Masterclass in Water Management

• An overview of world water resources.
• The water challenge: Growing populations, migration, changing diets, climate extremes of floods and droughts.
• The politics of water. The fallacy of ‘silo thinking’ when water resources are limited.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as an alternative strategy and the idea of Water Security, is accepted in principle but the challenge is – how to put it into practice?
Water and IWRM are at the heart of the 2030 UN Development Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG6 in particular – ‘the Water Goal’. Can we actually achieve it or is it a dream?
When water is limited it is all about making difficult choices – water supply, agriculture, energy, amenity, environment? What are the trade-offs? Who gains and who suffers? How do we incorporate ‘ecological thinking’ into mainstream water planning and management?

The five great water myths that can inhibit sensible water planning and management.

• Finite vs limited water resources
• Water use vs consumption
• Water efficiency vs saving water,
• Is wastewater a new resource?
• What do we mean by sustainable water resources?

A historical perspective, where and how irrigation has developed.
Irrigation’s role in national and international food security.
What irrigation looks like in developing and developed countries. Contrast sub-Saharan Africa with-UK Europe.
The concept of blue, green, and virtual water and the impact of virtual water on both developing and developed countries.
The dilemma of smallholder vs large scale farming, land grabbing, smallholder farming is the backbone of poorer countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, low productivity.
The growing importance/reliance on groundwater for agriculture.

Climate change and the changing patterns of droughts and floods across the
world and the impact on food production and people’s livelihoods will all determine the answer to the above question. Dealing with food waste. Dealing with ‘easy’ and
‘difficult’ hydrology.

Using a series of guest and on-line lecture format the following issues will be touched upon from a municipal and industrial water supply point of view:

• Best practices in water purification and reticulation
• Setting up a fool-proof water management infrastructure
• Developing a water crisis contingency plan
• Water distribution and management plan during drought
• Quality, safety and risk management in water supply value chain