Giving Compass' Take:

• Nick Michell interviewed water experts to understand how water professionals can best invest in resilience for improved infrastructure. 

• What does resilience in a water system mean to you, and why is it critical?  

• Read about how philanthropy can help the water system crisis. 

Nick Michell spoke to leading water experts about how water professionals should prioritise investments to become more resilient.

Linda Freiner, Group Head of Corporate Responsibility, Zurich Insurance Company:

“In 2013, Zurich started a US$43 million programme to increase the resilience of flood-prone communities around the world. We define resilience as the ability of a system, community or society to pursue its social, ecological and economic development and growth objectives, while managing its disaster risk over time. Our solutions to fight flood risk go beyond physical measures and include the whole of our ‘five capitals’ approach–human, social, natural, financial, as well as physical."

Mark Smith, Manager for Organisational Change, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature):

“The answer starts with water professionals seeing themselves as part of a bigger system. In resilience terms, then, their job is not just to design water storage infrastructure, engineer a distribution network or set up watershed management institutions. Their challenge is to build resilient systems. IUCN has gathered lessons from river basin management and water governance projects, worldwide, and identified four basic components that combine into an effective and pragmatic resilience framework: diversity, sustainable infrastructure and technologies, self-organisation and learning.

Mary Ann Dickinson, President and CEO, Alliance for Water Efficiency:

“Resilience in a water system means that a water manager has the ability to cope with changes in weather, growth, or the economy that will affect the demand on the water system, and still be able to provide service to customers. An important ingredient in the recipe for resilience is water efficiency. By reducing wasteful consumer demand, and by recovering network leaks, the efficient water system creates “swing” water supply; water supply that was formerly wastefully consumed or lost to leaks that is now available to be used.

Read the article about investing in water resilience by Nick Michell at The Source Magazine.