The American Water Works Association is advancing its Water 2050 initiative. Greg Kail describes the inspiration behind it and steps involved.
In 2022, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) embarked on an initiative to envision the future of water to help drive the water community on a course for sustainability and success. Two years later, the Water 2050 vision is in focus and the bold and ambitious journey has begun.
AWWA Chief Executive Officer, David LaFrance, says there is not a moment to waste. “If you’re paddling down a river, you have to be thinking far in advance to assess the current, identify the obstacles, and make the right decisions on where and how fast to paddle. That is a good image for why we launched the Water 2050 initiative. Drifting with the current is not a strategy. Today’s complicated water issues and an uncertain future climate demand that we get serious about creating the future we want.”
During the past winter, the Water 2050 initiative advanced from envisioning to an implementation strategy. Strategic Implementation Teams (SITs) have been established to drive change across five strategic priorities: Sustainability and Resilience, Innovation and Circular Economy, One Water Governance and Policy, Finance and Affordability, and Equity, Access and Community Engagement, with work guided by more than two years’ of engagement from five think tanks, AWWA sections and members, and wider consultation within and beyond the water community.
AWWA’s Immediate Past President, Dr Joe Jacangelo, says: “Our vision for Water 2050 is a secure, sustainable, affordable, resilient, and innovative water future for all, in which everyone in the water community is collectively responsible for the management and preservation of this vital resource.”
From its infancy, Water 2050 has sought to engage and include young professionals. Dr Chi Ho Sham, who served as AWWA President when the initiative launched, explains: “Most of us in leadership roles now will be long retired come 2050. We will not be around to fulfill the vision. But I think all of us involved in Water 2050 feel like today’s young professionals are both visionaries and capable leaders. Their voices have been inspirational from the beginning of the initiative.”
The vision
The five think tanks that have informed the Water 2050 vision considered the future of water through the influence of five drivers:
- Sustainability
- Technology
- Economics
- Governance
- Social/Demographics
Each think tank event was strategically held in a location that would immerse participants in the driver being explored. The Technology event was held at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, USA, for example.
“We asked participants to think about the ‘art of the impossible’”
Participants included diverse groups of emerging and experienced leaders with deep and varied expertise, who were asked what our communities would look like in the year 2050 and considered how water should be managed, accessed, and valued. Each group issued a report presenting a combined 47 recommended actions for a sustainable water future.
Recommendations from think tanks ranged from the clearly attainable to those that are imaginative and more ‘outside-the-box’ and several concepts emerged from multiple think tanks. For example, the Governance event encouraged watershed-based thinking with its recommendation to ‘Regionalise water utilities based on watersheds’, and the notion of regionalisation was reflected in the Sustainability think tank’s recommendation to ‘Achieve economies of scale of water systems through consolidation and operational efficiencies’. The idea of decentralised treatment was highlighted in both a Technology think tank recommendation to ‘transform water management through expansion of in-home and fit-for-purpose treatment technologies,’ and the Governance think tank’s advice to ‘Establish widely accepted fit-for-purpose standards’.
“During the think tanks, we asked participants to think about the ‘art of the impossible’, since what is possible today will not exclusively allow us to achieve our Water 2050 goals,” says Jacangelo. “That purposely led to some pretty lofty recommendations. Our intent is to move forward immediately with those that we think can be achieved quickly, and at the same time, begin down the pathway toward those longer-term challenging recommendations.”
Advancing toward implementation
Water 2050 is now advancing from exploration to implementation. In early 2024, the Water 2050 Leadership Team sorted the recommended actions into five ‘Strategic Priorities’ and appointed Strategic Implementation Teams (SITs) within each area to define next steps. Each SIT includes volunteer experts, young professionals, and voices from within and outside the water community.
Strategic Priorities were defined as follows:
Sustainability and resilience: A sustainable and resilient water future will bring about a more robust, versatile, and adaptable water community – with a water paradigm that is not easily impaired by environmental, technical, economic, political, or demographic externalities.
Innovation and the circular economy: Enabled by innovation and emerging technologies, the future of a One Water approach will be built around a circular water economy in which each component produced through treatment processes (liquid, solid and energy) is leveraged as an intrinsic value stream, reducing waste throughout the water community’s footprint.
One Water governance and policy: In a One Water future, an integrated management and governance framework will enable the value of water to be governed such that its highest and best use is leveraged to better serve communities and preserve the entire ecosystem.
Finance and affordability: Water will be viewed as a public good, and the water community will have a shared understanding of the value of water, beyond current-day cost-of-service terms. While we will recognise the true, full costs of water, it will not be an economic burden on low-income, disadvantaged communities.
Equity, access, and community engagement: Communities will provide water to their citizens in fair and equitable ways, allowing affordable access for all. Everyone in the water community will have a shared sense of responsibility for water preservation and will be empowered to protect it for current and future generations.
Knowing that coordinating 47 recommendations – all ambitious and transformational – is a tremendous undertaking, with the Water 2050 Leadership Team combining multiple recommendations in some cases, recommended actions will be reviewed, revised, and prioritised periodically, based on evolving macro forces and emerging trends.
Engagement strategy
From its first day it has been recognised that to make Water 2050 a reality, active and long-term engagement from entities outside of the traditional water community will be required.
“All the recommendations will benefit from the insights of people outside the water profession,” says Sham. “How can we have a meaningful conversation about water resources management without agricultural and industry voices? Can we really talk about global climate issues without leaders from outside North America? And of course, we cannot discuss technology transformation without the digital innovators at the table.”
The Water 2050 Leadership Team is employing an engagement strategy that actively pursues stakeholders in each Strategic Priority area, from both within and outside the water sector, and from each geographical region of AWWA’s membership. The Water 2050 Leadership Team will also engage organisations across the full water management spectrum, as well as energy, agricultural and industry experts, academics, planners, and many others.
“There will be elements of Water 2050 that may be better led by different organisations either within the water community or from other sectors,” says Jacangelo. “To get to our final destination, we’ll need both their knowledge and ability to bring in partners.”
With only 26 years until 2050, the Water 2050 initiative is paddling briskly but thoughtfully toward a secure, sustainable, affordable, resilient, and innovative water future. With the help of partners and the wisdom of the young, AWWA is confident the future of water is destined for greatness. •
More information
AWWA will be sharing its vision for Water 2050 at IWA’s World Water Congress & Exhibition (WWCE) 2024, which is being held in Toronto, Canada, on 11-15 August.
Find out more about Water 2050 at https://www.awwa.org/Resources-Tools/Water-2050
The author: Greg Kail is director of communications for the American Water Works Association and a member of the Water 2050 Leadership Team
