World Water Week Daily Monday 29 August, 2016

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world water week daily|MONDAY AUGUST 29 | 2016
Johan Rockström
Malin Falkenmark
Green water must be part of
realizing SDGs in Africa
TEXT | andreas karlsson PHOTO | THOMAS HENRIKSON
CONTRARY TO THE DEVELOPMENT IN MOST PARTS
OF THE WORLD, THE POPULATION GROWTH IN
AFRICA IS STILL MASSIVE, WITH INCREASING
DEMANDS FROM AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY AND
ENERGY PRODUCERS ADDING TO THE PRESSURE ON
SCARCE WATER RESOURCES.
The population in Africa is projected
to almost quadruple in the coming
80 years or so, with the number of
people living in extremely vulnerable
areas increasing dramatically. This was
the main focus at yesterday’s Malin
Falkenmark Symposium, where steps
were also taken towards a call for
concrete action, initiated by a group
of hydro-climate experts, including
Professor Malin Falkenmark and
Professor Johan Rockström.
“The scale of the crisis is tremendous
and time is short. Adequate response
has to include an African green water
initiative,” Falkenmark said.
She and her fellow speakers stressed
the importance of a clear green water
focus as part of realizing the Sustainable
Development Goals, as they all
painted a gloomy picture of the situation
in Africa, noting that while we are
indeed close to the edge of the cliff, we
can still make a change for the better.
“There are “hopespots” among the
“hotspots”, suggesting that all is not
lost. But what we need is a triple green
revolution in Africa, consisting of
productive use of green water, intensification
and enhanced food production,
and increased environmental focus,”
Falkenmark said.
As part of the initiative, better
systems for rainwater harvesting must
be put in place, she explained. Blue
water is limited and with continuing
economic growth it will become increasingly
needed for urban and
industrial water supply, leaving rain
as the main water source for agriculture
in arid regions. And while rain-fed
agriculture already accounts for a
majority of the world’s food production,
as much as 50 per cent of the productive
green water flow is estimated to be lost
as evaporation, according to the African
Development Bank. Rainwater harvesting
must therefore also be complemented
by more efficient systems for water
distribution and irrigation.
“We are in such a dire situation
that we must think bigger. Enough is
enough and it is time to move from
being concerned scientists to call for
actual action. We need to ramp up our
work and in this we need to emphasize
Africa,” Rockström said.
“The problem,” he concluded, “is not
really a lack of money, but the fact that
investments are inefficient and misguided.”
He went on to explain that to finance
their initiative, the group of experts
proposed a Water Harvesting Innovation
Fund for Africa, to build water
resilience for food security and human
well-being.
published by stockholm international water institute

MONDAY: WORLD WATER WEEK DAILY
WATER: A MAN’S WORLD?
Joan B. Rose, 2016 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate
Do women in the water sector face career challenges
that their male colleagues do not? That is indeed what the
statistics suggest, most notably the United Nations World
Water Development Report 2016. And not only that, the gap
between men’s and women’s professional opportunities does
not seem to be closing anytime soon.
This pressing issue was covered yesterday in a seminar
where members of the audience, most of them young women,
were invited to share their personal stories. They were complemented
by a number of prominent and highly successful
female professionals, including this year’s Stockholm Water
Prize laureate, Joan B. Rose. And the message was clear:
women do generally need to work much harder for the same
recognition as men.
Despite this, the most common advice coming from the
stage were to follow one’s passion, to be true to oneself, always
dare to speak one’s mind, and to interact within professional
networks, female and others. Several speaker’s also raised a
word of caution about routinely blaming career problems
on gender based inequality, saying that victimization could
indeed be counterproductive.
Bella Monse, GIZ
WASH IN SCHOOLS A
NEGLECTED ISSUE
There are several dimensions
of inequity to water and
sanitation, such as social,
geographical and economical.
Yesterday, panellists
discussed the topic at the
Equitable access to water
and sanitation: Sustainable
growth for all seminar.
Bringing up the issue of
social injustice outside the
household setting, Rick Johnston
from the World Health
Organization (WHO) talked
about WASH in health care
facilities and Bella Monse
from the German development
agency GIZ spoke about
WASH in schools.
“More and more children
are going to school, still
WASH in schools is a neglected
issue. There is no clarity
over the responsibility for
school toilets,” she said.
To achieve better equity
the WASH-sector and the
education sector need to start
working together, Monse
concluded. Moderator Oliver
Schmoll from WHO added:
“It’s very clear that the
whole of society is needed
when we want to accelerate
equitable access in specific
settings. This is nothing that
stays in the WASH-sector,
if we want to make progress
we need to leave our comfort
zones and talk to others.”
REACHING OUT FOR
IMPROVED URBAN
SANITATION
Community outreach and
cost awareness were identified
as two key factors in
promoting urban sanitation
during the Citywide sanitation
services: recent thinking
and experiences session
yesterday, during which
participants shared knowledge
and findings on a
variety of sanitation projects.
Speaking about steps
taken in Vitoria, Brazil,
Martin Gambrill of the
World Bank Group stressed
the importance of utilities
and government authorities
engaging with local communities.
“To get households connected
to the sewage system,
the local utility [provider]
initiated a programme
where they established key
performance indicators,
and took households to see
[treatment] plants; they
held community meetings
and they trained local people
to be plumbers,” said Gambrill.
A point echoed by Melita
Grant of the Institute of
Sustainable Futures who
emphasised the importance
of “community-based systems”,
with social cohesion
being “a big part of the puzzle.”
However, concern was
expressed over funding
and revenue streams, with
several participants highlighting
the challenges of
developing funding models,
identifying service levels,
and defining costs, with the
communication of costs to
decision-makers as being a
“real hurdle”.
NUMBER OF THE DAY
38%
OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES IN 54
LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES
SURVEYED DO NOT HAVE AN IMPROVED
WATER SOURCE.
Source: WHO, Unicef: Water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities. Status
in low- and middle-income countries and way forward.

Kevin Urama, Senior Policy Advisor to the President of the African
Development Bank
TEXT | andreas karlsson PHOTO | THOMAS HENRIKSON
KEVIN URAMA, SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR TO THE
PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK,
AFDB, HAS A VERY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP TO
WATER ISSUES. AND HE IS, DESPITE THE URGENCY OF
THE MATTER, OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE.
Growing up in eastern Nigeria, Urama used
to, like most children, walk many kilometres
every day to fetch water for his family’s
daily needs. He remembers bringing the
jerry cans on his way to school in the morning,
hiding them along the way so that he
could get a head start later in the day when
all the children went to the stream to collect
water.
This heavy carrying in his childhood has
left him with a very palpable reminder of
how important water is: a strained neck still
haunts him today, many years later.
“It is a painful yet enriching experience
to have, because it makes me understand
the need for universal access to water. For
me water is the infrastructure of life and
solving pressing water issues in Africa
will unlock huge productivity potential
for the entire continent. Children will be
able to spend full days at school, women
will free up time to engage in productive,
income-generating activities, and so forth.”
Yesterday Urama participated in the
Malin Falkenmark Symposium where
“Solving
water issues
in Africa will
unlock huge
productivity
potential”
water scarcity in Africa was in focus.
His conclusion is that there are
reasons to be positive looking ahead
after all.
At least cautiously so. The water-related
challenges are indeed huge and things
might not look very bright, but he says that
the current unity around the issues
is unprecedented, and reassuring.
“AfDB is stepping forward to take leadership
in development issues and we work
intensely with an array of water-related
topics. We have launched an action plan
called Feeding Africa, targeting these very
questions and we feel we have a strong
and unanimous support from our regional
membership states, as well as non-regional
states and other parties. That is what motivates
me and gives me hope for the future.”
At the same time, Urama thinks that on
a global level Africans need to be more involved
in the debate and he points out that
it is striking that a prominent symposium
focusing on Africa, such as the
Malin Falkenmark Symposium yesterday,
only had one participant from the continent:
himself representing the AfDB.
The reason, he suggests, is perhaps
mainly logistical in this case, but he
stresses that he would welcome this level
of debating being brought to Africa, and
he wants to see Africans participate rather
than just being talked about. That, he says,
is the only way true change will take place.
CONSENSUS IN
THE MIDDLE EAST
IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST
CONFLICT-RIDDEN REGIONS,
WATER HAS BECOME A CATALYST
FOR PEACE AND COOPERATION.
“It’s not every day you see
consensus and hope in the
Middle East,” said Gidon
Bromberg, Israeli Director
for the environmental
organisation EcoPeace,
commenting on the
consensus shown by
participants in yesterday’s
High Level Panel:
Financing sustainable
growth in the Jordan
Valley.
Bromberg’s colleagues,
the Palestinian Director
Nader Khateb and the Jordanian
Director Munqeth
Mehyar, participated in
the seminar.
EcoPeace has been
working to strengthen
regional cooperation
around water issues for
more than two decades.
Together with partners
SIWI and Global Nature
Fund, a master plan has
been drawn up to save the
much-polluted Jordan
River.
The aim is not only
to restore the ecological
structure of the river but
all to secure a sustainable,
prosperous and peaceful
future for the communities
in the three countries bordering
the water source.
“We have set up 127
projects that will cost 4.5
billion USD. The money
will be spread out over 35
years,” Mehyar said.
The next step EcoPeace
is anticipating is the creation
of a donor-supported
trust fund that can help
kick-start a series of shortterm
actions. In parallel,
new investment vehicles
are needed to attract public
private partnerships.

URBAN AND RURAL: WORLDS APART?
TEXT | nick chipperfield PHOTO | THOMAS HENRIKSON
Combatting the growing dislocation
between urban and rural populations
topped discussions during yesterday’s
Forests, water and sustainable growth of
cities session, with speakers considering
how the issue impacts the success of
urban development projects.
“More and more people live in cities
as opposed to rural environments,
and connecting those two cultures
is becoming increasingly difficult.
City dwellers are divorced from the
particulars of how the land is managed
– it’s a big cultural divide,” said Jan
Cassin, from non-profit organization
Forest Trends.
“We need to work on reconnecting
people with the land, and demonstrate
the links between the urban and rural
spheres,” she added.
Cassin outlined how public-private
partnerships in the western United
States had successfully addressed the
impact of forest fires, and managed
associated risks.
“Collective agreement on
priorities and cost sharing are two
key components in such initiatives,”
Cassin said, adding that “institutional
champions” also played a pivotal role.
Mats Eriksson, from SIWI,
underlined the importance of up- and
down-stream linkages, and described
forests as a resource as well as a
potential hazard.
“It’s very important to strike the right
Fred Kihara, Nature Conservacy
balance: how much forest should we
look to establish in a given area? We
must see forests as a commodity in the
landscape, and identify and highlight
this effectively.”
world water week voices
How do you think the week will support your work?
Hiroko Miyamoto,
Kokusai Kogyo, Japan
“We work as a
technology and
engineering consultancy.
I hope to bring
knowledge back home
and to find partners to
work with in the future.”
Lewis Temple, Brac,
United Kingdom
“It helps us to develop
new partnerships. It’s
the biggest sector event
for WASH. Coming
here is an efficient way
to meet people from all
over the world.”
Marlene Achoki,
Institute of Environment
and Water
Management, Kenya
“It’s mainly a learning
and sharing experience.
I’d like to see how people
are linking the issues
of water management
and climate change
adaptation.”
Sridhar Vedachalam,
Johns Hopkins
University, USA
“I’m a researcher and
will present my work
at one of the seminars.
This is an important
event for new ideas
and the latest thinking
in the fields of water
and sanitation.”
Zaki Shubber,
UNESCO-IHE,
Switzerland
“I’m a lecturer in law
and water diplomacy
and interested to see
what people are doing in
those areas. I’d also like
to look beyond that to
make new connections
in other fields.”
Takeki Tomikawa,
Kyushu University,
Japan
“I work with functional
water. I’m here to listen
to seminars and learn
more about water in my
field of work.”
Digital updates
Don’t forget to check in with us for digital updates
throughout the day, and engage with us on
social media. The online programme is available
on programme.worldwaterweek.org and
in the World Water Week mobile phone app.
World Water Week @siwi_water
in Stockholm
Stockholm International
Water Institute (SIWI)
@siwi_water
Stockholm
International
Water Institute
World
WaterWeek
World
WaterWeek
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Publisher: Torgny Holmgren
SIWI EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor: Victoria Engstrand-Neacsu
Graphic Designer: Elin Ingblom
stockholm waterfront daily • 28 AUGUST - 2 SEPTEMBER, 2016 • CIRCULATION: 900
WORLD WATER WEEK DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF
Görrel Espelund, Andeas Karlsson
and Nick Chipperfield
Photography: Thomas Henrikson
and Mikael Ullén