Latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) podcast explores role of business in water management.
What are the strategies and practical solutions that businesses and institutions can implement the world over, to ensure that water – the most precious resource on Earth – is managed sustainably?
Global leaders in sustainable development address this fundamental question and make the case for concerted action to help ensure availability and access for all to water and sanitation services in a new episode of SDGs: The Rising Tide. This podcast series from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) explores corporate innovation in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
The episode features two professionals in water management – Dennis van Peppen, international water programmes team lead at the Netherlands Enterprise and Development Agency, and Chong Mien Ling, CSO of PUB, Singapore’s national water agency. They discuss the importance of a global water agenda and the role of business in its implementation.
Van Peppen framed the challenge facing the global community, and why such as important agenda is not receiving sufficient focus at the moment: “In many places of the world, we are reaching the limits of our water resources. We urgently need a global water agenda, which simply does not exist.
“Climate has become a matter of survival for humanity and is being recognised as such, but there is less of a sense of urgency when it comes to water and the challenges associated with water management. Only those people who are working on the inside can clearly comprehend the crisis on the horizon.”
Chong sets out how Singapore’s historical and geographical context, in which it relied on water imports from Malaysia, has led to a more innovative approach to securing water supplies of their own. He said: “Singapore is one of the most water stressed countries in the world. We quickly realised that we simply could not continue with business as usual. At the same time, we started to look into innovative technologies out there to help us reduce the amount of energy required in all processes linked to water management. In the end, we learned that small things can make a big difference.”
The first six episodes of The Rising Tide can be accessed now on Spotify, Apple, and Google podcast.
