The book aims to: 1) clarify and enhance understanding by business of the key issues and drivers of change related to water; 2) promote mutual understanding between the business community and non-business stakeholders on water management issues; and 3) support effective business action as part of the solution to sustainable water management. The report poses three scenarios about the possible future of water in 2025 which serve as catalysts for exploration into how businesses can contribute to sustainable water management.
- Almost all mega-cities face major freshwater, wastewater, and flooding challenges, but the crisis is particularly acute in China, where the number of the largest 660 cities with water shortages has risen from 400 in the early part of the century to 550 by 2020.
- Solutions to the Chinese water problem and to the water efficiency crisis in other countries will involve making the best economic use of water and unlocking new business opportunities by creating and implementing innovative technologies and encouraging decentralized water and wastewater management processes.
- Water security will become an increasing issue for businesses to combat as factions fight for control of water resources, and water systems become sources of major dispute between countries, political parties, and communities.
- Businesses should focus on public-private partnerships with local water suppliers and municipal governments to help shape water policy and to ensure a sustainable water supply for their own needs.
- Businesses will inevitably engage with political processes and multiple stakeholders in a world of bigger, more complex, interconnected, and dynamic water systems in which ecosystems, economies, societies, cities, and individual human lives are embedded.
- Businesses will need to take into account the changing water context in order to anticipate risks that stem from outside their current business models or comfort zones.
