Access to Water Will Be Our Next Global Challenge

Based on reading newspaper headlines, our path towards a carbon-neutral (or even carbon-negative) economy seems to be at risk. Even so, advances in renewable energy technology and increasing consumer pressure on sustainable consumption give me confidence we will overcome the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions challenge in the next couple of decades.

However, the amount of GHG we have already emitted and will continue to emit, has given rise to the next global challenge: access to clean water.

• The UN estimates that currently 1.8 billion people lack access to clean water and 2.4 billion lack access to proper sanitation.
• By 2050, it is expected that 5 billion people (around half of the global population) will live in water-stressed areas as a result of increasing temperatures.

This has devastating impacts on health, food supplies, productivity, and education.

Imagine a family of which every member spends several hours every day walking to a well, standing in line, and pumping water, before walking back again. This time spent is prohibitive to building a more prosperous life by working and through education. This challenge will predominantly affect the poorest of the poor, those who lack the means to effectively fend this off. The global community will need to step up and will be forced to as more prosperous areas, like large parts of the US and Southern Europe, are increasingly affected as well.

Solving the problem of water and sanitation access is highly complex due to a combination of interlinked characteristics. To start, water is not sufficiently available in many areas of the world. When water is available, purification is technically challenging, contamination of water is not always visible and its adverse effects are not always immediate, and alternatives to clean water are often (almost) free, making solutions costly while customer willingness to pay is low.

I believe increasing the accessibility to water lies in a combined effort between NGOs, corporates, and (local) governments in several ways:

• NGOs, possibly together with corporates, can distribute water, water filters, and/or sanitation solutions in emergency areas.
• Many corporates, especially food and beverage companies and apparel companies, can minimize the water footprint of their production processes, which are often located in BOP communities.
• Companies can develop new markets as demand for clean water and sanitation is growing across the globe.

I'm excited to work on this, and other development topics, for the next year through BCG's Social Impact Immersion Program.