In a world facing intensifying climate extremes, equitable and adaptive water solutions have become more urgent than ever. Rain for Resilience (R4R) is a global initiative designed to accelerate community-led rainwater innovations that enhance resilience, protect public health, and bridge the gap between local knowledge and global action. 

Born from decades of field-based experience in rainwater harvesting, R4R brings together three proven models under one integrated framework: 

• Community-Based Rainwater for Drinking systems for health protection and decentralised water access in schools, clinics and remote communities. 
• The Rain School Initiative, which empowers youth through hands-on, climate-conscious education.
• The Mountain Rehydration Movement, which restores soil moisture in upland forests through micro-scale rainwater traps, offering a natural line of defence against drought and wildfires. 

These innovations have been tested and scaled in diverse settings – from Cambodian classrooms to earthquake-affected villages in Myanmar – but they all share a common approach: simplicity, local ownership, and the transformative power of rain. 

Sustainable solutions 

R4R aligns with the UN’s call for nature-based and inclusive solutions to climate and water challenges. The R4R concept will be further elevated through two international platforms: the IWA Rainwater Harvesting and Management Conference in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, on 1-6 September 2026, and the UN 2026 Water Conference, co-hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Senegal, and convened in the UAE on 2-4 December 2026. These venues offer timely opportunities to assemble practitioners, researchers and policymakers around community-based rainwater resilience. 

To support this engagement, a ‘Rain for Resilience Declaration’ is being drafted, calling on governments and institutions to: recognise rainwater as a viable source of safe drinking water; invest in local rainwater infrastructure for climate adaptation; integrate rainwater literacy into formal education systems; share knowledge and technologies across borders through open partnerships; and designate a UN Rainwater Day to elevate rainwater harvesting as a global climate solution.  

This declaration will serve not only as a call to action, but also as a collaborative roadmap for scaling up localised solutions in a global context. 

The R4R initiative also benefits from the growing recognition of its founding partners. Most recently, Rain for All, one of the organisations behind R4R, contributed a key message to world leaders in the official 2026 UN Water Conference stakeholder consultation report – highlighting rainwater harvesting as a community-driven solution for water resilience and climate adaptation. 

Together, these models challenge conventional boundaries of water management – reaching beyond pipes and pumps to embrace education, emergency response, and even ecosystem-based resilience in vulnerable mountain landscapes. 

Every drop is local, but turning rain into resilience takes global action. By lifting the simple act of harvesting rain – from rooftops to ridgelines – R4R aims to reframe water security as a shared responsibility rooted in community agency and environmental care. 

As the climate crisis deepens, let us remember – resilience is not built by leaders alone, but in the hands of those who catch the first drop. 

The author: Mooyoung Han is Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Seoul National University, and Director of Rain for All (UN ECOSOC-Accredited NGO) and Chair, IWA Rainwater Harvesting and Management Specialist Group 

Sky’s mercy – A community rainwater system for disaster recovery in Myanmar

When a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar on 28 March 2025, more than 17 million people across 13 states and regions were left vulnerable – not just to structural damage, but to the sudden collapse of water systems. Centralised infrastructure failed, bottled water became scarce, and public health risks mounted.  

From this urgency the Mobile Rainwater for Drinking (RFD) system emerged – a decentralised, portable rainwater harvesting solution designed for post-disaster contexts. The system connects five tanks in series, each facilitating sedimentation and natural purification, eliminating the need for electricity or chemicals. A collapsible catchment surface can be quickly assembled and disassembled, allowing even non-technical community members – and women, in particular – to operate it independently.  

In May 2025, a pilot was conducted in an earthquake-affected village in Myanmar. With just 32 mm of rainfall, the Mobile RFD collected more than 500 litres of usable water. Local women managed the setup and water handling after brief instruction, highlighting the system’s simplicity and potential for community ownership.  

The innovation was formally presented at the Mekong-Republic of Korea Cooperation Forum on 14 May, in Hanoi, Vietnam, where it drew interest from policymakers and practitioners from Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and beyond. A senior official from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs received briefing materials and expressed support for pilot expansion. The system also gained visibility among attendees from Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Global Green Growth Institute, Indonesia, and the United Nations Development Programme.  

More than a technical fix, Mobile RFD offers a platform for gender inclusion, youth engagement, and low-cost resilience. It serves as a teaching tool in Rain School programmes, where students learn to monitor water quality, record rainfall and engage with climate science. It aligns with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – from clean water (SDG 6) and good health (SDG 3) to gender equality (SDG 5) and climate adaptation (SDG 13).  

The system’s structure is simple: five tanks, basic piping, a foldable rooftop, and no need for power. Yet its impact is complex and profound – a locally managed, scalable, nature-based solution to an escalating global challenge.  

At a time when climate disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity, Mobile RFD reminds us that resilience can come from above. In Myanmar, the sky’s mercy is being stored, purified and shared – one drop, one tank, and one community at a time. 

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Professor Susan Richardson, from the University of South Carolina, USA, gave a keynote at IWA’s 13th Micropol and Ecohazard Conference, held in Taipei, Chinese Taipei, on 16-20 June. Here she highlights recent advances in identifying important drivers of toxicity and the need to address new impacts on water quality.

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) are an unintended consequence of drinking water disinfection and are formed by the reaction of natural or anthropogenic organic matter, bromide, and iodide with disinfectants, such as chlorine, chloramine, ozone, or chlorine dioxide. DBPs are different from other environmental contaminants because they are not created for any particular purpose and are not released into rivers from industries, but are formed during drinking water treatment, which can make them harder to identify.

More than 700 DBPs have now been identified in drinking water, but only a very few are regulated. For example, only 11 are currently regulated in the USA. In addition, contaminants such as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals’, may or may not be in your drinking water. In contrast, DBPs are always in disinfected water, generally at 1000x higher levels than PFAS and other traditional contaminants.

“More than 700 DBPs have now been identified in drinking water, but only a very few are regulated”

Moreover, there are documented adverse health impacts of DBPs (including bladder cancer, miscarriage, and birth defects) that are not yet completely controlled. In addition, there are many more DBPs waiting to be identified, as around 70% of the halogenated DBPs in chlorinated drinking water are still not accounted for. Therefore, it is important to understand what these chemicals are that we are drinking every day in our water.

Additional impacts

While DBPs can form from the disinfection of pristine (uncontaminated) waters, there are also new impacts on our water supplies. These include fracking, coal-fired power plants, and algae.

Fracking wastewater can release high levels of bromide and iodide, forming the more toxic bromine- and iodine-containing DBPs. Coal-fired power plants that switch to a wet flue gas desulfurisation process (that reduces the amount of mercury released to the air) also release high amounts of bromide and iodide that can impact downstream drinking water plants.

In addition, harmful algal blooms are increasing throughout the world and, along with releasing harmful toxins to drinking water sources, the algal organic matter can also double the formation of DBPs if it enters drinking water treatment (e.g., when water is pre-disinfected in a reservoir for algae control).

Climate change and increasing droughts are also leading water utilities to other water sources, including seawater and wastewater. Wastewater is the cheaper of these alternatives and is always present wherever humans are present, making it a readily available source. The western states in the USA are now moving in this direction of potable reuse, where wastewater is turned into drinking water. This process generally uses microfiltration or ultrafiltration membranes, followed by reverse osmosis membrane filtration and advanced oxidation, which is then treated further (typically chlorinated) for final drinking water treatment.

Wastewater as a source of contaminants

One of my new studies on potable reuse included a look at priority contaminants not well removed in wastewater treatment that could be further transformed in potable reuse treatment. These priority contaminants included hormones (17β-estradiol, estrone, 17α-ethinylestradiol), an endocrine disruptor (bisphenol A), a pharmaceutical (diclofenac), an antimicrobial (triclosan), and a surfactant breakdown product (nonylphenol). The impact of chlorine on these contaminants spiked into ultrapure water and spiked into real samples from different treatment stages of an advanced reuse plant was investigated using a nontarget approach with liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) -high resolution-mass spectrometry (MS). Many DBPs were identified, including 28 not previously reported. Toxicity measurements revealed that some compounds became more toxic following treatment with chlorine. On the other hand, many compounds became less oestrogenic after treatment; however, the presence of bromide could change this.

New halocyclopentadiene DBPs were the focus of another new discovery by my group, where GC-high resolution-MS was used for their identification. This new class of DBPs is the first expected to be bioaccumulative, and one of these (hexachlorocyclopentadiene) is now the most cytotoxic DBP studied to date. This discovery was completely by accident, made by a student who was including drinking water samples as a control for DBPs formed while brewing tea. The student saw new mass spectra with extensive chlorine and bromine isotopic patterns that were not present in the library databases.

My ‘secret sauce’ for finding unknown contaminants in water involves extracting large volumes of water with XAD resin columns (to achieve high concentration factors), a highly sensitive mass spectrometer, and ‘old fashioned’ manual interpretation of mass spectra. Obtaining the accurate masses using high resolution-MS, examining isotopic patterns and fragmentation patterns, considering all possible isomers, and confirmation with authentic standards were important.

A further recent ‘forcing factors’ study involved detailed investigation of the main drivers of toxicity in water. This work involved quantification of 72 regulated and priority DBPs and measurement of whole water cytotoxicity. Drinking water from across the USA was investigated, including seawater and wastewater-impacted waters. Significant correlations of cytotoxicity with nitrogenous and iodinated DBPs were found. Results revealed that unregulated haloacetonitriles and iodoacetic acids were important toxicity drivers of cytotoxicity and should be considered for regulation.

The good news is that there are methods that can be used to reduce DBP levels in drinking water, including granular activated carbon (GAC) pretreatment with a small dose of chlorine or the use of ozone, along with the use of ion exchange resins to reduce brominated and iodinated DBPs.

Given all of the above, my message is: “We have good water, but we can do better.” •

Further reading

Potable reuse study: Cochran, KH, et al., 2023. ‘Chlorination of Emerging Contaminants for Application in Potable Wastewater Reuse: Disinfection By-Product Formation, Estrogen Activity, and Cytotoxicity’. Environ. Sci. Technol., 58: 704–716. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05978

New halocyclopentadiene DBPs study: Li, J, MT Aziz, CO Granger, and SD Richardson. 2022. ‘Halocyclopentadienes: An Emerging Class of Toxic DBPs in Chlor(am)inated Drinking Water’. Environ. Sci. Technol., 56: 11387–11397. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c02490

Forcing factors study: Allen, JM, et al, 2021. ‘Disinfection By-Product Drivers of Cytotoxicity in U.S. Drinking Water: Should Other DBPs Be Considered for Regulation?’ Environ. Sci. Technol., 56: 392−402. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c07998

The author: Dr Susan D Richardson is the Arthur Sease Williams Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Carolina and was formerly at the US EPA for many years. Her research surrounds the study of emerging contaminants in water. She is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (2024), Executive Editor and Associate Editor for Environmental Science & Technology, past President of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (2020-2022), and received the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Advancements in Environmental Science & Technology (2008).

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Tehran, the capital of Iran – with a population of 11 million – experienced water stress between 2020 and 2023. The amount of rainfall in Tehran province in the year 2022–23 reached 194.4 mm, which was 80 mm less than the long-term average. Consequently, the usual approaches to urban water management were not equipped to provide sustainable water services to the city’s citizens. As a result, a relatively new concept that was initiated in 2004 as part of Australia’s National Water Plan – Water Sensitive Cities (WSC) – has been designed and implemented for the city. WSC provides an ecological solution to achieve sustainability in urban environments with a focus on water.

Water Sensitive City plan

The integrated management of water resources deals with two approaches: supply management and demand management. Any type of activity aimed at producing, extracting and distributing water in the best and most economical way is called supply management, and any type of economic, social, technical, or other policy that optimises demand is called demand management. In demand management, the reduction of consumption, recycling and reuse of water, the reduction of non-revenue water, the implementation of a circular economy, and the optimal use of wastewater are the primary axes of a WSC. Moreover, WSCs are particularly adaptable to climate change impacts such as floods and drought.

The approach in Tehran

Adopting a holistic approach and working with policymakers and NGOs, Tehran’s WSC plan encompasses three programmes – ‘social’, ‘relational’, and ‘operational/practical’. The social programme focuses on societal education, dialogue, and facilitation; while the operational programme encourages the optimal management of water consumption, utilises social marketing, and disseminates information about this innovation.

Implementation of the WSC plan depends on the social campaign, which performs two actions to manage the demand. First, it aims to inform and change the behaviour of the public and policymakers. Second, it aims to encourage trans-sectoral cooperation.

The social programme is led by the Public Affairs Office of Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company (TPWW Co) under the title of the ‘Tehran Water Sensitive City’ Campaign. This is the initiating component of the WSC, while the promotion of the WSC takes a coordinated multi-organisational approach. According to the director of the Sustainable Development Office of TPWW Co, the launch of this campaign is a step towards a scientific and applicable approach to urban water management, as well as a social campaign to influence the culture around water.

The future of the WSC plan

The WSC campaign has launched, and the communication and operational plans are moving forward. In combination with Tehran’s monitoring and data processing plan for the city’s water and wastewater facilities, the WSC plan is to be upgraded to a water-wise city plan – a framework that will help the city’s leaders develop sustainable water systems and resilient urban planning. •

The authors: Seyedhossein Sajadifar is director of the Sustainable Development Office of the Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company, and Pezhman Taherei is secretary of the IWA Public and Customer Communications Specialist Group and executive secretary of the Young Water Professionals Iran Chapter

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It is widely agreed that it will be a challenge to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline, and that huge financial and technological investments will be required to deliver SDG 6 – safe water and sanitation for all. Too frequently, however, discussions around capacity fail to recognise that progress will be dependent on fostering a sustainable and highly skilled workforce, without which the most generous financial commitment will be found wanting and destined for defeat.

Fundamental to the sector’s success is the recruitment, retention and training of a highly skilled and dedicated workforce, along with collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders and community engagement. Without investment in human capacity, increased financial expenditure is likely to result in wasted revenue through imprudent expenditure or unspent funds because of the lack of a skilled workforce. It is critical that the water and sanitation sector places focus on its organisational structures, the competencies that must be attained and developed, and the roles that will need to be created to future-proof growth and innovation in a changing world.

Skills targets

Of the 19 targets listed under SDG 6 in the Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators, workforce capacity is barely referenced. In contrast, under SDG 3 to ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages’, the health sector has a specific target to: ‘Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States.’ And under SDG 4, to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’, the education sector has a target by 2030 to ‘… substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States’, and measures this by the proportion of teachers in schools with minimum required qualifications. These indicators have resulted in a clear emphasis on the workforce in these sectors and leveraged increased investment.

“Progress will be dependent on fostering a sustainable and highly skilled workforce”

In the case of health workers, the World Health Organization has an entire department focused on the Health Workforce. It supports countries with national human resource assessments, performs workforce related research to inform advocacy efforts, and provides guidelines for countries that want to take targeted action. Similarly, UNESCO’s Global report on teachers: What you need to know presents the challenges of the workforce capacity gap and provides guidance on how countries can tackle shortages effectively.

Securing leverage for the water sector workforce

Given this context, water and sanitation professionals ought to argue for the inclusion of a workforce target in future indicators, which would draw attention to the sector’s workforce capacity and open funding for further research, and maybe even increase budget availability to create new and much needed jobs. Such targets would also help align capacity development efforts, creating a common goal focused on investing in a sustainable local workforce to overcome the lack of coordination in capacity development identified in previous assessments, including IWA’s report An Avoidable Crisis: WASH Human resource capacity gaps in 15 developing economies, and the United States Agency for International Development’s Addressing the Human Resource Capacity Gaps in Rural Sanitation and Hygiene: Final Report.

Continuous transformation

While capacity development is a term that has its legacy in the colonial era, the term workforce resonates with local ownership. By focusing on the goal of achieving a sustainable, local workforce, capacity development moves from being a deliverable with an endgame to a continuous and transformative process.

Aligning capacity development and human resource development

Implementing an intervention does not automatically ensure its effective application on the job, especially if the necessary organisational support – or perhaps even the availability of jobs – is lacking. This underscores the necessity of a holistic approach to capacity development to cultivate a sustainable, interconnected water and sanitation sector.

Capacity development principles

Within capacity development efforts there are still persistent challenges. Many relate to the failure to recognise the unique interests, needs and preferences of audiences. Capacity assessments in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors still report a mismatch between supply and demand, where supply focuses on the offer rather than soliciting what the audiences need. There continues to be an overemphasis on training, which neglects other ways of learning. Some capacity development interventions are still based on a one-size-fits-all approach and, in some cases, unidirectional learning is still practiced. The workload or time that participants have to attend classes or apply learning is also often not considered. Many capacity development efforts lack a comprehensive strategy (also referred to as a capacity development design) and fail to monitor and evaluate effective capacity development.

“The term workforce resonates with local ownership”

So, in addition to an emphasis on a sustainable workforce as the outcome of capacity development, and the adoption of a holistic approach that addresses multiple levels of capacity, there is a need for capacity development efforts to follow capacity development principles, such as:

Time and application: Allowing sufficient time for learning and providing opportunities for participants to apply their knowledge in their work, while considering local governance, mandates and roles to minimise disruption and extra workload.

Tailored solutions: Recognising the unique interests, needs, and approaches of different target audiences and developing customised capacity development activities that align with specific requirements, incorporating diverse learning methods, such as peer-to-peer interactions, virtual tours, mentoring, communities of practice, and working groups.

Engage specialists: Involving practitioners and experts in the design and implementation of capacity development programmes, ensuring a comprehensive design that considers different audiences, learning methods, and impact measurements.

Inclusive learning environment: Valuing participants’ input and expertise to create an inclusive and collaborative learning environment.

Evidence-based approach: Emphasising the importance of measuring impact and using effective capacity development practices. This data-driven approach enables continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.

Learning mindset: Fostering a culture of sharing experiences, success stories, failures and lessons learned, to encourage ongoing learning and adaptation.

By embracing these guiding principles, stakeholders involved in capacity development can address common errors and enhance the effectiveness of interventions in the water, sanitation and hygiene sectors. The ultimate goal of capacity development is to develop a sustainable workforce capable of performing functions, delivering services, and promoting sustainable development. The desired outcome of each capacity development intervention should be to contribute to this wider goal.

If we can agree that this is the case, push for the workforce to be embedded in post-SDG 6 targets, align capacity development with human resource development, think holistically about capacity development, and embrace guiding principles, we can address the effectiveness of our contributions, improve our coordination, and even increase investment in a sustainable water and sanitation workforce. •

More information

• un.org/content/documents/11803Official-List-of-Proposed-SDG-Indicators.pdf
• who.int/teams/health-workforce/health-workforce-development
• unesco.org/en/articles/global-report-teachers-what-you-need-know
• IWA (2014) An Avoidable Crisis: WASH Human resource capacity gaps in 15 developing economies, iwa-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/1422745887-an-avoidable-crisis-wash-gaps.pdf
• USAID (2023) Addressing the Human Resource Capacity Gaps in Rural Sanitation and Hygiene: Final Report, Washington, DC, USAID Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) #2 Activity
• Lincklaen Arriëns, W.; Wehn de Montalvo, U.; (2013) ‘Exploring Water Leadership,’ Water Policy 15 (S2): 15–41. doi.org/10.2166/wp.2013.010
• Danquah, J.; Crocco, O.; Mahmud, Q.; Rehan, M.; Rizvi, L; (2022) ‘Connecting concepts: bridging the gap between capacity development and human resource development,’ Human Resource Development International. 26. 1-18. doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2022.2108992

The author: Kirsten de Vette is an independent consultant and facilitator specialising in capacity development, knowledge management and learning, and stakeholder engagement in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors

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The Water Convention at Singapore International Water Week is a platform for gathering professionals and technology providers from around the world to share their knowledge, practical experiences, and novel technologies to address current and emerging water challenges.

The inaugural Water Convention in 2008 came to fruition through a collaboration between IWA and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency. Co-chair of the Water Convention Programme Committee since 2009 and involved in the Programme Committee from its foundation in 2008, Darryl Day explains that collaboration between IWA and PUB has been key to the Water Convention’s success.

He says: “Because it is a partnership with IWA, we draw from the IWA family – the Ieaders of the Specialist Groups within IWA, and the thought leaders across IWA – and PUB brings a great network from the utilities, in particular, utilities from the region. It’s a match made in heaven.

“We work to bring together a programme that addresses solutions for the region, along with the emerging issues that are keeping water leaders, academics and policymakers awake at night. So, we are looking to the solutions we need today and into the future.”

Rising to the fast pace of change

Timeliness is key to any event programme, as Day acknowledges, explaining: “When we were framing the 2024 programme, we were conscious of the velocity of our changing climate. The pace of climate change is continuing to surprise us. The evidence is becoming more alarming in terms of both the impact and the urgency to have solutions for mitigation and adaptation, and coming to understand what resilience looks like. What does water security look like when you have less rainfall, higher temperatures, increased evaporation, rising sea levels?”

“This year for the first time we have introduced an expanded focus on flood and coastal resilience. We’ve been really progressive, looking at what the cities of the future will be like – water sensitive cities, sustainable solutions, the systems approach, how machine-learning can provide decision-making tools.

“We’ve recognised that many cities around the world are really challenged and concerned about rising sea levels and what that means for water supply and sanitation. The solutions will take decades to develop, and we need to start today.

“The focus in Singapore will be: What do we need to be doing? What are the research questions we need answers to? What are the practices that are emerging that we can learn from? Who needs to be working together and collaborating to find solutions? This is critical, because adaptation will be expensive, and we need to develop long-term, strategic solutions that embrace the needs of local communities.”

One Health

In addition to the expanded focus on flood and coastal resilience, a further new introduction to the programme agenda is the theme of Water Quality and One Health, an approach that recognises that the health of people is closely connected to the health determinates of our shared environment.

“We have a theme that from the start looked at those challenging issues related to water quality and health,” explains Day. “We are now taking a step back and looking at a systems approach to One Health, which brings together the health of the environment and water quality and considers what a systems approach can tell us there.”

One important element to this, will be a hot issues workshop focused on PFAS, a chemical challenge which is in the news almost constantly, and has gained increased momentum with the announcement of new guidelines for ‘forever chemicals’ in the USA, amidst concerns over the potentially carcinogenic nature of these pollutants.

“’Forever chemicals’ have become ubiquitous in some environments,” says Day. “Our understanding of them is critical to any discussions regarding water quality and health.”

Also featuring under the water quality and health agenda will be the challenge of antimicrobial resistance. “Antimicrobial resistant drugs entering our environment have become another key issue,” says Day, “especially when considering One Health.”

Sustainable solutions

Introduced into the Water Convention Programme in 2022, the water-energy nexus and the circular economy remain strong themes, along with digital innovation, machine-learning, and the challenges of cyber security.

Day says: “We have countries in the region such as Singapore, Japan, Korea, and Australia that are world leaders in the sector, but there are also countries in the region that have challenges due to lack of infrastructure. So, there will be the opportunity for these countries to consider what they can take away from the Water Convention and what their development path might be.”

Day concludes: “We already have areas that are unserved or underserved in terms of clean, safe drinking water and sanitation. Climate change is going to make that worse. The Water Convention will provide a dynamic environment to determine solutions and actions to meet the sustainable development goals, with the 2030 deadline just down the road.”

More information:

https://www.siww.com.sg/home

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By Erika Yarrow-Soden

IWA’s 18th Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies (LET) was held in Daegu, in South Korea, from 29 May to 2 June 2023, and marked the 20th anniversary of the series.

The series is held in a different country every year, and is designed to be the place where new ideas are introduced and the opportunity is provided to interact with the ‘best of the best’. This makes LET the global conference where new insights are shared into the pioneering science, technological innovation and leading practices that are shaping major transformation in the water sector.

Contributing to this dynamic environment of innovation and knowledge transfer, Professor Jaehong Kim, Henry P Becton Sr, Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University in the USA, gave a plenary keynote presenting recent outcomes of his research on developing ultrafiltration-based advanced oxidation platforms for organic pollutant degradation in complex wastewater matrices.

Kim is a specialist in the environmental application of nanomaterials, the development of photoluminescence/photocatalysis technology for environmental and energy applications, and the development of membrane processes and materials. This edition of LET had particular significance for him, as he originally comes from Korea, receiving his BS and MS degrees in chemical and biological engineering from Seoul National University in South Korea. His presentation focused on his work to develop a water treatment membrane with a catalytic function.

Ultrafiltration membrane is typically used to remove particulate and organic pollutants from water through size exclusion. Things that are bigger than the pore of the membrane are rejected to produce clean water, but that means small organic pollutants found in water can pass through the membrane. Even with reverse osmosis, which is the tightest membrane, the smallest hydrophilic and neutral molecules can pass through. Kim’s research looks at the potential for a catalytic function to be added to the membrane treatment so that organics are not just removed through size exclusion, but are chemically destroyed during the filtration.

The heterogeneous advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) that Kim is researching enable the destruction of aqueous organic pollutants via oxidation by reactive oxygen species, such as hydroxyl and sulphate radicals. However, practical treatment scenarios suffer from the low availability of short-lived radicals in aqueous bulk because of mass transfer limitations and quenching by water constituents such as natural organic matter (NOM) and carbonate. Kim has been exploring ways to overcome these challenges by loading various catalysts within the pores of a ceramic ultrafiltration membrane, resulting in an internal heterogeneous catalytic reaction that can efficiently degrade organics in complex water matrices.

With radicals confined inside the nanopores below 20 nm, a critical length scale that exerts a nanoconfinement effect, these membrane reactors nearly completely removed various organic pollutants through single-pass treatment with water fluxes equivalent to a retention time of a few seconds. These membranes, with a pore size that removes most NOM, selectively exposed smaller organics to radicals within the pores under confinement and showed excellent resiliency to representative water matrices. Moreover, these membranes exhibited sustained AOPs over long-term operation and could be regenerated for multiple cycles because of oxidative removal of foultants on the membrane surface and pore walls.

Kim explains: “My presentation included quite a lot on the nanoconfinement effect. The radicals’ lifetime is very short. Their concentration diminishes very fast from the catalyst surface where they are generated. This is a distance dependent phenomenon. In other words, the oxidation efficiency depends on how far the pollutant is from the surface. That’s the reason we introduced this catalyst inside the pore, so that the distance would be fixed. This means the radicals cannot move and are consumed in a short distance. Consequently, the pollutants that pass through the membrane pore are inevitably exposed to radicals and consequently destroyed.”

Kim aims to apply this technology for use in a modular system that is suitable for commercialisation. It is likely to be too costly for large-scale municipal water treatment, industrial combined sewage/water treatment or desalination, as it is difficult to engineer at scale and the catalyst doesn’t last indefinitely. However, Kim sees the potential for this technology to be used in small modular systems for niche applications for the treatment of highly concentrated, highly polluted water. As such, he sees opportunities for the technology to address the needs of the oil and petrochemical industries, for example.

“If you are talking about large-scale municipal treatment, there is little room for nanotechnology to replace conventional treatment processes, simply because of cost ineffectiveness,” says Kim. “But there are many other cases where water treatment would be required to this level, especially treatment of industrial wastewater for recycling and process water that often has a very specific quality requirement that may not be achieved by conventional treatment. The opportunities lie where high-quality processing is required, even though this technology is fairly expensive.”

As the technology develops there could even be potential for it in low income or developing country settings if, for example, it is used to enhance other technologies, or if longer-term performance can be considered rather than initial costs.

Kim’s research is ongoing, with some applications at pilot stage, so LET provided the perfect opportunity for him to share this advancing technology with experts from across the globe. He says: “LET was educational, delightful, and inspiring. It is one of the major conferences in the water industry and offers a global platform where experts and stakeholders in the sector can come together to discuss and explore emerging technologies and innovations. It gave me the opportunity to meet colleagues and industry leaders who had a practical view of the industry.

“I was deeply honoured to give a plenary keynote. Daegu is promoting itself as a water hub and Korea has been investing a lot in the water industry. I was pleased to see a successful LET hosted by my home country.” •

For your diary – LET 2024 in Essen, Germany

Following the success of LET 2023, IWA looks forward to hosting its 19th Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies on 24-28 June 2024, in Essen, Germany. With its rich history and reputation as an environmental hub, Essen promises to be an ideal host for this prestigious event. Join us to learn about the latest advances in water and wastewater treatment, be inspired by our speakers, and network with the leading lights of the water sector. Find out more at: iwa-let.org

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Imagine the reality of a toilet that works off-grid. This is something that is indeed happening. Real strides are being made in South Africa to improve urban and rural sanitation, and interest in expanding this new offering is growing. 

Responding to the root cause 

It’s important to acknowledge that waterborne sewered solutions may not be realised for many of the poorest, especially in the developing world. This is largely because of cost limitations and issues of water availability, putting these factors at the heart of the sanitation crisis. It is a point that was highlighted to me when I experienced a week without a water supply. 

The solution to be found in Mofolo West, in Soweto, provides a great example of aspirational sanitation. The system works without running water, electricity or an expensive sewer network. The sanitation service that supports the hygiene requirements of the informal community of Mofolo West is a completely off-grid (or decentralised) closed loop system. 

This is an example that responds directly to the point made by the South African Water Research Commission’s (WRC’s) CEO Dr Jennifer Molwantwa, which I like to quote: “Where you were born should not determine the technology you get!” 

Supporting the sanitation transformation 

The system used in Mofolo West, Clear Enviroloo, safely treats human waste from a communal sanitation facility that serves approximately 100 informal dwellings. Using a closed loop system, it enables all effluent to be returned into the system for flushing, making it completely independent of a water supply or sewerage grid. 

This, and several other solutions, are initiatives delivered by WRC and its partners through the South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme (SASTEP) initiative, driven by the motivation to bring dignified and improved sanitation to places where constraints to sewered solutions exist. 

Opening opportunities 

For too long, people in the developing world have been subjected to a binary technology paradigm of either latrine technology or a reticulated waterborne system, which is determined by where you live. The lack of aspirational sanitation solutions, especially non-sewered or off-grid solutions, has been the Achilles heel of progress in sanitation delivery and leaves the poorest out of the sanitation market.  

The new challenges of rapid urbanisation, coupled with the wicked consequences of climate variability, are prompting a new look at sanitation. WRC has responded to this through its Sanitation Transformation Initiative (SANITI), an acronym that plays on the word ‘sanity’ and aims to bring greater sustainability to the way we deliver services. This is in contrast to the ‘insanity’ of doing the same things repeatedly and expecting a different outcome. 

Together with national and international partners, we have catalysed research, development and innovation into off-grid/non-sewered toilets of the future, with the aim of transforming a more secure sanitation sector.  

Under the umbrella of SASTEP, which aims to stimulate an industrial pathway, we have also produced the necessary guidelines, standards and policy recommendations to support innovation entering a market that has traditionally been locked in, technically. This includes support for research that can demonstrate equivalent toilet experiences to those of full flush systems, which are cost-effective and deliver environmental benefits. In doing so, we will be able to rise to the challenge of providing a range of sanitation solutions that can meet the needs of populations living with changing circumstances. Equity and dignity can only be realised by stimulating sanitation research, innovation, and science towards a just future. 

Inclusive sanitation 

On the back of climate challenges and the associated problems this creates for water security, the non-sewered sanitation (NSS) pathway offers the sustainable route to a more equitable future. IWA has recognised this potential with its Inclusive Urban Sanitation initiative, the aim of which is to reshape the global agenda on urban sanitation. Supported by a dedicated campaign called SaniAction, the objective is to garner the support and collaborative drive required to secure progress. It responds to the need for an accelerated and inclusive approach to expanding coverage of safe sanitation services, with still too many people in towns and cities across the globe lacking access to safely managed sanitation. 

Marking World Toilet Day on the 19 November 2022, IWA’s Inclusive Urban Sanitation Programme Lead, Suresh Rohilla, said: “Achieving safe, inclusive sanitation service outcomes requires dynamic governance and public service systems that incentivise delivery of public good outcomes. This initiative is based on the premise of ensuring that sanitation is inclusive and encompasses resilience to climate change and adoption of circular economy principles – covering sanitation as an integral element of urban water sustainability.”  

IWA’s Specialist Group on NSS was formed specifically to respond to this call and to stimulate the urgent need to develop the next generation of off-grid, innovative and novel technological options for sanitation that consider water and energy resources, user preferences and variable user population, and can contribute to revenue generation through the beneficial use of waste products or by reducing operational and maintenance costs. 

On World Toilet Day in 2022, I penned an article on the opportunities of the future of NSS and the pathways to delivery. I wrote with great optimism, knowing of the strides that were being made in technological and industrial innovation. The approach of the first IWA NSS Conference, hosted by WRC along with several partners, is a clear signal that the sector is ready for a paradigm shift. 

Here again I would like to quote Dr Molwantwa, who says: “In South Africa… inequity in sanitation provision has, in a way, contributed to further marginalisation in the development pathway of a large part of the society. It is therefore a privilege for us in South Africa to host this pioneering event and knowledge platform. Not only will it unlock the potential of knowledge and solutions to deal with our challenges, but it will also allow us to share this knowledge with the rest of the global world. It is the time for this much needed disruption and communities are starting to demand better services. The timing is very opportunistic for us and the developing world in transitioning and leading this new paradigm towards meeting the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals].” 

As chair of the IWA NSS Specialist Group, I see this is an important milestone to set the revolution of the sanitation industry in motion. I urge you to join us in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the Emperor’s Palace from 15-18 October 2023. There we will showcase an exemplary programme on the important developments being made in science and innovation, industry and technology, and how this will progress the future of NSS. This is a much awaited gamechanger for the water and sanitation sector that could revolutionise how cities are planned and managed, supporting the global mission of delivering safe sanitation to all. • 

More information 

For more details on the 1st IWA Non-Sewered Sanitation Conference, see: https://nssconference.org/

The author

Jayant (Jay) Bhagwan is the executive manager of the key strategic area of water use and waste management at the South African Water Research Commission, and is chair of IWA’s Specialist Group on Non-Sewered Sanitation 

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There are ever-increasing levels of leakage observed around the world. A report that I prepared with Roland Liemberger and Philippe Marin in 2006 estimated total global non-revenue water (NRW) to be 49 billion m3/year. Roland updated this in a 2016 study with Alan Wyatt and estimated total NRW to be 126 billion m3/year globally. Today, the numbers will surely be higher still. This is surprising given the huge number of conferences and articles on the topic. 

This article makes the case that the technical aspects of leakage management (which garner the most attention) are necessary but not sufficient to reduce leakage. A more integrated approach is needed that considers design, construction, management, financing, and incentives. 

The foundational document Leakage Control Policy and Practice was published by the Technical Working Group on Waste of Water under the UK’s National Water Council in July 1980. This set out a comprehensive technical and financial strategy for leakage management. While technology has improved over time, the fundamentals in this document are still valid 40 years on. Yet, despite this knowledge, leakage levels continue to increase and, today, they are the root cause of, or a significant contributing factor to, intermittent water supplies (IWS), resulting from an imbalance between supply, demand and leakage.  

This article highlights four actions that, if implemented by governments, utilities and donors, would lead to a marked reduction in IWS, improved quality of service, and better financial sustainability of the sector. None are complex, and many have been tested and shown to be feasible, but they have not been embraced as an action-oriented philosophy within the sector. Historically, the focus has been on narrow technical solutions that have left behind a graveyard of failed NRW initiatives. The four actions that are considered foundational to reducing IWS are: 

• Leakage centric planning, design and construction  
• Leakage centric operational management  
• Partnering with the private sector 
• Mobilising finance for investment. 

Leakage centric planning, design and construction  

The sector must implement a concept of leakage centric planning, design and construction (PD&C) where the impact on levels and management of leakage are considered as part of investment evaluation and implementation.  

Planners and designers must assess how new investments might increase physical losses and propose mitigation measures accordingly. This would address situations where new production facilities provide as much treated water for groundwater recharge as they do to customer tanks. Leakage centric PD&C would also influence network design by requiring engineers to assess the impact on pressures and leakages elsewhere in the system. District metered areas (DMA) aligned with active leakage control (ALC) modalities would be core to network design, along with the construction of chambers that allow for later installation of pressure reducing valves.  

The World Bank leakage project in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam found that the retrospective creation of DMAs and chambers for improved flow/pressure management in existing networks constituted around half of the cost of the leakage reduction programme and introduced major construction complications. With leakage centric PD&C this cost and complexity would be eliminated going forwards, making future ALC simpler and less expensive. 

Good design, bad construction  

Material quality is generally well defined, but price may sway clients towards lower-quality products. This is a false economy. These poor-quality materials will bake in a lifetime of ever-increasing leakage that cannot be fixed easily. As does poor-quality workmanship. 

Leakage centric operational management  

Responsibility for leakage management in a utility is often ‘everyone and no-one’. This creates a laissez faire approach, euphemistically called ‘passive leakage management’, that if you can’t see the leaks, then there isn’t a problem. A leakage centric approach to network management requires consideration of organisational structure, staff resources and incentives. 

When preparing an NRW reduction project in East Asia, the lack of ownership and responsibility for reducing leakage in the host utility was clear. The project design proposed the establishment of a directorate of leakage management, along with staff and resources needed to do their job and deliver results – which they did.  

High leakage means higher costs, lower revenues and poorer quality of service. In a competitive marketplace, all these implications would force companies to address leakage, and quickly. In a public sector monopoly, those market-based incentives don’t apply. Managers and politicians blame each other for the current situation, and little gets done. Ultimately, both parties are complicit in robbing customers of the quality of service they deserve, further weakening the financial performance of the utility. Strong incentives at staff level are shown to deliver improvements, whether in Haiphong in Vietnam, or in the National Water and Sewerage Corporation in Uganda. 

Partnering with the private sector 

Partnering with the private sector to reduce leakage in developing countries can be attractive for the same reasons as water utilities hire construction firms to build treatment plants. Utilities need access to specialist expertise to provide: 

• Capacity – If the public sector doesn’t know how to do it, and the private sector does, then why not benefit from that knowledge and experience? A well-designed public-private partnership (PPP) can include capacity building for the public sector client for long-term sustainability. 
• Incentives – These matter when results need to be delivered. A PPP by its nature is incentive driven, especially when using a performance-based leakage reduction contract. 
• Autonomy – A public sector company often reacts to political priorities. An NRW contractor, while not free of such influence, benefits from a contracting arrangement that provides some protection, allowing them to focus on leakage reduction. 
• Accountability – A NRW contractor is committed to delivering results and has a contract that sets out targets, and payment relies on their achievement.  

Diagram 1 demonstrates that, on average, NRW PPPs perform better than the public sector alone. So, it would seem churlish not to at least try using a PPP to reduce leakage as part of a well-defined strategy for utility performance improvement. 

However, the use of the private sector is no silver bullet and clients, particularly, need to understand this. A PPP contract cannot quickly rectify decades of poor management.  

NRW reduction is not practised by many public utilities in developing countries, so there are few staff or vested interests to object to a NRW PPP. In fact, many companies may welcome offloading the burden of NRW reduction to a contractor, thereby avoiding working at night, digging up roads, and generally being disruptive. At the same time, the benefits of a NRW reduction contract, in terms of improved service, may constitute a significant proportion of what a deeper, and more contentious, form of PPP might deliver. 

Mobilising finance for investment 

Developing country utilities are rarely sufficiently creditworthy to mobilise finance to improve their systems. The blame is often attributed to low tariffs. However, Diagram 2, first presented at SIWI in 2016, shows that the number of potentially creditworthy utilities (revenues > 120% of costs) would quadruple by addressing the efficiency of collections, energy efficiency and leakage.  

This improvement would be achieved by moving utilities from their current performance levels to those demonstrated by their top quartile peers. 

Fixing these endemic performance challenges is at the heart of improving financial sustainability. Energy efficiency, for example, often has payback periods of just a few years. NRW is likely to take a little longer. 

So why doesn’t such creditworthy and performance-enhancing investment take place? There are many reasons, including: 

• Lack of familiarity or understanding between lenders and water companies 
• Lack of capacity to prepare bid documents or oversee implementation, particularly of performance-based contracts 
• High transaction costs when each opportunity is tackled individually and are relatively small  
• The perceived high cost of borrowing in local capital markets. 

Every water company in every developing country could benefit from investments in energy efficiency and NRW reduction. In any country, tens, hundreds, or even thousands of utilities need this support. One way to provide solutions to fix these problems would be to establish national NRW and energy efficiency funds managed as standalone entities or as part of existing financial institutions. Such funds would have two streams of activity: 

• A technical assistance window to streamline and speed up the design and evaluation of projects and address issues of capacity constraints 
• A financing window to provide blended financing for viable projects. Such financing would be a mix of government funds, donor funds, domestic commercial finance, and even Green Climate Funds. The latter are of particular interest given the adaptation and mitigation benefits that flow from energy efficiency and leakage reduction. 

Improving service, particularly moving from IWS to continuous supply, provides a once in a lifetime opportunity for utilities to make impactful changes to tariffs in return for a significantly improved service quality. Carefully managed community outreach can link better service to higher tariffs in a way that will be appealing to customers and improve the creditworthiness of the utility.  

In summary, despite the decades-long drive to improve leakage reduction technology, the hoped-for results have not been delivered.  

This article argues that technology is necessary – but not in itself sufficient – to deliver results. Instead, there should be much greater focus on the following four topics, which, if packaged alongside technical solutions, are likely to deliver the outcomes all sector professionals are seeking:  

• Leakage centric planning, design and construction to assess and mitigate the impact of new investment on leakage 
• Leakage centric operational management to create a directorate for leakage management, which is adequately resourced, accountable, and has flexibility to introduce incentives to motivate staff 
• Leveraging the public sector by partnering with the private sector as part of a strategy for utility improvement by bringing in much-needed skills, experience and equipment 
• Establishing national funds that can provide technical assistance and blended finance for improvements in service and creditworthiness through NRW reduction and energy efficiency.  

None of the above actions are a big ask. They are refinements of existing models of which examples can be seen around the world, and are supported by vast amounts of literature, working groups and conferences that have devoted a great amount of time and effort to this topic. But by raising their profile and bundling them into a strategy for reducing NRW and eliminating IWS, they can deliver the sort of service customers expect in the 2020s. •  

The author

Bill Kingdom is a lecturer at Oxford University, a consultant, and former global lead for water supply and sanitation at the World Bank.  

Dedication

This article is dedicated to Roland Liemberger who sadly died on 18 May 2023. His friendship and professional guidance was ever present throughout my career and this article draws heavily on experiences gained from working together. He will be sorely missed. 

The post Moving from the shadows – Putting leakage management centre stage in utility operations appeared first on The Source.

The world is off-track for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of safe water and safely managed sanitation for everyone, everywhere. This is particularly true in rural areas and in the poorest countries, but is also the case in informal settlements in towns and cities, and in middle income countries. The poor, in general, suffer most.

At its heart, this failure is political. Put simply, those in power do not see drinking water or sanitation as meriting serious expenditure of political capital and, therefore, do not provide the leadership needed to develop resilient, adaptable and sustainable water and sanitation systems. Current estimates suggest that an acceleration of between two- and four-times current progress is needed to achieve ‘clean water and sanitation for all’ by 2030, according to the WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme.

In part, this is understandable. Developing countries’ governments have an impossible range of competing demands to address with their limited resources, and progress is needed fast. Yet, it is also puzzling. Clean drinking water and sanitation are human rights – but, more than this, they are fundamental building blocks of public health, human wellbeing, and economic growth. People who are chronically sick with diarrhoea or other sanitation-related ailments clog up health systems, miss out on education and are a drag on the economy.

Essentials for society

As countries face up to the implications of the climate crisis, it is clear that drinking water and sanitation services are crucial building blocks for societal resilience and adaptation. Cities without reliable access to drinking water will rapidly become unliveable; sewerage systems that are overwhelmed or destroyed during floods will (and do) become reservoirs of disease.

Against this background, in May this year IRC (the organisation I lead) and our alliance partners, Water for People and Water for Good, will host a major international symposium in The Hague, The Netherlands, to consider what is required to break out of the cycle of low priority and investment that is holding back progress. ‘All Systems Connect’ will take place just two months after the United Nations Water Conference, following on from the successful ‘All Systems Go!’ of 2019 and ‘All Systems Go Africa’, which took place in 2021.

While building on the ‘systems focus’ of these previous events, All Systems Connect will engage directly with the question of how we can raise water and sanitation up national political agendas. As part of that, we will look to expand our work on water and sanitation systems, linking to support and benefit similar efforts in sectors such as health, climate, and economic development.

Creating a systems agenda 

All Systems Go! was a major turning point in championing a ‘systems agenda’ – an agenda that starts from an understanding that many of the challenges facing water and sanitation arise from their being treated as ‘infrastructure problems’ that, once solved through capital investment, can, for the most part, be left alone to look after themselves. Decades of failure have shown that this is not the case. Success is only achieved when water and sanitation are treated like other critical public services, such as healthcare or education, for which government fulfils its mandate by providing leadership, finance, and regulation, regardless of who provides the actual service.

Leadership is the key to success

Government leadership is particularly crucial in engaging with and providing a vision for the whole system: clarifying roles and addressing the critical areas of accountability. When looked at from a systems perspective, it is clear that sustainable water and sanitation services rely on a fairly limited number of building blocks (IRC identifies nine in total). These include: adequate institutions and clear rules of the game; reliable data; and appropriate finance.

Experience has taught us that this system cannot be created through a bottom-up approach alone, no matter how great the willingness of different actors may be. To create a resilient national water and sanitation system requires the sort of system-wide vision and imagination that only government can provide. This is not advocacy for public ownership and management of water and sanitation utilities, merely an acknowledgement that the private sector (or indeed communities) cannot work where there is no framework to support and direct their efforts.

Clear national vision is often lacking. Much water and sanitation provision, especially in the poorest countries and areas, is an anarchic free for all. International charities, philanthropists and bilateral donors step into a vacuum created by weak government leadership and often, in the name of innovation, deliver services with a bewildering variety of approaches. As a result, multiple models of service delivery (from self-supply to large utilities) jostle and compete, while rules and roles remain vague and contested.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with experimentation and innovation; indeed, they are essential in the face of climate change. However, innovation can only achieve its goals (and be taken to scale) where it explicitly feeds into existing systems – systems that exist and are capable of benefiting from innovation.

Against this background, All Systems Connect will bring together different ‘system actors’ from around the world: government leaders from national and local level; water and sanitation industry leaders; researchers; civil society; and development agencies. The focus will be on sharing experiences of what is working, in enabling national leadership, and supporting national systems change, with the aim of formulating an action agenda for systems strengthening for the next decade.

A collaborative approach

Participants will come from within and beyond water and sanitation – especially from health, climate, and economic development. As with All Systems Go! in 2019, the three days of the symposium will be a mix of presentations, workshops, panels and plenaries, all curated with the aim of strengthening existing, and creating new, networks between systems thinkers within and beyond water and sanitation. Following the UN conference, All Systems Connect will provide an excellent opportunity to pick up and work through the conference’s high-level discussions and action agenda.

Systems thinking and systems strengthening can sometimes seem far removed from the more technical focus of many IWA members. Yet, all those working in the sector will recognise the frustration that comes from knowing there is a better way to do things, yet seeing no avenue through which to develop that insight. In weak systems, decision-making is opaque and often contested. At a practical level, it may not even be clear who owns a particular set of assets – let alone who is accountable for their management or incentivised to, for example, adopt a cost-saving innovation. Systems strengthening is, therefore, all about creating the broad enabling environment in which all actors can work most effectively, doing so in such a way that the entire system – with all the different actors and factors that make it up – becomes more resilient and adaptable. While government leadership is essential, so too is the open-minded engagement of all other system actors. Only by working together to create a jointly owned vision of success can we work together, effectively, to deliver it. I am therefore delighted to take the opportunity to invite IWA members to join us in The Hague in May, and become part of the water, sanitation, and hygiene systems revolution.

The author:

Dr Patrick Moriarty is Chief Executive Officer of IRC.

More information

All Systems Connect 2023, www.ircwash.org/all-systems-connect-2023

All Systems Go 2019, www.thesourcemagazine.org/the-systems-imperative-for-sdg-wash-success

IRC’s systems approach, including the nine building blocks that make up a sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene system, is in numerous publications on IRC’s website and explained in several open access courses in IRC’s WASH Systems Academy (ircwash.org/wash-systems-academy).

The post All Systems Connect appeared first on The Source.

Two years ago, the world was put under an exceptional situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergence of an unknown virus froze the biggest cities in the world, stopping lots of production processes and commercial activities, while citizens were locked down at home. Under these circumstances, our society had to face and adapt to this new situation, and the water sector was no exception. Despite the general halt to activities, the sector had to continue providing water and sanitation services while tackling the difficulties brought about by the pandemic, including a reduced workforce, difficulties in procuring supplies, changes in water demand patterns, and, in some cases, impacts on finances.

With the aim of drawing conclusions on the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the urban water sector, the International Water Association’s Statistics and Economics Specialist Group developed a study to analyse the use of water during the pandemic in several countries and cities, while providing insights on the impact on the finances of utilities and their long-term implications. To this purpose, data and information was collected from Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Portugal, Romania, the Netherlands, and Singapore.

When it comes to analysing the water consumption patterns during the pandemic, it is not easy to come to general conclusions, as countries faced different restriction measures, which were enforced with different levels of severity and were experienced for varying durations. Besides this, there are other characteristics such as weather conditions, the temporal monitoring scale, or how users are classified, that differs from place to place, making it more difficult to compare the data from country to country. For this reason, for the purposes of the research, we adopted a qualitative, descriptive approach.

In Japan, 36% of utilities implemented tariff reduction, exemption and/or postponement of payment

Based on our data and observations, the effect of the pandemic and lockdowns on water consumption can be grouped into:

• Changes over time and variations in water consumption peaks
• Changes over space/sectors, highlighting a shift of water consumption between different users
• Changes in the volume of water consumed

Temporal observations

With regards to temporal changes in water consumption, a delay in the morning peak was observed, along with a slight change in the timing of the evening peak. This can be explained by the fact that during the pandemic most people worked and studied from home and there was no need to commute, which resulted in people getting up later in the morning. In Limassol in Cyprus, which had the most restrictive social distancing measures applied from March to May 2020, there was a shift in residential consumption of about 1.5 hours in the morning in the month of April, compared with the months of April in the preceding three years; while the evening peak was slightly earlier, and water use declined slightly earlier. However, as the pandemic restrictions decreased at the end of 2020, the water consumption patterns got closer or equal to those of the previous years.

Spatial changes

Spatial changes in water demand are related to shifts in water use between different city areas and sectors. In general, during 2020 the use of non-domestic water decreased because of the reduction of the activities of many businesses. Meanwhile, the use of domestic water consumption increased as people spent more time at home.

Non-domestic water use reduced by up to 30% in Cyprus and 8-16% in Romania and Switzerland. The impact of the pandemic on water consumption can also be noticed in relation to tourist activity. In Lisbon, the month-on-month growth rate in the number of guest-stays in hotels in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, and the month-on-month production growth rate in Portugal, shows that a lower production and near-zero tourism in April led to much lower water intensity (based on billed water use) in May (as meter readings and bill payments are done monthly, explaining the lag of one month in the data of the impact of these consequences). In July and August, water use rebounded along with an increase in hotel guests and production.

It is estimated that water use by households and small consumers in tourist areas of Germany decreased by 5.2%. The increase in water use in suburbs was significantly above the average in Germany because of the impact of working from home and the residential character of the suburbs.

In Portugal, a difference can be seen between predominantly urban, moderately urban and predominantly rural areas, where domestic water use increased respectively by 5.7%, 5.4% and 4.8%. In Lisbon domestic water use declined.

The city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands experienced a reduction in water use due to a sharp decline in the number of tourists and the closure of restaurants and the entertainment industry. In the northern city of Groningen there was a decline of water use in the city and an increase in the rest of the province because of the absence of students and office workers in the city and more people working from home. In contrast, in the eastern part of the Netherlands there was an extreme peak in water use.

The pandemic has demonstrated that water demands are very susceptible to changes in our society.

To measure the extent to which COVID-19 affected water consumption in terms of volume is extremely difficult due to the fact that water use can vary significantly each year depending on the availability of water. Nevertheless, a general increase of water consumption in domestic use has been observed.

In Singapore, domestic water use during the lockdown increased by 9.5%, while over the entire year it increased by 7.8%. In the weeks immediately after the lockdown, water use was still 5-6% higher, as many people continued to work from home and other social distancing measures, such as partial closure of restaurants, were still in place.

A greater consumption of domestic water could be explained by the intensification of hygienic measures that led people to wash their hands and shower more frequently, as well as cleaning their homes more often, and also by an increase in leisure time and activities that involved water consumption, such as gardening, and the increased acquisition of swimming pools. Some of these behaviours have persisted during the post-pandemic period as flexible working arrangements are still part of many people’s lives.

Another aspect that could have had an influence on the volume of water consumption during the pandemic is related to efficiency. Usually public and commercial buildings are equipped with more water efficient appliances. For instance, urinals and toilets in these buildings are usually more efficient than toilets at home, and office lunches prepared in canteens can be more water efficient than lunches made at home.

The pandemic didn’t just alter water demand patterns, forcing water utilities to adapt, it also brought some financial constraints for them. It has been reported that the pandemic raised the expenditures of the utilities because of the need for disinfectants, protection masks, and other extraordinary measures. Some governments applied a regulation for non-payment of bills, increasing the pressure on water utilities. In Japan, 36% of utilities implemented tariff reduction, exemption and/or postponement of payment. In Romania, collection of invoices was reduced by 20% for the period of the first four weeks of the pandemic.

In conclusion, the pandemic has demonstrated that water demands are very susceptible to changes in our society. Moreover, water utilities have demonstrated their robustness in terms of their capability to adapt to functioning variations, guaranteeing an efficient service to society despite the obstacles brought about by the pandemic. •

Lledó Castellet is a researcher at the University of Valencia, Spain

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