Study: Cities and Companies Team Up to

Tackle Urban Water Crises

Last Updated: August 30, 2017 5:39 AM

Writed by Reuters

FILE - in July 28, 2014, photo, lightning strikes over Lake Mead near Hoover Dam at the
Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona. For Arizona and Nevada, the reservoir on
the Colorado River is a major source of drinking water.

LONDON — 

With rising urban populations and ever scarcer water supplies, cities and companies are
teaming up to invest billions of dollars in water management projects, a report said on
Tuesday.

Around two thirds of cities from London to Los Angeles are working with the private sector
to address water and climate change stresses with 80 cities seeking $9.5 billion of investment
for water projects, according to a report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a non-profit
environmental research group.

Water investment opportunities are greatest in Latin America, with Quito in Ecuador seeking
$800 million to manage its water supply, including building three hydropower stations and
cleaning up its contaminated rivers and streams.
A man carries a child as he wades through a waterlogged subway after heavy rains in
Chennai, India, Aug. 9, 2017.

City in India prepares for future

The cities most concerned about their water supply lie in Asia and the Pacific, the report
found, with serious risks also identified in Africa and Latin America.

The key issues for cities include declining water quality, water shortages and flooding.

The Indian city of Chennai faced extreme floods in 2015 which killed hundreds and left
survivors without access to clean water, while businesses were also severely disrupted.

The city is now investing in boosting its resilience to future water crises, with water
conservation education, building a storm water management system and new infrastructure.

“We are seeing critical shifts in leadership from cities and companies in response to the very
real threat of flooding, for example, to local economies,” said Morgan Gillespy, head of
CDP's Water Program.

Climate change is another underlying threat to all cities with an increase in extreme weather
events from droughts to floods, with cities in North America more concerned than those in
Europe, the report found.

Tropical Storm Harvey, pounding the U.S. Gulf Coast, has killed at least eight people, led to
mass evacuations and paralyzed Houston, the fourth most-populous U.S. city.
The storm is most likely linked to climate change, said the U.N. weather agency.

Companies are also concerned about the effects of climate change on water supplies, with
$14 billion of water impacts such as loss of production reported by companies last year, the
report found.

UN predicts global water shortfall

The United Nations predicts a 40 percent shortfall in global water supply by 2030, while
global demand is set to increase by 55 percent due to growing domestic use, manufacturing
and electricity generation.

“From our work with cities around the world, water has consistently come up as a key
resilience challenge,” said Claire Bonham-Carter, Principal and City Resilience Lead at
AECOM, a global infrastructure firm and partner on the report.

“Many of them, regardless of size, from Mexico City, Mexico to Berkeley, California, are
addressing both long-term water supply issues as well as chronic urban flooding.”

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