WaterClimate Discussion

Report from the discussionheld on 13 May 2021

organised by:

edited by: Laura Fonseca, Jane O’Connor & Neil Edwards

ADAPTATION & RESILIENCEPhoto WaterAid/ Basile Ouedraogo

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WelcomeThe Water Climate Discussion series iscreating a space to come together and help the watersector build its leading role addressing the climate crisis.

The series is the result of close collaboration betweenwater institutions who have come together recognisingclimate change as an existential threat and wish to havea voice promoting a key message: water is climate.

This report has been produced based on the discussionlead by Lucien Damiba from WaterAid, Trevor Bishop ofWRSE and the participants’ interaction during the firstdiscussion of the series: Adaptation and Resilience, onThursday, 13 May 2021. Chapter numbers refer tochapter markers in the video recording of the discussion.

“water isclimate”

A water monitor testing anew rain gauge in hervillage in Burkina Faso -Photo WaterAid/ Basile

Ouedraogo

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Reuse: How can reuse atscale be made acceptable tocustomers?4Change: How can we betterengender change and sharelearning across the watersector?6Prioritise: How do weprioritise water use betweensectors?5

Trevor posed three questions tothe participants

Data: What data is missingand how can we get and useit?1Promote: How can wepromote water as the keyCOP26 challenge?3Recharge: What else can wedo to maximise aquiferrecharge?2

Lucien posed three questions tothe participants

Lucien Damiba Trevor BishopTrevor is the OrganisationalDevelopment Director for WaterResources South East (WRSE) willbe leading the discussion on wateradaptation & resilience in areaslike the South East of England.

Lucien is a Regional Researchand Knowledge Manager atWaterAid, based in West Africa.He is responsible for research,knowledge management andclimate change in the region.

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Following the WaterAid introductoryvideo (Chapter 2), Lucien introduced theconcepts of vulnerability, adaptive capacityand WaterAid actions towards identifyingand monitoring water stress to implementadaptation strategies tailored to eachlocation.

Later, Lucien shared an explanatoryvideo presenting the adaptation challengesthat people in Burkina Faso, West Africa, areexperiencing, and their efforts towardsresilience (Chapter 5). He highlighted theneed for more rapid innovation to bettercapture and use the 205 Billion m3 of wateravailable per year in the country for aquiferrecharge, so that it could be used by the 60-70% of population who depend ongroundwater.

Some technologies currently used werediscussed in Chapter 7, such as sand dams,storm bands and half moons.

“Water is life; climatechange affects life."

WaterAid Burkina Faso video: Securing water resources and reducing vulnerability to water stress

A video presented by Paul Hickey, onassignment from the Environment Agency,as leader of RAPID, in Chapter 16, outlinedseveral ideas themed around buildingresilient water supplies.

Paul talked about the commitment by thegovernment and regulators, amongst other

Alongside the discussion, Lucien posed thefollowing questions to the participants:

1. Data: What data is missing and howcan we get and use it?

2. Recharge: What else can we do tomaximise aquifer recharge?

3. Promote: How can we promotewater as the key COP26 challenge?

To close his segment, Lucienemphasised how water is key to adaptationand resilience to climate change with hisstatement: “water is life; climate changeaffects life".

A sand dam constructed across the riverbed.The sand dam is used to improve water

retention and recharging of groundwater inBurkina Faso - Photo WaterAid/ Basile

Ouedraogo

TRANSFERSRESERVOIRSDESALINATIONREUSE

Regulators' Alliance for Progressing InfrastructureDevelopment

actions, to regional planning and the settingup of a new National Framework:• Increasing resilience to 1:500-year

events to be achieved in 2030’s• Formation of RAPID (Regulators'

Alliance for Progressing InfrastructureDevelopment) overseeing new supplyschemes

“We all share thesecatchments and thesebasins, and we need todo planning together.”

Trevor Bishop started his segmentexplaining the objectives and activities ofWater Resources South East (WRSE) inChapter 14, and what WRSE are doingdifferently (Chapter 17), including three corecharacteristics for the management ofresilience: reliability of options and systems,their ability to adapt and their ability toevolve.

“First of all, the big transformation we’redoing is moving from a very traditional risk-based approach to a resilience and adaptiveapproach to planning for long-terminvestment to maintain security of supply inthe economy to make sure we have athriving environment for the future. ”Trevor noted that increasing capacity is notenough to deal with resilience andadaptation.In Chapter 18, he talked about a mix ofstrategies such as managing down thedemand for water, diversifying waterportfolio and implementing semi-closedloops by reusing water.

Chapters 19 and 20 give further detailson desalination challenges, the need toevaluate reuse strategies against a single

Photo Unsplash/ @art_maltsev

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resilience framework and equallyimportantly, the involvement of society andpoliticians to understand what is best for alland to recognise how perception of waterreuse is changing.

As a concluding remark, Trevorsuggested that understanding the naturalenvironment as a system and how resilient itis, can help to take a systems approachwhile planning, for instance, network andconnectivity capacity linked to future waterresources. This planning needs to involve all

Q&A

Throughout the discussion, several Q&A sessions, coveringaspects of demand reduction, leakage and COVID-19 (Chapter 11 to13), encouraged engagement between the presenters and theparticipants. Other topics such as population growth (Chapter 15),use of twin cities as means to change behaviour (Ch 25),privatisation, sector pricing, modelling and societal behaviours(Chapter 28 to 31) were also explored through the Q&A functionality.The online responses to the questions presented during the

discussion were collated and the views shown in the followingsections 1-6.

different sectors and will guide theconversation around prioritisation.

During the discussion, Trevorchallenged the participants with thefollowing questions:4. Reuse: How can reuse at scale be

made acceptable to customers?5. Prioritise: How do we prioritise water

use between sectors?6. Change: How can we better

engender change and sharelearning across the water sector?

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quality (23% of responses), water usage andwater demand.

These data should be collected andinterpreted using GIS mapping (GeographicInformation System) and should be key toshort-, medium- and long-term forecastingcoupled with risk assessments. A key benefitof this particularly, is to develop projectionsof deterioration in raw water quality so that

Participants’ responses to the question ofmissing data are shown in Figure 1.

Open data or free access wereconsidered in 23% of participants' repliesand goes hand in hand with the need foranalysis, mentioned by 17% of theresponses.

Access to data can be used to empowercommunities and support them to interprettheir data and find solutions to localchallenges. Moreover, involvingcommunities can add a different perspectiveto any data that has or is being monitored,their empirical observational skillsdeveloped over generations can givespecific, local context and meaning.

Risk assessment7%

Forecasting7%

Demand10%

Usage13%

Analysis17%

Open access23%

Quality23%

Figure 1 - Participants’ responses to Question 1: how to find and use missing data

Another vital aspect related to open accessdata is its importance to assign a value towater availability. Data sharing will help thepublic perceive how valuable this resourceis, develop solutions that reduce their waterusage and make them aware of leakagerisks.Neil Edwards argues in favour of dataavailability: “Robust approaches toevaluating priorities for competing demandat times of scarcity (benefits assessmentboth direct and indirect including'environment') will flow into ResponsibleInvestment approaches.”

Other views submitted by participantsinclude the need to gather data for water

future treatment capacity and technologycan be developed.

“We monitor wells & pumps, and discretelocations. In-pipe monitoring of used andclean water distribution networks is needed- to reduce leakage and understand wherethe problems are in a holistic manner. Weneed to monitor the whole cycle in anintegrated way” - Louise Keogh.

1. DataWhat data is missing and how can we get and use it?

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Most participants considered that aquiferrecharge and reuse are interconnected,such as grey water reuse.

Other ideas include:• Treating run-off from roads [Rob

Bradley]• Implementing infrastructure for water

harvesting, significantly increasing thenumber of small local sand or stone

2. RechargeWhat else can we do to maximise aquifer recharge?

dams, since even small dams will have asignificant benefit to retain water toprevent runoff [Leonard]

• Modelling water use and flows fromsource to the consumer, to managethem accordingly [Salman]

• Managing wetlands and prevent landencroachment in the tropics [Salman]

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The participants’ responses to Question 3are shown in Figure 3.

One popular response, for 32% ofparticipants, was to adopt the #Water is Lifeor #Water is Climate strapline in lobbyingand raising awareness. These straplineshave been used to market this discussionseries and will be used to market the futureplanned online discussions and conference.

Elena Egidio commented that we arealready promoting the message that “climatechange is water crisis”.

Raise awareness of global differences in water consumption

Use #Water is life Water is Climate

Link Water to Heath

Link Water to Development

Economic reasoning to invest now

Collaboration across industries

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Figure 3 - Participants responses to Question 3: how to promote water as the key COP26 challenge

“climate change iswater crisis"

A significant number of participants, also32%, believe that raising awareness ofglobal differences in water consumption willpromote water as the key COP26 challenge.

Caitlin Cordelia Van Abeelen proposed“studies that include real life stories of usingwater in low resource settings and how thatwould look on a daily basis in high resourcesettings.”

Similarly, Emma Ash suggested a visualdisplay of the average per capitaconsumption of water in Scotland, at COP26in November 2021, to raise awareness ofwater efficiency and costs to treat water.

21% of participants focussed on theeconomic reasons to act now to mitigate theimpacts of the climate crisis and to avoid amuch greater water crisis in the future.

3. PromoteHow can we promote water as the key COP26challenge?

Neilaquainform proposed “a short,compelling visual story showing globally thedevelopment of a water scarcity index overthe next few decades, and in parallel, thedeveloping global $ bill to address if noaction is taken.”Investing now in climate change mitigationwas seen as the “sound economics ofkeeping safe and secure water systemsrunning” by JHolbrook.

Another idea to promote water as the keyCOP26 challenge was to link availability ofwholesome water supplies and provision ofsanitation to health and to economicdevelopment at a local level.

In addition, collaboration acrossindustries, e.g. agriculture, food productionetc., and their dependency on water, was analternative idea to promote water as the keyCOP26 challenge.

#Water is Life

#Water is Climate

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The question of the acceptability of waterreuse generated a wide range of responsesfrom the participants, shown in Figure 4.

The greatest number of participants,34%, believe that education of customersand wider society is the solution to makingwater reuse more acceptable to all.

A further 14% of participants believedthat promoting the safety and benefits ofwater reuse would provide that assuranceneeded for wider acceptance of water reuse.

Jak219 observed that demonstrating thebenefits of water reuse, both economicallyand to security of supply, and then provingthis with use in agriculture etc. shouldimprove acceptability.

14% of participants agreed that there wereopportunities associated with indirect waterre-use, i.e. in aquifer recharge or abstractingdownstream of highly treated sewageeffluent.

Examples such as the Langford WaterRecycling Plant were shared to show howsuch projects can be successful whenissues of perception and acceptability arediscussed openly with stakeholders, to buildtrust and educate on the benefits and safetyof these installations.

SWaugh commented that “indirect re-use like the Langford Water Recycling Plantoperated by Essex & Suffolk water haspublic support” and neilaquainform advisedof the need to first promote awareness ofjust how much water is already suppliedthrough indirect re-use e.g. in lowland riversin England a significant proportion of flow, atlow flow, will be derived from wastewaterdischarges. Indirect water reuse could bethe optimum starting point to generate publicacceptance of wider water reuse.

Similarly, 17% participants highlightedthe opportunities to focus on water reuse forcommercial or industrial supplies (non-household suppliers). This is already widelyacceptable in Singapore (NEWater) andapplying the learning from Singapore,focussing on water reuse for industrialapplications to build wider acceptability, asproposed by SimonMFuller.

A smaller proportion of participants,10%, proposed customer incentivisation togain acceptance for water re-use. Theirsuggestions included metering with waterreuse tariffs and real time quality monitoringfor water reuse applications. Another ideaGraphic andeye/ Laura Currie

4. ReuseHow can reuse at scale be made acceptable tocustomers?

from Rob Bradley and others, identified“aligning carbon savings with reuse throughregulation changes” as a means to improvewater reuse acceptability to customers.Acceptability by regulators would beessential to promote acceptability in thewider population.

Finally, 3% of participants proposedchanges in building standards to make waterreuse more acceptable, even compulsory, ina domestic “grey water” recycling scenario,

and this would bring significant gains inwater efficiency for new developments.

One participant answered, “I think thereis need for education. Issues outside thecities seem very distant from day to daywater use. How my behaviour in a city canhelp people whose well is draining in anothercontinent? What can be my action as anindividual? Is reuse the answer?”

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Figure 4 - Participants’ responses to Question 4: how to make water reuse more acceptable to the public

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Figure 5 shows participants’ responses toquestion 5.

Responses highlighted three broadthemes linked to ‘prioritisation’, namelymeans of achieving allocation, objectivesassociated with allocation and ‘purposes’with more than 50% of responses dealingwith mechanisms.

Participants identified administrativeallocation as a principal means ofdetermining priority in water allocation. Asignificant minority suggested alternativelyor additionally using markets. Severalparticipants, favouring administrativemeans, identified critical roles for

governments and regulators (eg planning),though one explicitly opposed roles forgovernment or markets.

Some participants felt that determinationshould be at community-scale and deliveredthrough empowered, possibly autonomous,societal groups representing localpopulation, industry and services, gatheringand understanding their own data anddetermining prioritisation appropriate forthem.

Many participants suggested that valueor benefit should have a role in prioritisationwith the suggestion that the value of water isnot always evident to users. This could be a

purpose27%

objective20%

allocation mechanism53%

Figure 5 - Participants’ responses to Question 5: how to prioritise water use between sectors

5. PrioritiseHow do we prioritise water use between sectors?

basis of administrative allocation and couldalso be achieved through the use ofmarkets.

One participant suggested a blendedapproach, using administrative initialallocation of rights with secondary marketsto achieve dynamic redistribution of both therights and the water associated with thoserights, to seek improved economic efficiencyas conditions varied.

Only one participant identified‘environment’ explicitly, though environmentcan be taken to be included within ‘value’(which need not be exclusively monetary).

Several participants suggested factorswhich should influence prioritisation ofallocation including ‘purposes’ such aspreference to drinking water supply, or topurposes with low carbon emissionconsequences or in relation to ‘objectives’,including incentivising water use efficiencyand to promote autonomous communities orachieving local public-private partnerships.

In wider discussion, it was suggestedthat water allocation determinations shouldtake place within an adaptive planningframework representing an appropriate‘system’ capable of delivering resilient andevolving ‘solutions’ responding to variabilityand uncertainty, including that associatedwith climate change.

Seeking to manage down water demandwould generally ease pressure on thesystem (and GHG emissions) thoughrecognising that optimisation of water use inthe holistic system may be desirable ratherthan always driving to minimise use, and thatnew water uses would emerge, not leastassociated with purposes addressing thechallenges of climate change.

Allocation frameworks should besufficiently holistic to allow integratedassessment of the range of influences, (egabstraction, wastewater discharge,environmental state, flooding risk, etc.),hence allowing the pros and cons of optionssuch as semi-closed loop, reuse, rechargeand desalination to be soundly evaluated.

Photo Unsplash/ @adrienolichon

How can we better engender change and sharelearning across the water sector?

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Several participants suggested means bywhich messages could be conveyed:• Twinning arrangements could promote

awareness of problems and solutionselsewhere in the world and cut acrosseconomic strata.

• Introducing temporary restrictions couldpromote awareness and behaviouralchange.

• Individuals need to be helped tounderstand how their choices andactions today in one part of the world canexacerbate or ease water problemsexperienced elsewhere in the world inthe years to come.

Establishing suitable factors withresponsible investment initiatives (orrequirements) could nudge or force changein investor appetite leading to change ‘on theground’.

“Water is not the waterindustry’s problem – it isa global challenge for

us all."

There is a clear role for education inengendering change and sharing learningabout water and the aquatic environment.This includes the formal and informal, withinschools/universities and wider, throughmainstream and social media.

Global messages need to be expressedin terms that are meaningful in localcircumstances, recognising local problemsand solutions, local politics, culture, customand practice, etc.

Sustainability and water awarenessshould become instinctive and expected.Promotion of holistic and integrated thinkingand planning should replace traditional silo-thinking. Water is not the water industry’sproblem – it is a global challenge for us all.

“What we’ve also done, is brought theother sectors in, so we’re planning once foreveryone involved with water, whether it’sclean or wastewater together, so we do aplan which is integrated. We have to stopplanning in silos. We all share thesecatchments and these basins, and we needto do it together,” Trevor Bishop.

Participants suggested that improveddata quantity, quality, scope, cost andaccessibility may be helpful (e.g. throughuse of publicly available, free databasessupported by compelling visual storiesthrough GIS and story maps).

Better awareness of costs, values andbenefits may influence behaviour andpreference.

Inclusion of the embedded knowledge ofcommunities, acquired through generations,as well as citizen science may promoteengagement.

6. Change

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Energy TransitionClean Transport

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