What does the future of water look like?

The world of drinking water is changing rapidly. Climate change, population growth and shifting consumer behaviour are driving increased demand for clean, reliable drinking water, while its availability is under pressure. At the same time, drinking water in the Netherlands is still relatively cheap. What will the world of drinking water look like in ten years’ time?

The challenge
For BrabantWater, the challenge lies in continuing to guarantee reliable drinking water in a world full of uncertainties and conflicting interests. We all want to be supplied, but we are not always willing to make the necessary concessions. Connecting new residential areas and business parks to the water network is a major undertaking, while environmental organisations and farmers are often at odds over groundwater extraction.

With an average daily drinking water consumption of 120 litres, consumers are also not blameless. We use perfectly clean water for washing cars and flushing toilets. How can we ensure that Dutch consumers reach a more desirable level of 90 litres per day, as has already been achieved in Belgium?

As both supplier and guardian of drinking water, BrabantWater has an important bridging role to play: raising awareness and bringing all users along towards a sustainable water system for the future.

The insight
Together with BrabantWater, we explored the possibilities for the next ten years – from trend analysis to future scenarios. Perhaps unsurprisingly, water touches almost every aspect of our lives. Our health, food, urbanisation, biodiversity and technological development all depend on water. To gain a complete picture of future possibilities, we outlined both the most and least desirable scenarios: What if consumers are extremely conscious about water use, and what if they are not?

We linked this to signals that we can already observe today. Some consumers are becoming more environmentally aware, while all-you-can-fly subscriptions are emerging, and the market share of low-cost Chinese online shops is rising significantly. This gave us a clear overview of what is happening and where we, as a society and organisation, want to head.

The four future scenarios we developed outline possible developments over the next ten years and provide concrete indicators to monitor. This enables BrabantWater to recognise in good time which scenario is becoming reality and to act accordingly, in order to continue to guarantee a reliable drinking water supply in the future.