The Urban Water Dilemma

Making urban water distribution sustainable and using water to make cities greener were topics covered at a recent international conference in South Africa. “Numerous speakers highlighted the need for a shift away from ‘old models’ of water management and business-as-usual thinking. ‘I see a transition from people being consumers of water to people being custodians of water. We need to manage water as a flux instead of a stock,’ said Anthony Turton, director of TouchStone Resources, a natural-resource management company based in South Africa, at a World Bank panel on public-private partnerships.”