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Home > Advisory > Water
Water
Global water consumption has risen almost fivefold in the last 50 years. Projections to 2020 indicate a 35 percent increase in extractive use globally – 22 percent in developed countries and 43 percent in the developing world. This, coupled with the cost of water infrastructure development and a shortage of new cost effective water storage sites points to a looming global supply shortfall. Such shortages already exist in many parts of the world today.
Traditional approaches to water management were supply driven, where water supply authorities used engineering solutions to secure more supplies of water to meet demand. The price of water has not reflected the true cost of supply including externalities such as the ecological impacts, and underpriced water has produced little incentive for end users to conserve water. While traditional approaches have delivered great benefits, allowing food production to keep up with increasing populations through irrigation systems, and supplying water to millions in cities, they were based on the premise that water resources were abundant. As water has become scarce, disputes between competing water users have created tensions locally, nationally and even internationally.
Consequently, the water debate in many developed countries has been focused on resolving competing demands for increasingly scare water resources, mitigating the environmental impacts of water extraction, storage and return, and progressing policy and institutional reform to achieve these outcomes.
Our work in the water sector has included:
- Preparing strategic analyses of water sector policy and market developments and their significance to companies as they prepare for a water future characterised by scarcity and increased cost;
- Assessing the impact of environmental flow changes of water allocation regimes on hydro power generation.
- Tactical planning in regard to water allocation policy;
- Developing commercialisation options for major water infrastructure projects in the context of tradeable water rights; and
- Pricing of rural water delivery infrastructure services.
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