Titled “(Dr)Ou(gh)t of Sight, (Dr)Ou(gh)t of Mind”, the latest edition of the Danube Water Program's KnowNow webinar series looked at the scary perspectives of the developing climate crisis – and possible approaches to increase the resilience of water services.

In spite of the webinar's title “(Dr)Ou(gh)t of Sight, (Dr)Ou(gh)t of Mind”, the Europe-wide record drought of this year's spring and summer was still fresh and present in everybody's mind, and for a refresher, Andrea Toreti, Senior Researcher at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, gave an overview of the size and impact of this indeed historic event.

 The drought affected 60% of the European Union, with the Po and Danube basins heavily hit. Severe precipitation deficits affected water supplies, dike stability, river transport, energy production and of course agriculture. River estuaries saw sea water intrusions of up to 40 kilometers upstream.

Many indicators point to this year's drought being the worst on record, and that you have to look back as far as 1540 for similar climate anomalies. Still, this may soon be the new normal: Climate change threatens all with future drought events of unprecedented severity, and larger and larger areas of Europe are at risk.

Andrea Di Piazza, Senior Analyst at Utilitalia then opened the panel discusson with a report from hard-hit Italy where the worst drought in 70 years lasted through the first seven months of this year, starting with 70% less snowfall in the Alps and culminating with the already mentioned salt water inflows into the Po, Italy's longest river.

The Italian government was forced to declare an emergency status, restricting water use and taking numerous measures to ensure drinking water supplies and the biological balance in rivers. Which succeeded in mitigating the impact of the drought in the short term, but the summer of '22 threw a glaring spotlight on the necessity of large investments in the near future.

Vjekoslav Poropat, Technical Manager at Istarski Vodovod, then reported from Croatia. In winter, his company serves roughly 100.000 inhabitants of the region from an abundance of water, in August, with water resources running low, there are 250.000 additional tourists with high expectations regarding their comfort. In 2022, a new tourism record and a record drought added up to create a seriously difficult situation for the company in spite of its high inbuilt resilience.

Stjepan Gabric, World Bank Senior Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist, added some background from a recent World Bank study on the coastal regions in Croatia, throwing light on the conflicts that arise from shrinking water supplies that are pushed to their limit by explosive growth in the development of coastal regions in Croatia and everywhere around the Mediterrenean.

Mr. Gabric predicts that, while investments in reducing water losses in systems everywhere in Croatia from a national average of 50% to 25% should suffice to cover the growing demand until 2045, the availability of water will eventually turn out to be a very serious limiting factor to tourism.

Non-Revenue Water Advisor Roland Liemberger then followed up with the practical perspective of creating more resilience, noting that when it comes to reducing water losses, success stories are quite rare, not the least because of a lack of political will: Spectacular investments like pumping stations and desalination plants are always more attractive than digging up leaking pipes. He hopes that the drought of '22 will serve as a wakeup call that makes utilities think hard what they can do with their current and future budgets: “It is all about being better than yesterday. First improve the speed and quality of repairs. Next step is systematic leak detection. Do it quick and cheap: If your system volume is not metered, put a simple mechanical meter and monitor the volumes. Next step is network zoning. After all that, we need to think about pipe replacement, but that is a huge investment.”

In this regard, the panelists widely agreed that staff upskilling and reskilling is a most important and often overlooked factor. “It's not the pipes, it's the people”, said Stjepan Gabric. “And it's not so much their knowledge, it's being interested. You need to motivate utilities to be reasonable and efficient. In the end, energy tariffs will be a very strong motivation to change behavior.”

A comprehensive report and the webinar video are available under the link below.