Price and co-creation are key to addressing global water challenges, engineers say

Prices for water, wastewater, ecosystems and stormwater services should be established with the assistance of qualified professionals and be sustainable enough to recover operational costs, allow for maintenance, rehabilitation and expansion to enable adequate use by future generations.

That was one of three key recommendations to emerge from a report published last week by FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers.

The report, State of the World – Establishing the value of water: the business case for change urged a more “aggressive” stance be taken on addressing global water challenges, particularly regarding attributing appropriate financial and social value to the resource.

The other two key recommendations were:

• more stakeholders need to be involved in developing approaches to address water-related issues, including more local community involvement and wider use of total cost concepts like totex, to ensure that the right projects are developed to address the right issues; and

• there needs to be more constructive dialogue with governments, the private sector and NGOs to identify and implement realistic solutions.

FIDIC focused on the expected increase in the global demand for water, the energy-food-water nexus and the challenges associated with properly charging for water and sanitation services to ensure that these are properly funded so that current and future generations are properly served.

The report highlighted that millions of people do not have adequate access to clean water and/or sanitation, millions are falling ill due to water-borne diseases and water-related global infrastructure needs are underfunded every year.

FIDIC president,William Howard, said: “FIDIC and the infrastructure sector more widely needs to communicate much more clearly the importance of all elements of water in our daily lives and if the investment required is to take place, the economic and social value may need to adjust.”