Water and the future of humanity: revisiting water security

Water Policy 17 (2015) 389–390 Book Review Water and the Future of Humanity: Revisiting Water Security, by Gulbenkian Think Tank on Water and the Future of Humanity; 2014, 241 pages, Springer, New York. ISBN 9783319014562 (print) 9783319014579 (online) Bruce P. Hooper Bruce Hooper & Associates, PO Box 552, Moffat Beach, Brisbane, QLD 4551 Australia. E-mail: bphooper@gmail.com It is not often that one finds today such an optimistic, overarching and prescriptive commentary and way forward for global water resources management. The aim of this comprehensive book is to ‘enhance present knowledge on the role of water in the world … (reflect on) water use until 2050 and the state of water resources … and (reflects on) possible creation of series barriers to development, caused by water-related constraints’ (p. ix). The authors do this by back-casting from the present (in Chapter 8, after several topical chapters) to forecast water scenarios, thus advocating a method to the international water community to plan water resources development and management accordingly. This is not altogether new but is valuable as it seeks to understand the future by learning from the past and how the future can be crafted in such a way that avoids fundamental water planning errors. The authors outline, quite rightly, that back-casting helps to identify and remove barriers to effective water resources management. Drawing on the work of Gleick in the 1990s, the authors define a ‘sustainable water management system’ as the basis for developing water demand management and planning. They introduce the concept of ‘water wedges’ by which they mean strategies for better water management: combinations of policy and technology approaches. Four drivers and strategies are outlined and include technological tools, regulatory tools, economic strategies and educational approaches. While some of these tools relate to some aspects of improved water governance, the book provides limited discussion of the institutional and organisational reforms, particularly between the roles of the public and private sectors, needed to achieve sustainable water resources management. Water governance is a contested space, indeed the term ‘governance’ itself is so contested that it lacks clear definition and broad agreement in the water sector, as well as beyond the ‘water box’. The central thesis of the book, in my opinion, that there is hope for better water development and management strategies would be strengthened doi: 10.2166/wp.2014.201 © IWA Publishing 2015 390 B. P. Hooper / Water Policy 17 (2015) 389–390 with a robust discussion, perhaps an additional chapter, on much needed water governance reforms. This discussion must include the emerging 21st century dialogue in water governance, and governance in general, to address constraints to sustainable water resources development and management including avoiding/reducing corruption, devolution of power, different culturally sensitive approaches to public involvement, the changing role of the state, financing and others. These matters are important and the authors could do well to not only discuss them but provide some insights into how they could be addressed in the world’s rapidly developing economies. The global topic of the future of water requires the application of new governance but this cannot be predicated on liberal western democratic traditions, as much as they may be favoured as supportive of sustainability. There is a need to address issues such as cooperative federalism (or lack of it as in India) and state-based capitalist economies as in China and post-Soviet countries today. In doing so, a lot can be learned from significant reforms in very different forms of democracies, such as those experienced in South Africa, Brazil and Australia, but care is needed in assuming they can be transplanted to other economies. The book is organised into nine chapters: (1) Our Water, Our Future, (2) Drivers of Water Demand, Course Changes and Outcomes, (3) Water Management in a Variable and Changing Climate, (4) Water for a Healthy Environment, (5) Integrated Water resources Management, (6) Water and Food: Growing Uncertainties and New Opportunities, (7) Water and Energy, (8) Water Projections and Scenarios: Thinking about the Future, and (9) Our Water Future: Leadership and Individual Responsibility. Each chapter concludes with a useful summary or ways forward statement which prescribes the directions needed to achieve sustainability related to the topic of that chapter. The volume is enhanced by useful contributions: • A Foreword, Prologue and a Preface which emphasise and briefly outline the message of hope and place the book in the context of the work of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. • A prescriptive and erudite Message which summarises new preferred directions in water resources management: a ‘desirable, sustainable future for humans in a world of immense of opportunities, but also with limits, boundaries and vulnerabilities’. The value of this book is its readability, brevity over so massive a topic and outstanding endorsement of the humanity of cultures and economies to face challenges of a water stressed world by harnessing the innate capabilities, know-how and capital of society to good ends. The text ends with a comprehensive 15-page bibliography of contemporary literature on the topic. This book was prepared by an 11-person Gulbenkian Think Tank on Water and the Future of Humanity, coordinated by Luis Veiga da Cunha, with author biographies included at the end. Copyright of Water Policy is the property of IWA Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.