Augment Supply

Source: Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal. Augmenting water supplies by both expanding access and improving quality will be a key part of meeting global water challenges. Water supply augmentation is a determinant of success, whether we consider reaching the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water or simply satisfying the growing and competing demands of industry, agriculture, energy, and the environment. Strategies to expand access and water treatment can and should be conducted at both a large and small scale.

Large-scale infrastructure projects that store, convey, and otherwise manage the natural water supply play a significant role in economic development. According to the World Commission on Dams, approximately 30 to 40 percent of the world's irrigated croplands, producing 12 to 16 percent of the world's food, rely on dams to provide water. Without developed water storage and management infrastructure, areas of the world with highly variable rainfalls are more susceptible to economic fluctuation.

For example, the World Bank estimates that a series of floods and droughts in Kenya between 1997 and 1998 cost the country the equivalent of 22 percent of its GDP in either damages or lost crops. Without dams, the problem is one of too much and too little water. Building large-scale infrastructure, however, requires a strong and open governance framework in order to attract financial support, to help develop a sustainable plan for development and management, and to protect the environment. Good governance has been and will continue to be a requirement for the development of large-scale infrastructure in the future.

Consider this:
Of the 1.1 billion people still using water from unimproved sources in 2002, nearly two-thirds lived in Asia. However, when expressed in percentage terms, sub-Saharan Africa tops the list with 42 percent of the population lacking access to safe drinking water. Large-scale infrastructure or even connections to preexisting infrastructure are usually not an option for the poorest communities across the world, both urban and rural. Easily accessible and safe drinking water are in high demand. In many cases, community-based solutions that incorporate the input, ingenuity, and leadership of local people have proven to be highly sustainable. Such frameworks have been successfully applied to projects from expanding pipes into urban slums to encouraging safe water storage practices in homes.

Inexpensive, easy-to-use technologies are another key ingredient to successful solutions, particularly for water treatment and safe water storage. Some element of social change or social marketing is also typically involved. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the "Safe Water System" consisting of three steps: (1) point-of-use water treatment; (2) safe water storage; and (3) behavior change. Field trials conducted in South America, Africa, and Central Asia have proven to reduce the risk of diarrhea, the number one killer of children worldwide, by 44 to 85 percent. The long-term sustainability and strategies for scaling up the Safe Water System and other community-based approaches remain unclear.

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Augment Supply

Reduce Demand

Improve Management