Our world is uncertain: seven billion people, fewer natural resources and what appears to be a new paradigm governing our weather systems. Throw global financial uncertainty into the mix and the job of planning our world’s water supply has never been more challenging.
Australia’s water industry faces a somewhat unique challenge. Apart from one quarter, a booming resources sector has helped drive positive GDP growth quarter-on-quarter since 2007. The irony is that this economic success story is in turn placing additional pressure on the provision of our most precious resource: water.
This uniqueness was audible recently at the Australian leg of our global roundtable series. We undertook the second of our annual series of water dialogues on economic pressures facing the water industry at Ozwater in Adelaide last year. The major difference in the dialogue compared to similar events in cities such as Berlin, New Orleans, Stockholm or Washington DC was the Australian water leaders’ concern for retaining and inspiring the next generation of talent.
Australia’s water challenge has simply not gone away since the rains returned. In early 2009, the Water Services Association of Australia estimated $30 billion was needed to be spent on urban water infrastructure over the following 5 to 10 years, and this does not factor in the work required following last summer’s tragic flooding. There is a lot more to do. Now as much as ever, the Australian water industry needs to retain its talent to ensure innovative, sustainable delivery of water solution for our growing population.
Finding the right talent for more innovative work is critical. Although water has become a desirable career, attracting more interest from young professionals in recent years, participants pointed to a need to nurture and inspire the next generation of water leaders. If a young engineer’s aim in life is to make as much money as possible, then they probably shouldn’t work in the water sector. As the resources boom aggressively attracts talent out of the water sector, it is clear the industry needs to offer more than remuneration in order to retain its best people.
Among the drawcards organisations in the water industry may be able to offer, or work towards, are developing an attractive work culture, negotiating a whole-of-life proposition with new staff and imbuing a sense that it is working for the greater good. Articulating any corporate value proposition and living it throughout the organisation - not just paying lip service to it - will define its ultimate success.
For the talented new entrants to the water industry, fresh with hard-won technical proficiency, it is essential to broaden their capabilities, to build leadership and management skills early in their career development. Roundtable participants in Adelaide were adamant that the industry’s current leaders are the key to teaching younger leaders and transferring institutional knowledge through stories, legends, case studies, internship programs and job rotations.
Developing and reinforcing a performance culture is also critical in both the public and private sector as the water industry prepares to meet the demands of operating in a fast-moving and increasingly complex industry environment.
The roundtable series identified one constant, universal challenge. The water industry must learn to ‘do more with less’ - drive value from its assets, derive value itself from nutrients in our water/wastewater, secure better financing and use every single drop of our water more efficiently at every level - domestically, in industry and in agriculture.
Australia’s water sector has been a shining example of this success. The country has sustained continued economic growth with only 30% of the water it had 10 years ago and improved its irrigation efficiencies to 85 to 90%, according to the Asian Development Bank.
There is still, however, an expectation that the water industry will make greater use of the range of water resources at its disposal, both to serve a growing customer base and to meet environmental outcomes. In addition to the traditional freshwater reservoirs, the options now include stormwater, recycled sewage and desalinated water. These new products present the industry with a new level of complexity in optimising water flows. Establishing what is the best economic use of these products in a financially constrained environment presents the industry with novel challenges in determining the life cycle costing for a range of new infrastructure.
A significant additional cost pressure for water utilities is the potential increase in energy costs. Treating and transferring water uses a lot of electricity. With the arrival of Australia’s carbon tax, electricity prices will increase and the nexus between energy and water will become a much more serious problem.
How do we harness energy at treatment plants, recover it through the process and use available land and space for off-grid renewable solutions like solar and wind power?
We need our best minds solving this complexity of issues and ensuring a secure supply of water for generations to come. We need to avoid mistakes of brinksmanship if faced with another water crisis. We need to plan ahead and do everything we can to protect and retain our talent.
By James Currie, Client Services Director, Australia, Black & Veatch