In this Water Quality Month Q&A we spoke to GHD Market Leader, Rod Naylor, about water quality and what they are doing at GHD to improve it.
What do you do at GHD?
We are an Australian global professional services company that leads through engineering, construction and architectural expertise. Our forward-looking, innovative approaches connect and sustain communities around the world. Delivering extraordinary social and economic outcomes, we are focused on building lasting relationships with our partners and clients.
Why is water quality still a topic of concern globally?
The quality of the water that we have access to determines our sustainable future, in every sense from the need to drink safe water to the industries that sustain us and the planet we rely upon absolutely for survival. There is no shortage of water, we have oceans full and they are rising. But there is a shortage of water that is of the quality we need, in the places that we need it. That is solvable technically and environmentally, but we need to decide to do it socially (and by implication acknowledge the true cost of the damage we are doing and the investment needed to make our use of water and our society sustainable). And our record is poor. Many millions of people globally still don’t have access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and this continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. In developed countries we also cannot take water quality for granted either – we have to manage our limited water resources sustainably for growing populations that are gradually exceeding the natural water resources that we have taken advantage of for so long.
Why is Water Quality Month important to you?
Water Quality Month is a fantastic way to raise awareness of this important issue that can often be taken for granted through technical ignorance, or through wilful abuse.
What role does the water industry play in improving water quality?
The water industry is at the forefront of this challenge and no other sector has a responsibility or a capability for water quality that is so direct and immediate. Increasingly the water industry is finding its voice in our societal push toward a more sustainable system. We see water managers across the globe leading in sustainable urban planning, adopting and championing the SDG’s, applying ESG principles and even enshrining the common good into the articles of incorporation of companies. We are slowly realizing that water is at the core of sustainability, and a factor in almost every human endeavour.
What steps are you taking to help improve water quality?
We are leaders’ water, and by inference water quality understanding, risk assessment and management. Everywhere from working with utilities in producing safe drinking water to projects like our four-year ecological monitoring program helping Melbourne Water combat the potentially significant impact of feral deer on the water catchment areas it manages in partnership with Parks Victoria, and working in the new energy economy to support the evolution of the green hydrogen industry, GHD has the capabilities to collaborate and contribute to more sustainable outcomes, dealing with water quality at the core.
If you could change one thing about the way water quality is managed currently, what would it be?:
I would like to see more community engagement and understanding of water quality; our own consumer needs and impacts and the implications of our personal choices have (including how we vote and the issues that we engage with politically). A greater appreciation of the value of water which is entirely reliant upon its quality I think could lead to a change in the way we make decisions both about water management, and also about the many other choices we make that effect water quality in the environment. A more enlightened and informed discussion about the implications of water quality on our triple bottom line would be a great outcome.
What are your hopes for the future of our water sources?
Hope for a time when we are able to plan for and manage sustainably in an uncertain future. Climate change is the challenge of this century and will bring dramatic impacts on water quality and availability that vary across the globe. We will need to be able to understand an predict the impacts on water and water quality to be able to adapt to and survive changes in our populations and lifestyles as well as rising to meet community preferences and socio-economic conditions. The quality of the water that we use to do so is central to that challenge.
What role do you think technology will play in securing water quality?
Technology is opening up new ways to understand and secure water quality more effectively and efficiently. Integrating data sets and geospatial tools to approach real time insight and awareness of water catchments, sources and demands and impacts will drive a raft or improved interventions, treatments and management approaches to protect, preserve and find a way to sustain our planet and our society. Without taking that path, I cannot see how we will turn around our destructive history of water management and achieve a sustainable future.
Do you have an article to share? Click here to submit or if you’d like to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, click here.
