The Water Futures Partnership is inviting businesses, NGOs and other organisations to join the initiative to address issues related to water resource management across the world and find solutions for some of the most serious water risks in cities and watersheds around the world.
The Water Futures Partnership is an initiative of three organizations – SABMiller, WWF and the German international development agency (GIZ). The goal behind this establishing this association was to prove the business case for private sector engagement in supporting the sustainable management of water resources. The partnership came into existence in 2009 and has now published its second report, which gives details about the progress made in identifying, assessing and beginning to address the challenges facing businesses, communities and the environment in watersheds in South Africa, Peru, Tanzania and Ukraine.
According to Andy Wales, SABMiller’s head of sustainable development – “Single actors cannot alone effectively mitigate the complex and often deeply-embedded causes of water risks. Our assessments show that the fundamental causes of many of our business-specific water risks are the same drivers of the water problems facing communities and ecosystems. We recognise that these challenges can only be addressed through multi-stakeholder collective action and openly invite other NGOs, donors and public sector agencies, who have a shared interest in the areas in which we are working, to join our partnership. It is only by working in a participatory way can we have an impact on improving water management for communities, environment and business.”
The new report ‘Water Futures – addressing shared water challenges through collaborative action’ highlights the intension of the partnership to include new partners and new collaboration countries – Colombia, Honduras, India and the USA. It also provides details of the actions that have been taken in the initial four partner countries to address water risk.
Some of the findings and resulting actions include:
George and Polokwane, South Africa – the water footprint assessment in South Africa identified two priority risk areas to be addressed: (1) risks associated municipal effluent treatment affecting the brewery at Polokwane and (2) vulnerabilities associated with SABMiller’s agricultural supply chain, particularly the availability of water to hop farms in the dry Western Cape. More detailed assessments of the latter identified climate change, the spread of thirsty invasive species and competition for water amongst users as drivers of risk to the SAB Ltd’s hop farms.
Tanzania – the shortfall between the demands for water and the available water resources are likely to have very serious effects not only on SABMiller’s operations but, more broadly, on the country’s prosperity, people’s health, and aquatic ecosystems. The partnership is developing plans to work with farmers in the upper catchment to reduce their impact on water resources, as well as working with the Dar es Salaam Municipality to reduce water leakage from the city’s water and sewer network.
Ukraine – a business risk assessment identified wastewater discharge from the brewery as a potential risk to the local SABMiller business in Donetsk city, both in terms of operation and reputation. Poor municipal sewage infrastructure means that sewer collapse and subsequent pollution of the Kalmius River is a significant risk. The Kalmius runs through Donetsk city and so it was recognised that this risk is shared with the local community and environment. Amongst other things, the Water Futures Partnership is applying for funding to overhaul the municipal sewer, as well as joining with other industries to protect the Kalmius river from further degradation.
