Presented by IWMI's Director General, Claudia Sadoff, at the 3rd Karachi International Water Conference in Mövenpick Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan, on November 22, 2017.

1. The Future of Water
in Asia
The Future of Water
3rd Karachi International Water Conference 2017
Dr. Claudia Sadoff, Director General
International Water Management Institute
Photo: Hamish John Appelby / IWMI

2. Great global concern over water

3. What is the future of water in Asia?

4. 25% more people by 2050 in Asia
Domestic water demand to triple
& industrial to double by 2050
By 2050, 40% of Asia’s population
in severe water scarcity
Growing population – growing scarcity

5. Asia among fastest growing economies
Among the fastest urbanizing
Over 22 megacities in Asia by 2030
Shifting demands sectorally & spatially
Economic transformation & urbanization
Photo: Neil Palmer / IWMI

6. Sharing “closed/closing” river basins
Roughly half of the basins in Asia are
transboundary
Many ‘closed’ of ‘closing’, meaning that all
water is used (includes environmental flows)
Increasing demands, increasing tensions
Sub-optimal management & development

7. Climate variability & uncertainty
Schew et al. (2013)
Relative change in annual discharge at 2oC vis. today, under RCP8.5
• Wet gets wetter – Dry gets drier
• Per capita water declines in much of Asia
• In South Asia up to -30% per capita
• More extremes, double the drought days
• Variability well outside the historical range
Little aggregate volume change projected – however:

8. Water-related risks(economic)
Asia has the
largest global
concentration of
water-related
risks ($)
Securing Water, Sustaining Growth Sadoff et al., 2015

9. Securing Water, Sustaining Growth Sadoff et al., 2015
Flood risk to people
Asia’s share of people at risk of
flooding is striking

10. Alternative water futures for Asia?

11. Intensify sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agricultural intensification potential
• Largely in rainfed agriculture
Water smart agriculture for smallholders in Asia
Better methods to capture, store & conserve water
• Small-scale irrigation systems
• Participatory groundwater management
• ‘Green’ solutions i.e., rainwater harvesting, watershed
management
Water productivity innovations

12. Resource Recovery
and Reuse Business
Models
Wastewater recycling – ‘water portfolio’
Remove hazards from the environment
Return resources - water, nutrients
and energy – to productive uses
• Groundwater recharge
• Industrial & landscape water
• Salt-water intrusion barrier wells
• Fertilizer pellets from sludge
• Energy from biogas

13. Manage uncertainty & enhance resilience
• Forecast & early warning of drought/flood
• Last mile connectivity – apps, etc.
• Enhanced storage capacity and more
coordinated management of storage
• Redundancy in supply
• Index-based weather & crop insurance to
reduce economic impacts of shocks
Remotely sensed drought monitoring

14. Pursue cooperation on shared rivers
Knowledge consolidation
Decision strengthening
Dialogue facilitation

15. Water policy can promote inclusion
Institutional and policy measures that offer
inclusive access to water, with special
emphasis on gender equality
Sustainably managed solar irrigation –
strengthens ‘agency’ by de-linking from
publicly provided water & energy

16. Technologies to inform water policy & mgmt
From small-scale, ground-based, citizen
science like mobile weather stations…
http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/resources/mobile-weather-stations/

17. http://wateraccounting.org
…to large-scale, remotely sensed water balance
frameworks like Water Accounting + that
estimate flows, stocks, consumption & services
Technologies to inform water policy & mgmt

18. …to web-based information systems, decision
support systems, geo-spatial tools, and
platforms for options analysis
Sri Lanka
Water
Information
System
Myanmar
Water
Information
System
Technologies to inform water policy & mgmt

19. Technologies to inform water policy & mgmt
Allocate
Monitor
Enforce

20. So, what is the
future of water in Asia?

21. We cannot predict
the future of water in Asia
But we can shape it

22. Thank you