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.

Take A Walk on the Wet Side: Do You Know Your Water Footprint?

By Rebecca West
President of the Water Environment Federation

I'm honored to post the very first blog for the Water Environment Federation, and we hope it’s the beginning of many conversations that will get folks thinking and talking about water. Water was definitely all the buzz last week at WEFTEC.08™ in Chicago, where 2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Professor John Anthony Allan, of King’s College London, was the keynote speaker who inspired so many with his comments on virtual water, including yours truly.

The idea of virtual water--basically how much water is needed to produce the food, clothes, and other goods and services we use every day—is a whole new way of looking at water conservation and sustainability. Much as ‘carbon footprints’ define amounts of energy consumption that can be reduced to improve the environment, virtual water helps define our individual water consumption in terms of water footprints. It’s not at all like the ways we are used to thinking and talking about water.

Like many of us in this business, I’ve spent much of my professional life talking about water conservation in terms of taking shorter showers, turning off water when you brush your teeth, minimizing outdoor water use and not using your toilet as a trashcan. These ideas are readily shared when we talk about water conservation, but despite our constant education and outreach, I’m not sure people are really thinking about all the water they use, much less changing their behavior. But here is an idea - what if water quality experts start talking about smaller water footprints instead of shorter showers? I wonder what impact we may have in affecting people’s “water behavior” if we started doing this?

I encourage you to visit http://www.waterfootprint.org to find out that water footprint size varies depending on many things including lifestyle, product choices, even nationality. According to the Water Footprint Network, in China the annual water footprint is 700 cubic meters per person versus 2500 cubic meters per person in the United States. Some of that difference relates to products created with domestic water resources versus products created using water from outside the country. There are other considerations such as diet, and we like our hamburgers!

It takes 16,000 liters of water to produce just 1 kilogram of beef. So if you have a salad for lunch instead of a hamburger, you can reduce your water footprint (and save a few calories in the process!) It’s all about understanding how the choices you make impact the water we have, and it’s time to get the conversational ball rolling down the road to a greener, more sustainable future!

Meanwhile I invite you to visit http://www.waterfootprint.org and find out more about what it takes to reduce your own water footprint. And I ask you to share your comments and ideas for reducing personal water footprints here on the WEF WaterBlog.