As the home to 60 percent of the world’s population, the Asia-Pacific has been deemed “the global hot spot for water insecurity,” in a water development report released by Asian Development Bank. The impotence of water in Asia can not be overstated.

In APAC, over 2 billion people have poor or limited accessibility to fresh water, and the number could surge to 5 billion in 2050 (UN, 2018). This outcome is likely due to the region’s skyrocketing growth in population, economy, modernization, agriculture and urbanization. And it also happens to be one of the most disaster-prone regions globally, vulnerable to floods and droughts.

“The significance of water sustainability cannot be overstated, considering the significant consequences of water insecurity in our region,” said CY Shong, senior vice president, Continuous Improvement, Electrical Sector, Eaton. “Each one of us has the responsibility to make a difference, for our planet and for generations to come.”

Foster accessible, safe and sustainable water via water management

The concept of “water security” is not limited to the quality of water. Rather, it is defined as “the availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments and economies”. And to attain acceptable quantity and quality of water in our region, we need to better leverage the basic 3R strategies – also known as reduce, reuse and recycle.

Reduce is simple: Decrease our water consumption. Industrial processes consume the second largest amount of water, worldwide, just behind agriculture. And the key to ensuring water efficiency in industrial processes is to identity improvement opportunities, such as areas of water leakage or inefficient ways of processing water and taking proactive and effective actions to tackle the issues.

Reuse is easy: We can all use clean waste water on plants, or put a bucket in your shower and capture excess run off. Others use the water from boiling pasta. Get creative and you can save a lot of water.preservep

Recycling can be done individually or on scale: At home we can capture rainwater and utilize this precious resource, or places like Singapore recycle in a massive way with so-called grey water which they re-purify and reuse.

In all, considering the significant impact water has to our planet and society, it is imperative that individuals and organizations put water security and sustainability at the heart of what they do.