Book Description Review Quotes Contents
Book Description

The world is on the brink of the greatest crisis it has ever faced: a spiraling lack of fresh water. Groundwater is drying up, even as water demands for food production, for energy, and for manufacturing are surging. Water is already emerging as a headline geopolitical issue—and worsening water security will soon have dire consequences in many parts of the global economic system.
Directed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the 2008 Davos Annual Meeting, the World Economic Forum assembled the world’s foremost group of public, private, non-governmental-organization and academic experts to examine the water crisis issue from all perspectives. The result of their work is this forecast—a stark, non-technical overview of where we will be by 2025 if we take a business-as-usual approach to (mis)managing our water resources. The findings are shocking. Perhaps equally stunning are the potential solutions and the recommendations that the group presents. All are included in this landmark publication.
 
Water Security contains compelling commentary from leading decision-makers, past and present. The commentary is supported by analysis from leading academics of how the world economy will be affected if world leaders cannot agree on solutions. The book suggests how business and politics need to manage the energy-food-water-climate axis as leaders negotiate the details of the climate regime that replace Kyoto Protocols.

Review Quotes

"Despite its relative brevity, the book is successful in disentangling the complex web of interactions that characterizes the water-food-energy-climate nexus...The brief, factual examination of the socioeconomic implications of current water usage trends in many sectors of the world economy is nicely complemented by commentaries from academic experts, business leaders, and public officials...In presenting multiple perspectives the book provides a broad and diverse set of opinions, which is appropriate for an undergraduate audience or for readers looking for a point of entry into the pressing issue of global freshwater management."
Choice

"Island Press editors have achieved a nearly impossible task....The World Economic Forum Water Initiative and Island Press is to be congratulated for raising awareness of complex and interdependent future water needs and the impacts on economic and social security if these needs are not met."
Journal of the American Water Resources Association

"It is a book written by a committee, but it gets the story right. Even its title makes the case that water, food, and energy are woven together inextricably to form the very web that sustains human existence."
BioScience

Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword \ Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
Preface \ Richard Samans, Managing Director, World Economic Forum
Preface \ Margaret Catley-Carlson, Patron, Global Water Partnership, Canada; Vice-Chair, World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water Security
 
Introduction: The Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus: A Facts and Figures Overview
 
Chapter 1. Agriculture
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-Responding to the Increase in Land and Water Demand to Guarantee Future Food Security \ Pasquale Steduto
-Water Scarcity: Agriculture Provides Solutions \ Juan Gonzalez-Valero and Peleg Chevion
-Improving Water, Food, and Climate Security: A Novel Approach to Direct Seeding of Rice \ Daniel Bena
-Farmers Facing the Water Challenge \ Ajay Vashee
-Water Challenges in the Arabian Gulf \ Sir Mohammad Jaafar
-The High Cost of Priceless Water and Oman's Ancient Alternative \ Peter Brabeck-Letmathe
 
Chapter 2. Energy
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-Water and Energy: New Thinking \ Peter Gleick
-Burning Up Food as Fuel: The Role of Water \ Peter Brabeck-Letmathe
-Choke Point: The Collision between Water and Energy \ J. Carl Ganter
-Solutions from the Sea \ The Down Chemical Company
 
Chapter 3. Trade
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-The Water-Trade Nexus \ James Bacchus
-The Risks and Rewards of Water in Trade \ Stuart Orr and Guy Pegram
-Interlocking Crises of Water Scarcity: How Trade Can Make a Difference \ Herbert Oberhänsli
-Soft Approaches to Sustainable Intensification for Water Security \ Tony Allan
 
Chapter 4. National Security
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-Trans-boundary Waters and Geopolitics by 2025 \ Claudia Sadoff
-Hydro-solidarity as a National Security Foundation \ Patricia Wouters
-Water in the Arabian Gulf: How to Tell the Story? \ Francis Matthew
-Land: A Question of Increasing Strategic Importance in Search of Better-Informed Answers \ Ralph Ashton
-The Water–National Security Nexus: The Case of Pakistan \ John Briscoe
 
Chapter 5. Cities
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-A Socioeconomic Breakdown \ Arjun Thapan
-Fatal Flooding in Modern Cities \ Richard Harpin
-Creating a Wastewater Revolution in Asian Cities: The Concept of Cascading Use \ Margaret Catley-Carlson
-Social Enterprise Solution for Water and Sanitation Facilities in Kenya's Slums \ David Kuria
-Urban Water Supply Security and Desalination \ Craig Fenton
 
Chapter 6. People
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-The Water Crisis Is Now \ Barbara Frost
-Water for People: The Capacity Constraint of Governments Hinders Action \ Ajit Gulabchand
-Free Access to the Water Nexus \ Thabo Makgoba
-SaniShop: Transforming the Sanitation Crisis into a Massive Business Opportunity for All \ Jack Sim
 
Chapter 7. Business
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-Global Water Tool \ World Business Council for Sustainable Development
-Water in the Value Chain \ Graham Mackay
-Water Resource Management and Sustainability \ Jeff Seabright
-Appendix: A Snapshot of Business Water Leadership
 
Chapter 8. Finance
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-Financing Water \ Usha Rao-Monari
-Meeting the Water Challenge \ Alex Barrett
-Water, Agriculture, and the Pricing of Sustenance \ Stuart Orr and Guy Pegram
-Property Rights to Water for All \ David Zetland
-An Example of Local-Level Water Market Innovation in Sonoma, California \ James G. Workman
 
Chapter 9. Climate
Background
Trends
Forecast
Implications
The Way Forward
Perspectives
-Glaciers, Water Security, and Asia's Rivers \ Orville Schell
-Combining the What and How of Building Climate Resilience: Water Ecosystems and Infrastructure \ mark Smith
 
Chapter 10. New Economic Frameworks for Decision-Making
Background
Step 1: Identifying the Demand and Supply Gap through 2030
Step 2: How Can the Gaps between Supply and Demand Be Closed?
Step 3: What Technical Options for Supply and Water Productivity Exist to Close the "Water Gap"?
Implications
The Way Forward: A Fact-Based Analysis as a Platform for Action
Perspectives
-The Work of the Water Resources Group \ Herbert Oberhänsli
-Water Portfolio management \ Lee A. McIntire
-A "Cloud-to-Coast" Decision Framework \ Michael Norton
-An Integrated Sustainability Index for Effective Water Policy \ Rabi H. Mohtar
- Water Skin: A Global Multi-scale River Basin Decision-Support Framework for Collaborative Water Resource and Risk Management from the Planetary Skin Institute \ Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio
 
Chapter 11. Innovative Water Partnerships
Background
The Regional Platforms and Networks
An Evolving Process
The Way Forward
 
Conclusion
A Viewpoint from Jordan \ Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan
So, How Will This Initiative Work?
 
Acknowledgments