Anusha Shah stresses the need for holistic water management

In the run up to World Water-tech Innovation Summit London, we sat down with Prof Anusha Shah, Senior Director of Resilient Cities at Arcadis, to talk about ways to accelerate sustainable water (and energy) management.

Anusha Shah has over 22 years’ experience as a chartered engineer and sustainability professional focusing on water. As Senior Director of Resilient Cities at Arcadis, she works with city leaders to better understand short and long-term climate resiliency planning challenges and supports organisations in climate adaptation and in meeting their net zero targets. Anusha is also a non-executive director at the Met Office, visiting Professor at King’s College and a senior vice president at the Institution of Civil Engineers and President elect for 2023. She’s won multiple awards including 2020 UK’s Top 50 Women in Sustainability.

At World Water Tech London on 21-22 February, which, this year, focuses on improving energy efficiency and climate resiliency in the water sector, Anusha will be chairing a panel on ‘Investigating the Economic Case for Water Reuse’.

In the lead up to the event we caught up with Anusha to pick her brain on everything from water reuse and governance models to climate risks and the water-energy nexus.

Let’s dive in.

What impact will climate change have on the water cycle?

One of the most profound effects of climate change is how it affects the water cycle. There is either too much water or too little. Extreme flooding, droughts and unpredictable seasons are making the effects of global warming painfully evident.

How will these changes affect the UK specifically?

The UK population is expected to rise from 67 million to 75 million by 2050, increasing the demand for water. 3,435 million extra litres of water per day will be needed for public water supply a year – the equivalent of four Lake Windermeres. Unless major changes are made to our water management system, we simply won’t have enough water to meet this demand.

What will be the role of water reuse?

To ensure there is enough water to go round, a dramatic reduction in domestic water consumption is necessary, with water reuse playing a key role. Homes, businesses, and industries should become perfect models of the circular economy where nothing gets wasted and every drop of water is reused. This means implementing water reuse at the industrial scale right the way through to the installation of residential rainwater harvesting systems.

What is the link between water and energy, and why is it important?

Water and energy are two vital resources that we all use every single day. They are also intrinsically linked. Water provision and wastewater treatment uses a lot of energy, and energy production uses a lot of water. The provision of both emits a LOT of carbon. Transforming the way we produce and use both water and energy is critical on the path to net zero.

I represent Arcadis on the 50L Coalition which is a global action-oriented platform that addresses two of our most pressing global challenges: water security and climate change. We are striving to move the narrative on domestic water use, encouraging both water and energy efficiency by aspiring to reduce daily demand to 50L of water per person per day.

We are promoting conditions for meaningful change across policy, city leaders and practitioners by creating irresistible solutions that are easy for end users to adopt and to enable better-informed lifestyle choices for sustainable water use. Some of the solutions include having a digital monitoring and billing system in place to account for every drop and every energy and consequent carbon unit they use for their daily consumption and using heated water only when it’s needed.

For instance, our white paper on the water-energy-carbon nexus analysis confirmed that water-related energy in the form of hot water accounts for 6% of carbon emissions in most of the cities studied, making it the second biggest source of energy consumption in homes around the world after space heating. Water and energy problems are so interconnected it simply makes sense to tackle them simultaneously.

How can we encourage consumers to use less water and energy? Data plays a vital role.

In the UK, the average person uses 142 litres every day, but research shows that nearly two thirds of people believe their household use is less than 40 litres a day. Without data on water consumption and related energy use, households are unaware of the changes they can make to conserve more water, energy and, consequently, carbon.

It’s not enough simply to inform – the information must be accessible and simple to change consumer behaviour. There needs to be increasing awareness about the water-energy nexus and an understanding of how water efficiency can significantly help achieve net zero goals in addition to improving water resilience in homes.

This will help consumers alter their behaviours and make decisions on where exactly to save water, energy and ultimately, money. Without financial or societal incentives, however, there is no driver for change.

Who can help drive this change?

The most effective way, in my opinion, to address the water problem in its most holistic sense, is to establish a single organisation that deals with the entire water system – from the catchment where water drops to where it ends in the ocean. This is what Singapore does.

We need this organisation to have an inclusive and ethical leadership model with a robust governance framework. Cross-collaborative systems at every level, where every policy, plan and action is geared towards creating a sustainable, resilient and inclusive world.

Water and energy decision-making must be integrated at all levels, with regulators devising policies across the two sectors and using carbon as a common currency to inform decision-making and for the fastest and biggest impact to meet net zero. Policy makers also need to review pricing across all sectors as an incentive to further influence consumption behaviour.

A future model therefore would see water and energy companies working collaboratively, with integrated systems inside and outside homes, significantly transforming customer behaviour towards valuing water and judicious use of renewable energy. This would be enabled through efficient use of innovative digital technology (spatial platforms, smart metering, AI, big data etc.).

We have the solutions and expertise to do this – what we need is the pace, the political will to remove bureaucratic hurdles in the implementation and the drive in policies to support new ways of thinking.

Where do we go from here?

The huge risk posed by climate change means that now, more than ever, we need to make swift decisions on holistic water management, cross collaborating with energy and other infrastructure authorities at every level.

In the same way that consumers are told to turn lights off, use less plastic and separate waste for recycling, we need to draw attention to water saving as essential rather than an optional extra.

We need radical change and make water and energy saving attractive and easy to implement for consumers. The hyper connected customer of today will cooperate if we drive actions through a multiple benefit lens: water efficiency, reduced flood risk, clean air, regulating temperatures in heat waves and health and well-being, lower bills, with a mindset of zero waste, in both water and energy.

The solutions will require systems approach and learning from across governments, private sector and communities.

The pandemic has shown that with a clear goal, diverse parties can collaborate and move at pace, sparking innovation. Every policy, plan and action can be geared towards creating a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive world which places people and planet over profit.