“Water Tight 2012: The top issues in the global water sector” highlights eight interconnected themes.
In his introduction James Leigh, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s global leader, water, says the future of the planet’s global water supply will increasingly be characterised by efforts to manage demand and increase supply.
Deloitte’s eight key themes to watch:
• Growing demand for finite resource: the world’s population is not distributed according to the availability of water, there are regions where water scarcity is, and will remain, critical.
• Climate change: increased volatility in water supply is making it more difficult to rely solely on historical data for future planning.
• Managing demand: the era of cheap water is over which means in many countries water pricing systems must be rethought.
• The water and energy nexus: there is an urgent need for closer collaboration between water and energy sectors as these industries become more inextricably linked.
• Increasing supply: utilising innovative technologies is critical to achieve sustainable water and effective water usage.
• Privatisation: as governments around the world are finding it more difficult to find funding for water investment, alternate sources of funding from the private sector will play more significant role.
• Water as the next ‘hot’ commodity: given water is our most precious resource, expect to see more initiatives to trade water.
• Stewardship: close collaboration between utilities, regulators and all users of water is required to address the ultimate issue of water scarcity.
For more on this report, comments from Deloitte NZ’s infrastructure leader Paul Callow, and insights into leading New Zealand business in resource-constrained world: see NZ Management’s March 2012 cover story “Parched Planet: Leading in world with less water.”
