This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum.
Author: Ryan Lynch, Practice Director of BSI’s Sustainability Practice, BSI
- Water provision and use contribute 10% of global emissions, while drought could affect as many as 75% of the world’s population by 2050.Ensuring a water-secure future could be as big a sustainability opportunity as cutting emissions.Applying a circular economy mindset to the water security challenge can help tackle some of the key drivers of the issue.
It has been a summer of extreme weather, with forest fires in Europe and Canada, record temperatures in China, and an unprecedented storm in California. Yet, one thing that isn’t always considered in the discussion of rising temperatures and climate change is water availability. With levels of water scarcity soaring as annual water use rises by around 3,500 billion cubic metres (m3) globally over the last century, this deserves as much global attention as climate change. And increasing water circularity through global collaboration could have a hugely positive impact, by reducing drought risk, supporting climate goals and advancing social development to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Crucially, we found that water provision and use contribute around 10% of global carbon emissions, while drought could affect as many as 75% of the world’s population by 2050. Ultimately, action now on water could be as beneficial to the planet as tackling the climate crisis – and the two are inextricably linked.
A global problem
Like climate change, water security is an issue relevant to all economies, not just those known for arid landscapes. The BSI Water Security Indicator evaluated availability across 40 locations, with the US, China and India receiving the top rating, meaning they are facing the highest possible water security challenge. The US has moderate water availability challenges but very high levels of personal consumption and leakage per capita, while specific locations are under extreme pressure, such as Los Angeles. In China, where the cities of Chengdu, Tianjin, Xi’an, Beijing and Shanghai face severe water stress, there is the major twin challenge of having low levels of renewable water available per capita and high levels of utilization. Even the UK – known, after all, for its rainfall – is ranked as medium, in light of having one of the lowest levels of renewable water resources available per capita.
As with the race to net zero, there is much we can do to have a positive impact and meet this challenge, if governments, the water sector and other players, including organizations, collaborate on a large scale.There are lots of strategies that can be deployed here, but a key starting point is making it easier for consumers to choose water-saving products, for example, via product labelling. More broadly, it is about embedding a circular economy mindset that sees preserving water as a priority. Many of us have embraced the journey to net zero, and now understand Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction as critical. We can do the same with water and effect change if we step up efforts to prioritize addressing water availability challenges, and encourage a positive water-saving culture amongst individuals, organizations and society, at home and in the workplace, and across different sectors of industry. In a world where water security is a growing issue, we all have a role to play.
What is the Forum doing to address the global water challenge?
Water security – both sustainable supply and clean quality – is a critical aspect in ensuring healthy communities. Yet, our world’s water resources are being compromised.Today, 80% of our wastewater flows untreated back into the environment, while 780 million people still do not have access to an improved water source. By 2030, we may face a 40% global gap between water supply and demand.The World Economic Forum’s Water Possible Platform is supporting innovative ideas to address the global water challenge.
The Forum supports innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships including the 2030 Water Resources Group, which helps close the gap between global water demand and supply by 2030 and has since helped facilitate $1Billion of investments into water. Other emerging partnerships include the 50L Home Coalition, which aims to solve the urban water crisis, tackling both water security and climate change; and the Mobilizing Hand Hygiene for All Initiative, formed in response to close the 40% gap of the global population not having access to handwashing services during COVID-19.Want to join our mission to address the global water challenge? Read more in our impact story.
Delving deeper into this, it’s about no longer seeing water as infinite, but instead recognizing that making water recycling and reuse the norm is within our grasp. Reusing water provides a huge opportunity to reduce freshwater withdrawals and to address rising demand. This could mean ensuring that in water-stressed areas, water reuse measures are included in new buildings (much more cost effective than retrofitting them) or expanding the use of rainwater harvesting for flushing the toilet rather than using quality drinking water. Where development is proposed in water-stressed areas, governments can drive progress by using regulation and multi-stakeholder standards to encourage reuse and even water neutrality. Likewise, we can partner across society to encourage greater monitoring of progress on water recycling and reuse measures in a standardized way. Applying a circular economy mindset to the water security challenge can help tackle some of the key drivers of the issue.
Greater recognition of problem
They say that where there’s a will there’s a way – and in a positive sign, the findings come amidst recognition of the importance of water management. According to polling commissioned by BSI and conducted by Malvern Insight, two-thirds of consumers and 80% of small business leaders (US and UK) identified clean water and sanitation as “part of sustainability”, while half of the former and 44% of the latter placed it in the top five issues to focus global resource and effort on.Water is one of the earth’s most fundamental and precious resources. If we collaborate as a global population, as with climate change, we can uncover strategies to improve water availability by providing solutions that can benefit people and planet. Ensuring a water-secure future could be as big a sustainability opportunity as reducing carbon emissions and could help
[…] A report published by European Sting with inputs from the World Economic Forum notes that water security is relevant beyond countries with arid landscapes. The BSI Water Security Indicator that evaluated 40 locations noted that the US, China and India faced the highest possible water security challenges. […]