Waterworks; and Philip Weller (formerly at ICPDR) runs the IAWD Technical Secretariat, which is implementing the Danube Water Program under the guidelines of “Smart Policies, Strong Utilities and Sustainable Services.”

Like the physical river itself, information, funds and capacity building efforts tend to flow downstream. Indeed, IAWD has collected performance indicators and metrics for success, and while it seeks to harmonise the basin as a whole, there is greater demand in lower elevation cities. The institution was set up to address exactly those challenges for water services, to help overcome the economic differences, with Western members supporting their Eastern colleagues.

“Some worried about cooperation between the World Bank and IAWD, given the disparate scales. But Weller has found it a “highly practical marriage.” The high-level economic skills of the bank complement the on-the-ground technical competence of IAWD, and the differing skills and perspectives seem to fit well together.

EU accession has helped drive basin-wide efforts to improve water services, particularly wastewater treatment, says Kling. The problem is “that simply building wastewater treatment facilities does not necessarily guarantee good quality of water or effective operation.”

It remains a challenge to manage facilities in an economically sound and sustainable way.

IAWD offers a new model for riparian cities in other basins. Riparian stakeholders who value institutions within a basin’s ecological boundaries can support cooperation synergies. Indeed, Kling anticipates IWA’s role in a “third phase” of the Danube Water Program as being a “necessary evolution” that links urban utilities with hydropower, flood protection, and navigation.

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Infrequent or a lack of potable water supply has made wastewater reuse and recovery a method of choice for many across the globe. Whether it has been for hundreds of years like in Greek cities, or a new endeavor like in Dakar, Senegal, wastewater reuse and recovery is an important contribution to achieving SDG6 and enabling the circular economy. But, how can we scale up existing projects in the sector and ensure adequate financing to reinvigorate ageing and obsolete infrastructure?

At the IWA’s Water and Development Congress and Exhibition in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the IWA partnered with the World Bank, CAF–Development Bank of Latin America, and the IFC, International Finance Corporation, to host a Leaders Forum titled Wastewater as a Resource–Managing Wastewater towards Water-Wise Cities: Innovative Solutions for Engagement, Planning and Investment. During this Forum, experiences on planning and implementation, regulatory incentives, market conditions and institutional arrangements were shared between water leaders across the world, and IWA will launch the report Wastewater: the reuse opportunity, supported by OFID funding.

With so many different factors to take into account, how can urban leaders begin to achieve the wastewater revival? Through true collaboration–a word often used, but rarely implemented to its fullest. City leaders, regulators, basin agencies and utilities must all come together to seize the reuse opportunity of wastewater. They need to understand the benefits that come from safe wastewater reuse and recovery, such as “turning waste into a product, creating new businesses, reducing pollution and making cities more resource efficient.”

Before uniting to achieve positive impacts, stakeholders must also grasp the needs of others and the issue at hand. Motivation to act comes from the realisation of urgency, so proper communication is vital to the successful implementation of a project. Wastewater reuse and recovery is, aptly, the 2017 theme of UN-Water–a leading issue worldwide. As such, many organisations, private companies, governments and more are looking for ways to solve the wastewater issues–getting the message out loud and clear.

The IWA Principles for Water-Wise Cities are just one way of aligning the visions of the many different urban stakeholders towards reuse and recovery amongst other things. As mentioned by Stuart Waters, Managing Director of Twyfords, “co-defining the dilemma across stakeholders is an essential component of collaboration.” For city leaders and utilities, it is about ensuring public health and safe quantities of potable water, for regulators it is making policies and standards that advance public interest, for basin agencies–it is about the larger scale and ensuring the health and quality of the watershed, and for financiers, it is about ensuring that loans can be paid back and increasing returns on investment.

Cities can take the lead towards the resource revolution, empowering other stakeholders along the way. Many cities have already taken charge and are combining forces in order to deliver sustainable solutions. One such city is Kampala, Uganda, where the Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) have formed a partnership to improve services across the city, including the reuse of sludge, as well as producing biogas, from wastewater treatment plants. Another example of collaboration comes from the city of Oslo, Norway, where city officials, public transit and utilities came together to power buses with biomethane.

This poo-to-pump initiative demonstrates how a key issue, air pollution, can lead to win-win scenarios for all in the city. Waternet in Amsterdam has identified that grinding foodwaste, like in the US, would enable a saving in solid waste management, while increasing the efficiency of the biogas production at the wastewater treatment plant. However, regulations do not allow this. Increasing collaboration and knowledge exchange are ways to influence regulatory bodies to enable the reuse opportunity.

Aligning leaders along a common vision is challenging and potentially time consuming, but once true collaboration is achieved, the possibilities for positive impacts are endless. Collaboration is key to solving complex issues and building long-lasting relationships. Wastewater reuse and recovery can become commonplace in cities all over the world.

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Since 1990 an additional 2.1 billion people worldwide gained access to improved sanitation and, 91 percent of the global population now use improved drinking water sources. However, those who have access to Water and Sanitation Services–WSS–services often have to cope with poor service quality, including intermittent supplies. Hence, whereas the Millennium Development Goals–MDGs–predominantly focused on access and infrastructure delivery, the Sustainable Development Goals–SDGs–have ushered in a paradigm shift to focus on sustainability and service delivery–setting higher and broader expectations.

Globally, 4.5 billion and 2.5 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation and drinking water services respectively. The need to advance the SDGs is significantly pronounced in Latin America where only 65 percent and 22 percent of the population enjoy access to safely managed water and sanitation respectively.

In addition to SDG 6 (the Water SDG), managing water is critical for the success of the majority of SDGs. However, increasing vulnerability to climate change; ever-increasing demographic pressures; and increased fragility, are but a few of the greatest, impending threats to their achievement. By 2030 global water demand is expected to exceed supply by 40 percent and inadequate sanitation further depletes already diminishing water resources. In some instances, growth rates could decline by as much as 6 percent of GDP by 2050 as a result of water-related losses.

These interdependent challenges exacerbate paramount pressures on limited financial resources. SDG targets 6.1 and 6.2 alone have been estimated to cost US$112 billion per year (ranging from US$74 billion to US$166 billion). Over 80 percent of countries report insufficient financing to meet SDG targets, despite average increases of 4.9 percent in national WASH budgets. Moreover, the maximum level of Official Development Finance to the water sector reached US$18 billion in 2014, suggesting that aid commitments cannot sufficiently cover investment needs.

Strong political leadership is needed

Attaining additional financial resources is inevitable. Therefore, strong political leadership to bring about sector-wide interventions that improve governance and build technical and administrative capacity at scale will be essential to enhance creditworthiness–a fundamental pre-condition to enable access to needed commercial financial sources. Creditworthiness hinges on the ability of utilities to maximise technical and financial efficiency gains. Historically, governments have subsidised WSS services in lieu of promoting cost-recovery tariffs to ensure affordability.

However, cost-recovery tariffs can alleviate pressures on public funds and allow for better targeted pro-poor policies in addition to funding critical public functions, such as planning, regulation, capacity building, and monitoring. Moreover, by supporting the right policies, institutional and regulatory frameworks, governments can incentivise service providers to improve operational and commercial efficiency, leading to improved service sustainability and enhanced credibility of service providers.

Accessing commercial finance requires a tailored, progressive, and strategic approach. The World Bank is adopting an approach that effectively uses credit enhancements–such as guarantees–and blending public and concessional funds with private finance to accommodate affordability constraints of commercial finance. To this effect, there are a host of ‘blended finance’ options that can leverage commercial finance to support water related infrastructure. Valuable public finance can be used in conjunction with concessional funds, and further supported by credit enhancements, to secure domestic commercial finance.

Results based finance via grants and subsidies can support access extension for instance, or technical assistance and capacity building to help structure potential transactions. Concessional finance can be blended with domestic commercial finance and financial engineering, through a multitude of structures that can support investors. Finally, credit enhancements in the form of guarantees or revenue intercepts that allow risk sharing, extend the tenor, or add security for potential investors.

Maximising finance for development by leveraging private financial resources

Recognising that governments cannot immediately adopt this paradigm shift to commercial financing, the World Bank has developed a phased approach to provide tailored and effective support to client countries. This approach aims to maximise finance for development by leveraging private financial resources, optimising efficient use of public resources while promoting good governance and securing environmental and social sustainability.

Where commercial financing is not cost-effective due to perceived risks or market failures, the World Bank support will focus on strengthening country and sector policies, institutions and regulation to address these market failures and develop an enabling environment for the private sector; where risks remain high and raise cost of commercial capital, options to lower financing cost through risk-sharing instruments will be explored; and where commercial financing is not cost-effective or viable despite sector reform and risk mitigation, public and concessional resources will be applied.

Experiences demonstrate viability of this approach to bring about the needed impact. Colombia’s experience proved successful in developing local credit markets. A second-tier lending institution (FINDETER) was established to provide commercial banks with lending capital to offer to municipal borrowers at discounted rates. By 2014 WSS investments represented an estimated 28 percent of FINDETER’s total disbursements.

Ultimately, securing a sustainable future for all requires a global commitment to maximise finance for development–an endeavour for which the World Bank is prepared to strive for along with its partners.

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It suggests a drastic change is required in the way countries manage resources and provide key services, starting with better targeting to ensure they reach those most in need, and tackling inefficiencies to make sure public services are sustainable and effective.

Moreover, the report states that water, health, and nutrition interventions need to be coordinated to make substantive progress in the fight against childhood stunting and mortality. The World Bank says that while improving water and sanitation alone improves a child’s well being, the impacts on a child’s future are even greater when combined with health, and nutrition interventions.

“Millions are currently trapped in poverty by poor water supply and sanitation, which contributes to childhood stunting and debilitating diseases such as diarrhea,” said Guangzhe
Chen, Senior Director of the Water Global Practice, World Bank. “To give everyone an equal chance at reaching their full potential, more resources, targeted to areas of high vulnerability and low access, are needed to close the gaps and improve poor water and sanitation services.”

The report, Reducing Inequalities in Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene in the Era of the Sustainable Development Goals provides a roadmap for closing the gap. It includes a comprehensive analysis of water and sanitation indicators spanning 18 countries around the world and, for the first time, pinpoints specific geographic regions within countries that have inadequate WASH services. It sheds light on major disparities in water supply and sanitation services between rural and urban, poor and non-poor areas.

The report highlights that, in many countries, services do not reach the poor because of poor implementation, not poor policy–and that children are suffering as a result.

“Today, diarrhea is the second leading cause of death in children under five,” explained Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director in Nigeria. “Poor children also suffer from intestinal diseases, which together with under-nutrition and infections contribute to stunting. We are risking the futures of our children: their potential is being stymied by unequal or uneven access to the services they require to thrive.”

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Vairavamoorthy has a particular interest in urban water issues, combining a strong engineering background with practical international experience. He has published extensively and has a strong international profile working closely with the World Bank, African Development Bank, UN-Habitat, Global Water Partnership and the European Union.

Commenting on the appointment, Diane d’Arras, President of the International Water Association, said: “Professor Vairavamoorthy brings many years of high-level international experience, including as an active and well-respected IWA member. His wide scientific, managerial and cultural experience will be invaluable in shaping the IWA’s future strategy. In particular, how we as a global network of water professionals can be instrumental in achieving the water-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Vairavamoorthy is joining IWA from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), where he was the Deputy Director General for Research. He expressed enthusiasm regarding the IWA appointment, “IWA can help the international water sector navigate a period of rapid change, and its membership is well placed to provide both innovative and well-tested solutions. IWA can also provide critical help to emerging economies in their quest for sustainable water management.”

Prior to IWMI, Vairavamoorthy was the Founding Dean of the Patel College of Global Sustainability, and a tenured Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. Prior to that he was a full Professor and Chair of Water Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK, and Professor and Head of Core of Sustainable Urban Water Infrastructure Systems at UNESCO-IHE.

Vairavamoorthy has been a member of many International Scientific Committees. Currently he serves on the Stockholm World Water Week Scientific Program Committee and the Global Water Partnership’s Technical Committee. He was Co-chair of the IWA’s Cities of the Future Program and also a member of Singapore International Water Week’s Program Committee.

Vairavamoorthy has a PhD and MSc in Environmental Engineering from Imperial College, London and a BSc (Hons) in Civil Engineering from King’s College, London. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK).

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