WaterFront Daily - Monday

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world water week daily | MONDAY 27 AUGUST | 2018
Individual human development – or shared
Marina Demaria
Venancio makes
the case for a
technologydriven
future.
NATURAL DISASTER?
TEXT | NICK CHIPPERFIELD
PHOTO | THOMAS HENRIKSON
Is ecosystem conservation
fundamentally at odds with
human development? That was
the stark subject of the 2018
World Water Week debate
session, which explored the
key themes of this year’s
Week: Water, Ecosystems and
Human Development.
Two teams of experts were pitted
against each other in frequently vehement
debate. The lively, well-attended
session, part of the Young Professionals
programme, was convened by Arup and
SIWI, and chaired by Mark Fletcher,
Global Water Leader at Arup. One
team argued for the motion, the other
demonstrated how human development
and the responsible stewardship of
natural resources could complement
one another.
“Improving the wellbeing of humans
is a basic, basic growth model assumption
[…] to reduce poverty. Today, we have
much less poverty than 10, 20, 30 years
ago; and that is anchored in a very
particular type of growth model that
uses natural resources. We also know
that technology has been able to solve
many problems in areas where we have
a lack of water,” Diego Rodriguez, from
the World Bank, said.
Similarly, Marina Demaria Venancio,
PhD student at the Federal University
of Santa Catarina, Brazil, outlined
a more technology-focused future,
where the natural world was less
important, adding that research and
innovation came at a cost.
Amanda Janoo, Alternative Economic
Policy Advisor at the UN, spoke about
the individualistic nature of human
development: “there is no limit to how
much people want to consume, or how
rich they want to be,” she said.
Responding, Frederick Boltz, CEO
of Resolute Development Solutions,
argued that the fate of the human race
is dependent on the world’s natural
resources.
“Humans are an endemic part of the
natural ecosystems that sustain our
planet Earth. We’re part of an ecosystem,
and we thrive best within it. Humans
have prospered throughout history by
benefitting from nature,” he said.
“The growth model uses natural
resources to fuel human wellbeing and
development. Why would we destroy
them when they provide such wealth?”
Boltz asked.
Sunil Abeyasekera, Young Professionals
for Agricultural Development,
Sweden, presented a consensus position:
“It’s not a choice between one or the
other – they co-exist. Youth around
the world are yearning for
these capabilities and
opportunities to
conserve ecosystems.
By
investing in
our human
development,
together we
can begin to
flourish.”
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MONDAY: WORLD WATER WEEK DAILY
Desperate need for green
water investments
For a third consecutive year, the Falkenmark
Symposium focused on the need
for an African water revolution, this year
stressing the importance of finding a
sustainable approach to financing it.
The discussion centred primarily on
green water, i.e. the water found in the soil,
as opposed to blue water found in rivers
and lakes. Professor Malin Falkenmark
stated in her opening remarks that green
water investments in Africa have been
neglected for some time and that not even
large-scale irrigation projects can replace
rain-fed agriculture.
“Plants depend on green water and
ignoring this will have devastating consequences
for food security,” she said.
The director of Stockholm Recilience
Centre, Johan Rockström, who gave his
In one of the first sessions of World
Water Week, Pollution-driven water
scarcity for ecosystems and human uses
worldwide, focus was on the increase of
water scarcity and the cost of inaction.
“We need to improve the understanding
of causes, impact and solu-
Some 40 per cent of the world’s population
lives within 100 km of the coast
and the population density in these
areas is twice the global average. On
top of that, two-thirds of the world’s
cities are located on shorelines. With
this comes enormous challenges for
water security and the state of the
groundwater.
Professor Malin Falkenmark
The GREY-GREEN option
Charles Vörösmarty
keynote speech by phone, added
that while 95 per cent of Africa’s
food production is green waterbased,
90 per cent of all water
investments in Africa are in blue
water.
tions to reduce the gap between the
supply and demand of clean water,”
Maryna Strokal, Wageningen University
concluded.
Charles Vörösmarty, City University
of New York, highlighted the dilemma
of investing in so called grey infrastructure
using the often very costly
traditional engineering approach.
“Such infrastructure needs to be
maintained to work well but reports
show that not even a developed country
such as the US is doing very well on
this matter. Therefore, we need to look
at blending green solutions and grey,
taking into account the cascading
benefits that green interventions
could have,” Vörösmarty said.
Difficult to manage ground water in coastal areas
The speakers at the session Groundwater
management in coastal zones
agreed that it is crucial to understand
the complex dynamics between freshwater
and salt water. They stated that
combating salt water intrusion into
groundwater is dependent on proper
monitoring systems, based on science
rather than politics.
Greener cities:
“work local,
think national”
The Ecosystems in an urbanizing world:
challenges and opportunities for symbiosis
seminar used five case studies to
kick-start wide-ranging round-table
discussions. A main focus of which was
how local authorities, academia, business,
and, crucially, local communities,
could co-ordinate efforts to scale-up the
greening of urban areas.
The Development Bank of Latin
America, the Greater Paris Sanitation
Authority, the Urban Waters Hub, and
SIWI hosted the session. Presentations
highlighted practical experiences from
Brazil, Canada, Gaza, Sri Lanka, and
Sweden.
During the round-table discussions,
Nassia Kassela of the Global Water
Partnership, told the Waterfront Daily
about a project to include a “green wall”
at a municipal building in the Greek city
of Thessalonica. The programme, while
still only at a pilot stage, was adopted by
the local council and influenced municipal
building policy across the city and
beyond. The project was made possible
by co-ordination with local officials,
including the deputy mayor responsible
for resilience, Kassela said.
“Technical co-operation is crucial. You
need to work local, think national. You
must have the examples to replicate, but
also work towards a wider vision,” she
said.
NUMBER OF THE DAY3,671
PEOPLE ATTENDING
WORLD WATER WEEK THIS YEAR,
THE HIGHEST NUMBER EVER.

How to CHANGE human behaviour
4
questions to …
Kusum Athukorala,
NetWwater Sri Lanka
Boluwatito Awe from United Purpose says cultural aspects affect water behaviour.
TEXT | Andreas Karlsson PHOTO | THOMAS HENRIKSON
Changing behavioural patterns is
likely to be one of the most costefficient
ways to achieve positive
development within the WASH
sector. It is perhaps also one of the
most difficult.
The things we do in our everyday lives are
often deeply rooted habits and changing
them is usually quite a challenge. Several
sessions yesterday touched on this whilst
exploring and showcasing the benefits of
changing human behaviour in relation to
water, sanitation and hygiene, WASH.
A common perception is that knowledge
is the key to changing a harmful behaviour,
but, as was pointed out during the session
Intelligent intervention design, that is a
view that fails to explain why people keep
smoking or eating unhealthy food, despite
knowing that it is not good for them.
Shaking hands with an unclean hand is just as
disrespectful as not shaking hands at all.
Boluwatito Awe, United Purpose
Instead, a range of factors determine our
behaviour, and identifying, assessing and
targeting these in the right way is crucial.
Done properly, behavioural change holds
an enormous potential, according to Val
Curtis from London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine.
“WASH is an area where challenges are
often so overwhelming that it is difficult
to know where to start, let alone find the
resources. So, we want to find out if positive
development can be achieved purely with
behavioural change,” she said.
There are for instance fundamental
cultural aspects to be taken into consideration.
Boluwatito Awe from United Purpose
said that in many African communities, the
greeting with a handshake is an important
sign of respect, and while it is also a risk factor
in transferring diseases, it is simply not possible,
nor desirable, to change the practice.
“The challenge is to change people’s concept
of respect and make them realise that
shaking hands with an unclean hand is just
as disrespectful as not shaking hands at all,”
she says.
During the later session Can valuing
water change our attitude towards water,
the issues around human behaviour was
attacked from a slightly different angle. One
of the presenters, South African sanitation
entrepreneur Paseka Lesolang, described
how training people in poor communities
to install the company’s patented leak-free
valve has had some surprising side-effects.
“We have effectively turned people into
plumbers which is good for job creation,
but not only that, in the process they have
become aware of how much water can be
lost through a leaking toilet, and they have
learned to value water to a much larger
extent.”
You first presented a
paper on gender and
water at the World Water
Week in 1996. What has
changed since then?
“There has been a lot of
progress, but now I can’t
move forward because I
don’t have gender disintegrated
data. You need this
if you want to make real
change. We have done a
lot to get women and water
on the agenda. Now the
emphasis has moved from
‘women’ to ‘women and
youth’ and they are not a
homogenous group, their
priorities are not the same.”
What is the link between
the SDGs on water and
the SDG on women?
“The SDGs are integrated
but we struggle to get an
integrated approach. We
have all compartmentalized
ourselves, we forget
the connec tion between
the goals.”
How do we get more
women leaders into the
water sector?
“You have to build capacity,
for which you need access
to education. But even if
we have that, some women
are opting out of the race
and therefore we need to
facilitate these women
by changing the system.
Make it more supportive
for women.”
What is the most
important water issue
for women in Sri Lanka?
“Access to clean drinking
water because it is related
to all the rest.”

Water scarcity hampers WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
TEXT | Görrel Espelund PHOTO |thomas henrikson
Water is key to women’s empowerment. But it does not stop there.
Gender equality must be at the heart of the development agenda.
“Without equality, countries will not
meet the targets of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development,” said
Canisius Kanangire from AMCOW
(African Ministers’ Council on Water).
Pointing out that approximately 70 per
cent of the burden of collecting water in
Sub-Sahara falls on women and girls, a
contributing factor to girls dropping out
of school and women living in poverty.
Due to the availability of water, or the
lack thereof, women lose out on leadership
positions.
“Yet we know that when women are
participating in planning and implementing
the sustainable development
strategies, the outcome is better. And
we need to take this into account when
we design our projects,” he said.
Following Kanangire’s introduction
at Tapping into collective wisdom:
Gender sensitive development and water
ecosystems the audience heard inspiring
examples of women who made a
real difference in their communities.
Rounding off the seminar with a song.
Nandita Singh told the story of Jaya
Devi who transformed her rural community
in India, using self-helping
groups and educating them in water
conservation, rainwater harvesting and
watershed management.
“Today, some 9,000 families have
benefitted from her work. To succeed
we need to adopt a bottom-up approach
and promote women who are already
accepted by the community,” she said.
world water week voices
What are your best networking tips?
Ekatha Ann John, The
Times of India, India
“People from
all over the world
are here – this is a
platform for you to
share your experiences
from your country,
and ask about their
experiences.”
Louise Ulveland,
WaterAid, Sweden
“Take the first
step. Most people
do want to network,
but they don’t know
how to approach.
So be brave and
take the first step.”
Franziska Volk, GIZ,
Germany
“Be curious.
Try to ask what
organizations do
so you get a better
understanding of
what they do and
how they operate.”
Ruth Aida Kebautloile,
Lesotho Highlands
Water Commission,
South Africa
“If you want to
be on top of your
game, you need to
ensure that all your
Internet connections
and websites are wellestablished,
including
social media.”
Alexandra Gayle,
UNICEF, US
“Do your research:
make sure you know
which topics interest
you, check out the
speakers, make time
to be in the same room
as them, and have your
elevator pitch ready.”
Jody Raditya
Hanindyawan,
Uppsala University,
Indonesia
“Join the
discussion, be
relaxed, say what
you do, and be
interested in what
other people do –
and stay open to the
many possibilities.”
App
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Publisher: Torgny Holmgren
stockholm waterfront daily • 26–31 AUGUST, 2018
SIWI EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor: Maria Sköld
Graphic Designer: Marianne Engblom
Tips and comments?
Contact us at: waterfront@siwi.org
WORLD WATER WEEK DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF
Görrel Espelund, Andeas Karlsson
and Nick Chipperfield
Photography: Thomas Henrikson
and Mikael Ullén