Thoughts from the World Water Forum

By Rebecca West, WEF President

During the World Water Forum V, held in Istanbul, Turkey, March 16-22, 2009, I was one of more than 25,000 participants who discussed themes including the following:

• Global Change and Risk Management;
• Advancing the Human Development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG);
• Managing and Protecting Water Resources;
• Governance and Management;
• Finance;
• Education, Knowledge and Capacity Development.

The theme that struck me as most important was Advancing Human Development, which prompted discussions on the need to provide access to sanitation and clean drinking water in developing areas with growing populations and the resulting water scarcity and degraded water quality. It seems to me that once access to sanitation and clean drinking water is available--whether in developing or industrialized areas of the world--that communities and their residents can develop; then the other five forum water themes could be addressed.

For communities across this planet to survive and then thrive, access to basic sanitation and clean water is the first and most essential requirement. I’ve had opportunities to witness this first hand, most recently during a personal trip to Kidete, Tanzania. A small village of around 700 people, Kidete is located on the outskirts of Iringa, Tanzania (population around 180,000 people). It’s an area blessed with frequent rainfall, but access to water is a challenge due to changing weather patterns and an expanding population requiring water for living and for growing food.

As seen in this photo, Kidete residents must seek available water sources each day for their daily drinking, cooking, bathing, washing and crop growth. A consistent and ample water supply would begin to completely change this village: children could attend school, women could better attend to the daily chores of growing and gathering food for their families (or perhaps even begin a small business or go back to school), babies would be born with better birth weights and a greater chance of living beyond their toddler years. Once this happens, Kidete and villages like it could develop a better standard of living and focus on protecting their water supply because they understand the value of water and what it means for each day of their lives. Then water issues related to governance, management, finance, education, and capacity development will take shape and more complex water issues related to global change and risk management could be considered.

Basic access to sanitation and clean drinking water is a right of all people, and I offer these thoughts to show that human development really does depend on that right. So do global water solutions.

Sound Science: Water Quality Monitoring

Carl Myers, Assistant Director, WEF Government Affairs

Recently joining the WEF staff a few years removed from my former EPA life, I was cheered by the new Administration’s focus on sound science, clearly stated by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson:

“Science must be the backbone for EPA programs. The public health and environmental laws that Congress has enacted depend on rigorous adherence to the best available science.”

A critical component of applying sound science, the need to collect, analyze and wisely use good water data, including the robust ambient and related water quality monitoring efforts necessary to provide good data, cannot be overlooked. In these tough economic times, we must appreciate the array of monitoring efforts now underway at Federal, State and local levels and do whatever we can as water professionals to cooperatively support and improve all our monitoring efforts.

WEF has long supported the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program administered by USGS in cooperation with many others. NAWQA is a well-designed and implemented water quality monitoring program producing both national and State/local data and results helpful to informing water management decisions. WEF, in cooperation with USGS, has sponsored a continuing series of congressional briefings to make sure NAWQA findings are understood and discussed by national leaders. The next congressional briefing, which as always is open free to the public, will discuss new findings about the quality of our nation’s private drinking water wells. “The Quality of Our Nation’s Private Drinking Water Wells: Are Current Contaminant Levels Above Public Health Benchmarks?” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. in the Cannon Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. No RSVP is required for attendance. For more information, contact Donna Myers (dnmyers@usgs.gov, 703-648-5012) at USGS or Nick Bardis (nbardis@wef.org, 703-684-2400 x7731) at WEF.

Supporting water quality monitoring should include encouraging everyone, not just water professionals, to both understand and participate in water monitoring. WEF and the International Water Association in partnership with a wide range of sponsors have been helping local participants observe World Water Monitoring Day™ (WWMD). In 2008, more than 73,000 people worldwide visited their local streams, rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies to take basic water quality measurements in celebration of World Water Monitoring Day, marking a 60% increase in participation from 2007. WWMD is officially observed each year on Sept. 18. Beginning in 2009, participants will be able to monitor and report data to the WWMD database from March 22 (World Water Day) until Dec. 31. The goal is to engage 1 million people in monitoring their local waterways by 2012. For more information, see the World Water Monitoring Day 2008 Year in Review, available at www.WorldWaterMonitoringDay.org or by request at wwmd@wef.org.

NAWQA and WWMD are just two examples of how WEF is supporting and advancing water quality monitoring. It’s important that all water professionals work together to help develop the best possible monitoring data to support sound science even as we go full-speed-ahead on watershed management actions.

Global Water Stewardship and WEF

By Paul Freedman, 2008-2009 President-Elect of WEF

During this very recent bitter cold spell my water pipes froze, and I was without water. Albeit a short time, still this helped me really appreciate the importance of having adequate, clean and safe water. Yet, we know that here in the US, and globally, the sustainability of our water supplies is continually threatened by pollution, excessive demands, and now climate change. So, as an organization of water professionals, we at WEF asked, “what can we do to help mitigate these threats?” At our last meeting, the WEF Board of Trustees passed a resolution to partner with the Alliance for Water Stewardship to promote and recognize good practices among large water users and providers.

As water quality professionals know, water scarcity is a human health and economic threat. In 2003, the US and the GAO predicted that 46 states will experience water shortages within 10 years, and we have already seen dangerous levels of drought across the continental map. Areas of historically stable supplies like the southeast came dangerously close to depleting their available supplies just two years ago, while sunbelt areas in the south and Southwest are perennially short. Globally, insufficient and unsafe water supplies are problems for over a billion people, causing an estimated 1.6 million deaths every year. Industries and even whole economies of countries are often threatened by water shortages. So when it comes to water, smart conservation, effective allocation, and wise use are essential to public health, economics, and the environment worldwide. (See WEF's resources on water reuse.) Governments and users share responsibility for the solutions.

Per the Board resolution I mentioned earlier, WEF is now helping launch the Alliance for Water Stewardship. The Alliance is an international partnership of like-minded organizations with the objective to develop a set of principles and good practices for large water users and providers, including industry and all types of water utilities. We have a 3-year goal to develop a global certification program with a vision to recognize water users and managers who are responsible water stewards, protecting and enhancing freshwater resources for people and nature. The program builds on global scientific and policy research on “water footprints” and the desire to not only minimize wasteful water uses but also undertake practices that can protect and replenish the availability of safe clean water in individually stressed watersheds and groundwater aquifers.

There are numerous international efforts to define sustainable practices, and in many cases we certify those good steward practitioners in everything from forestry to commercial fisheries. However, sustainable water is a foundation for all of those industries. Water is not only essential to life, it’s a foundation for our food supply, our economy, and our global ecology. So WEF members, as the professional “stewards” of the water environment, we have a responsibility to lead and establish practices that will insure a sustainable future for clean, safe water. That’s why we are supporting the Alliance for Water Stewardship.

What do you think? Add a blog reply. If you want more information please contact me or Matt Ries at the Water Environment Federation.