The Ideas

We began by summarizing what water meant for us and what is power. Water can be going from life, joy, and epiphany to the opposite side of waste, contamination, and damaged access systems.

It can be very unusual to think sometimes that half of our population is living in water-stressed regions, but it is the reality. When we are talking about climate adaptation, we don’t mention water enough. Water is a key element in our climate crisis whether it is flooding or dry soil for farming. When looking at the water situation we have to keep the whole supply chain in mind, not only the farmers and the consumers, but the provider companies affect the water as its own big complex system.

During 6 months with the “Choke Point” project, one of the experts shared that they managed to prove that China does not have enough water resources to maintain the coal, which is unfortunately still consuming water in excess amounts.

Communities impacted by lack of water are numerous all over the world, in those poorer places water is much more valued, and each drop counts. Water is often being reduced in washing by those who have it as the only choice. On the other hand, Europe has 23% of water losses. This data is not commonly collected and not spread enough.

In Latin America, 82% of the population are migrating to cities, creating even more water stress. The solution that another expert is proposing is to build water complexes that reuse the water from showers and sinks in their gardens, washing, and toilets. By making this system work properly, we will be able to reduce the consumption of fresh water.

To answer the question “What are the factors blocking the result?” participants came up with multiple answers such as the price of water, lack of trust, reliable leaders, sector fragmentation, finance gaps, and inefficient coordination. We know what we want to reach, and solutions are also available, but with a lack of a serious approach, the solutions aren’t yet working in place as they should.

Investigating the barriers to systems change and paths to breakthrough solutions, participants discussed various domains of the water issues and how do we reach valuable solutions to resolve the crisis. Water security is a policy problem, in some places water is not managed properly and the desalting process is so developed that there is a big fear of this system not changing soon enough. In rural sectors rivers are drying up, and the unprotected areas are not getting any attention, hence the needed vegetation and biodiversity are not going to develop how they should. The need for accurate solutions is massively lacking. Plants are being displaced and are using much more water than required. Adapted areas are not being put in place to protect water in this aspect.

From a more economic and human perspective, water faces some major issues with corruption and privatization. This is an arguable topic about the value of water, as from one side it is an everyday need that should maybe become free, but it could then be overused. Ideally, one could create different pricing for variable uses, however the big challenge would then be tracking.

Lastly, the investor's side and the efficient use of investing in water was discussed. Water is a need for every single person, company, or NGO, so how do we track all the water investments as water is such a big aspect of all the sectors such as energy, climate, conservation, or even AI?