Water scarcity - and the need to act

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in this and all my blog entries are my own personal views and not representative of Ashoka, ADEW or any organisation with which I am affiliated, unless otherwise stated.

The 22^nd March was World Water Day – dedicated as such in 1993 by the UN General Assembly.

Ashoka Arab World has focused on environmental protection since our inception and long recognized the importance of finding and supporting leading social entrepreneurs working in this area. Seeing the water crisis our region is facing is a further reminder of the urgent need to take action.

This week I am in Dubai, meeting with a number of prospective partners, and engaged in exciting talks and plans to bring Ashoka Arab World’s groundbreaking Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASEP) to life. ASEP is an integrated program which brings together key stakeholders from the social sector, business sector, government and academia to address three pressing regional challenges, one of which is water scarcity.

With President al-Sisi of Egypt having just signed an agreement with Ethiopia and Sudan to allow for the building of the Grand Renaissance dam in Ethiopia – due to be completed in 2017 and to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity – the question of water supply and availability is once more coming under the spotlight in my country.

For two years, the Ethiopian dam has been the subject of great controversy within Egypt and many have posed the rhetorical question of whether the dispute between the three countries involved would remain verbal. However, as Sisi said, “We have chosen cooperation, and to trust one another for the sake of development.”

Water scarcity is clearly not a regional phenomenon, but a global concern. The UN World Water Development Report “Water for a Sustainable World”, released just in advance of World Water Day, laid out in stark terms the urgent water shortage being faced globally and the need to find integrated and sustainable solutions as soon as possible. Total global demand for water is expected to increase by 55% by 2050, with the demand for water by industry alone expected to increase by 400% between 2000 and 2050.

Water is needed for consumption, sanitation and development in the broadest possible sense. UN statistics indicate that, to produce just two steaks, you need 15,000 litres of water. A water shortage will affect every aspect of our lives – impacting the amount of clean air we have to breathe, the food we can eat, the diseases we may contract or prevent, our ability to source renewable energy and industrial growth, to name but a few issues. It is all interconnected.

And current predictions indicate that our planet will face at least a 40% shortfall in water by 2030, if we don’t take immediate action to curb our consumption and focus on sustainability.

With the very real threat of severe water shortages becoming ever more evident, it is clear that only a comprehensive and unified global effort can help to reduce the negative impact that will be felt, especially by the world’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

As Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), emphasized "The impacts of our increasingly stressed global water resources can be felt by almost everyone, in the form of food insecurity, disease, degraded ecosystems, biodiversity loss, loss of economic productivity, endangered marine life, loss of tourism and more."

"What this means is that the remedy to these ills cannot be administered in a piecemeal and fragmented form. An integrated approach is key because solutions that address the environmental challenges, if they are to be effective, must also address the economic and social ones. "

Within the Middle East and North Africa region, our levels of environmental waste and a widespread lack of sustainable development practices are alarming. But our greatest fears should perhaps centre on the area that is arguably our most thriving from an economic and social perspective: the Gulf region.

Not only is the Gulf (which encompasses Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates) at a geographical disadvantage when it comes to water availability, having collectively only 1% of renewable water resources and very low rainfall, its residents are among the highest per capita water users in the world. Research undertaken by experts at the Ashoka Arab World regional office indicates that the average consumption range of Gulf residents is 300-750 litres of water per day.

Unfortunately, measures taken by governments in the region to ensure access to water for all – measures which may have been seen as necessary for social development – are proving detrimental to sustainable water consumption. To begin with, water consumption throughout the Gulf is heavily subsidized, with consumers paying no more than 10% of the real cost of the water – meaning that there is very little incentive for them to save water. Furthermore, much of the water consumed has to be treated through a desalination process as there are few natural water reserves; as the demand for water grows, so is this desalination process becoming increasingly costly and financially unsustainable.

Ashoka Arab World has identified water scarcity as being a challenge that is essential to address at the regional and the global levels and as such have chosen to make it one of the three ASEP focus areas. We are using our expertise to seek the most effective and impactful social innovations pioneered by entrepreneurs who are creatively addressing the issue of water scarcity, with our particular focus being on those individuals resident in and local to the Gulf region. We will then connect these local social entrepreneurs with global social entrepreneurs and business experts, who will advise them on scaling up their initiatives and help them create comprehensive business plans to increase the impact of their work, to maximum effect.

Bringing together the social and the business sectors is a crucial part of tackling this urgent problem effectively and so we are partnering with Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises and Managing Director of the Crescent Group, to bring ASEP to the Gulf region. We are thrilled to also have the support of valued partners at PepsiCo and General Electric.

As the world is waking up to the importance of addressing the issue of water scarcity, there is no better time to engage as many of the region’s movers and shakers as possible – both business leaders and social innovators – to bring about sustainable water consumption for the good of all.