Climate Action 2009-2010

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
offer opportunities to mitigate such problems and are
proving to be very economical.
“Smart” water management includes sensor networks
that can track water flow and quality, water meters that
can give utilities and customers up-to-date information
on water use and price, and complex “predictive”
modeling to let water managers plan for the future.
WATER AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT
There is a close connection between water and energy
supplies and use. Globally, about one-fifth of all the
electrical power goes toward pumping and treating
water, for example, and electricity generation plants use
huge amounts of water for cooling.
Considering water management with energy
management can enable significant increase in
productivity in the use of both resources. Water
conservation can lead to large energy savings, as
can taking full account of energy efficiency in water
management.
“
Each year there are
hundreds of millions of cases
of water-related diseases and
more than five million deaths
caused by unsafe drinking
water and inadequate or
nonexistent sanitation. New
or ‘smart’ technologies offer
opportunities to mitigate such
problems and are proving to
be very economical
“
Like the carbon footprint and the ecological footprint,
there is also a water footprint, designed to give a
snap shot of various water uses. Created by the Water
Footprint Network, it is an indicator of water use that
looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer
or producer. It gives the total volume of water used to
produce goods and services consumed by an individual
or community, or produced by a business.
The corporate water footprint refers to the total
volume of water used directly and indirectly to run and
support the business. It consists of two components:
the operational water footprint, the direct water use
by the business in its own operations; and the supplychain
water footprint, the water use in the business’s
supply chain.
Many companies collect water quantity and
quality data for their own needs.
Although these footprint indicators are not universally
accepted by the science community, because of their
lack of robustness, they still offer a quick and easy
measure of water consumption and use.
Over and above profit-maximising goals and efficiencies
sought by most businesses, there is a need for
corporations to be socially responsible. To return to
the issue of monitoring, many companies collect water
quantity and quality data for their own needs. Sharing
these data with global initiatives such as GEMS/Water
(water quality) and the Global Runoff Data Centre (water
quantity) would increase their utility and contribute to
meeting the needs of monitoring climate change.
Author
Sabrina Barker was the senior policy advisor to
GEMS/Water for six years. Prior to that she was a
senior advisor in the Canadian government, and
worked for many international development NGOs.
Her academic background focuses on international
political economy, and she publishes on a range of
environmental water quality issues.
Organisation
Since 1978, the UN GEMS/Water Programme has
been the primary source for global water quality
data. Key activities include data collection, research,
assessment and capacity building. The twin goals
of the programme are to improve water quality
monitoring and assessment capacity in participating
countries, and to determine the state and trends of
regional and global water quality.
Enquiries
UN GEMS/Water Programme Office
c/o National Water Research Institute
867 Lakeshore Road
Burlington, Ontario
L7R 4A6 CANADA
Tel: +1 (306) 975-6047
Email: info@gemswater.org
Websites: www.gemswater.org
www.gemstat.org
WATER 179
VISIT: WWW.CLIMATEACTIONPROGRAMME.ORG