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RSM Seminar Discusses the Future of Water

RSM Seminar Discusses the Future of Water

Shocking statistics about the use of water – and some potential fixes for the global problem of poor access to clean water – were presented during a recent seminar entitled ‘The Future of Water’ at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), which welcomed back two RSM alumni who have cycled ‘pole to pole’ to highlight the global problem of access to clean water.

The audience, of invited guests and students, heard that as many as one sixth of the world’s population has no access to clean water. Someone dies of a water-related disease every 15 seconds. In Mozambique, the average person uses 4.9 litres of water per day, less than that used in a single flush of an average European WC.

But the problems related to poor access go further. Children are kept out of school so they can help fetch water from afar. Most often it is the daughter who is kept out of school, and sexual discrimination then becomes an issue — and it can all be traced back to poor access to clean water.

RSM, KPMG Corporate Social Responsibility, the Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Development (INSID) and RSM’s student–led study association, STAR joined forces to organise the seminar. They gathered experts from academia, business and social enterprise to share insights on the issue.

A major shift

Professor Gail Whiteman holds the ECORYS/NEI chair in Sustainability and Climate Change and is Director of Centre for Corporate Eco-Transformation at RSM, as well as Professor in Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. She opened the seminar by pointing out that governments and businesses in the developed world are devoting increasing attention to sustainability issues. “We are seeing a major shift in business and political decision-making regarding water,” she said.

Megaforces

The first presentation was from Jan van den Herik, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at KPMG the Netherlands. Mr Van den Herik spoke of the 10 sustainability ‘mega forces’ identified by KPMG that will impact every business over the next 20 years. Among these is water scarcity. KPMG predicts that by 2030, global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40%. This can make businesses vulnerable to water shortages, declining water quality, fluctuations in water prices, and present a threat to their reputations.

Van den Herik read from a report published by KPMG CSR entitled Expect the Unexpected: “The resources on which businesses rely will become more difficult to access and more costly. There will be increasing strain on infrastructure and natural systems as patterns of economic growth and wealth change.” While the report itself is generally pessimistic, Van den Herik viewed it positively. “Ten years ago, KPMG would have never written a report of this kind. This is a bold move,” he said.

You never drink alone

Next to speak was Patrick de Nekker, an RSM alumnus and Founder of Earth Concepts, which sells Earth Water, coffee and tea. Mr De Nekker had a successful career at Heineken when he met Kori Chilibeck, a Canadian who told of his experiences in the Himalayas. He spoke of an elderly man carrying cans of soft drink to backpackers in the mountains and earning fifty cents a day. At that moment, Chilibeck realised that many multinationals are making their profits literally on the backs of the poor. He founded Earth Water. De Nekker, fully inspired by this concept, returned to the Netherlands, gave up his well-paid job and teamed up with advertiser Henk Witteveen to found Earth Concepts and bring Earth Water to Europe. The organisation sells water in 100% biodegradable packaging and donates 100% of its net profits to the UNHCR’s World Food Programme, and other initiatives working to bring water to places where it is most needed. De Nekker’s strategy is an interesting one. “We’re not asking anyone to do anything special. Just do what you already do — drink bottled water, but choose Earth Water instead of other brands.”

He concluded by saying, “There came a moment when I realised, if you do nothing, nothing will happen,” and then reiterated the newspaper headline that changed his life, “If you had the chance, would you change the world?”

Just digg it!

Next up was Dennis Karpes who gained renown for his work raising awareness about HIV/AIDS by launching a worldwide movement called ‘Dance4Life’, for which he was inducted into the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders in 2008. Not long after, he came into contact with Peter Westerveld, whom he called “a farmer, artist, and visionary”. Westerveld has spent much of his life in Tanzania and has watched drought conditions encroach ever further across the landscape around him. “The problem isn’t that there’s not enough rain,” Karpes went on to explain. “There is enough rain! The problem is that the land lies dry for so much of the year that, when it finally does rain, the water remains on the surface and then simply evaporates.” Worse still, the runoff erodes the topsoil and makes agriculture even more difficult. Westerveld discovered that by digging long trenches that follow the topography — ‘contour trenches’ — the water soaks into the ground and is stored there for irrigation. At the bottom of the topographical contours, this water can provide drinking water. The Naga foundation is now extending the idea to Burkina Faso and Kenya.

Karpes also spoke of the contour trenches and their role in ‘climate pacification’. Scientists are now discovering that moist soil can actually limit the severity of heat waves and influence even more rainfall in a variety of ways; contour trenches can help make the soil self-sustaining and even improve it. Westerveld predicts digging sufficient contour trenches can increase food production in even the driest parts of Africa – in one of his test fields, production grew from one meagre harvest to four each year –. Dennis Karpes is a marketer and sees ways of spreading Peter Westerveld’s idealistic, and feasible, plan. His byword? “Just digg it!” We will most definitely hear from the Naga foundation soon.

Arctic to Antarctic

Last but not least were Joost Notenboom and Michiel Roodenburg, the two RSM alumni whose ‘Cycle for Water’ expedition made it into headlines around the world. When writing their master theses, they knew they wanted to do something for the world, and they wanted to do something different, and came up with the idea of cycling on bamboo bicycles from the northernmost settlement in North America – Deadhorse, Alaska, well above the Arctic Circle – to the world’s southernmost city, Ushuaia in Argentina, a distance of 30,000 kilometres. It took them nearly 20 months to complete the journey and they even managed to hitch a ride to Antarctica, with their personal hero and inspiration, polar explorer Robert Swan OBE, and his team from the yacht ‘2041’ and its global Voyage for Cleaner Energy, as a final treat.

KPMG arranged speaking engagements at universities and businesses for Joost and Michiel during their bike trip. Wherever they went, they spoke of the global need to improve access to clean water. They acknowledged it was a publicity stunt, but it worked to spread their message. The cyclists attracted the attention of worldwide news organisation CNN, performed at the very first TEDx Antarctic Peninsula event and were interviewed by local press wherever they travelled. It also won them jobs at KPMG Corporate Social Responsibility.

The Future of Water seminar was one of extremes. All the speakers agreed that the current situation is dire; some believe it will get worse before it gets better. Yet the general mood at the end was a positive one. There are visionaries among us who are willing to take risks, live their dreams, and change the world, and we hope that they have inspired some of the students that were present!

The seminar was recorded and is available for online viewing on RSM's YouTube channel.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe. It is located in the international port city of Rotterdam where core Dutch values of openness, flexibility and acceptance of diversity have attracted businesses on a global scale. Our emphasis is on groundbreaking research and practices relevant to business; our primary focus is on developing business leaders who carry their innovative ideas into a sustainable future. Our portfolio includes a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programmes. www.rsm.nl

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at mschouten@remove-this.rsm.nl.