Asit K Biswas

University of Glasgow | UofG · School of Engineering

The world faces multiple water crises, including overextraction, flooding, ecosystem degradation and inequitable safe water access. Insufficient funding and ineffective implementation impede progress in water access, while, in part, a misdiagnosis of the causes has prioritized some responses over others (for example, hard over soft infrastructure)....

In a rapidly changing world, the economic and political hefts of the Global South have steadily increased and the West's global dominance is being challenged, with China becoming the first serious competitor to the US.

Among water professionals and in the media there are often extensive discussions on national and international water crises. However, all water problems and their solutions are local. There may be a few common aspects but the contexts of and solutions to the water problems differ from one country to another.

The original English text was published in the China Daily Zhixianghui column. Editors: Yan Yujie, Wang Hui, Zhou Fengmei.

China was a poor country in 1978, with a per capita GDP of only $156.8. However, with a reform and opening-up process, the country moved from a planned to a market-oriented economy. With double-digit growth for nearly 30 years, China's per capita GDP soared to $12,614.10 by 2023. Up to 2010, China focused primarily on economic growth. Around 2000,...

Hydropower has been an important source of renewable energy for more than a century. In 2020, it generated nearly 4500 TWh of electricity, accounting for some 1/6th of the global total. Currently, hydropower generates 50% or more electricity in 35 countries covering some 800 million people. Even though hydropower has proven to be a reliable energy...

A good example of expedient management is the discharge of untreated or partially treated wastewater into rivers. Consequently, rivers all over the world have become increasingly polluted, impacting human health and aquatic ecosystems. In 2009, Li Guoying, then with the Chinese Yellow River Conservancy Commission and now China’s Minister of Water...

Water requirements for various human activities have continued to increase significantly over the past 60 years but advances in water use and management practices have improved only incrementally. Accordingly, the world is now facing a water crisis the magnitude and extent of which no earlier generation has had to face. One possible way to manage t...

Malin Falkenmark, an extraordinary thinker and water scientist, died on 3 December 2023, aged 98. I first met Malin in 1976 when she was the Executive Secretary of the Swedish National Committee for UNESCO’s International Hydrological Decade. She impressed me very much during this first meeting with her razor-sharp analytical ability, objectivity a...

China accounts for nearly 21 percent of the global population but has only 6 percent of the world's freshwater, and per capita water availability in China is about 25 percent of the global average. China, like most other countries, has primarily used supply-side solutions to make water available whenever a city or town has required additional volu...

Global surface water receives lion’s share of interest. In contrast, groundwater is an unseen and unappreciated resource even though it constitutes 98% of earth’s liquid freshwater. Groundwater provides 42% of global irrigation water, 36% of potable water and 24% of industrial water. Groundwater is mismanaged in both developed and developing countr...

A vast number of people around the world are aware that China is among the world’s largest energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases. However, an overwhelming majority of them are unaware that China is also the global leader in nearly all aspects of renewable energy generation, production, manufacturing and export. This has been possible be...

Background Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 envisions a future where everyone has access to clean water and sanitation. Yet, as 2030 looms closer, the complexity of achieving this target becomes apparent, with issues far surpassing basic water infrastructure and utility challenges. The underlying problems lie in broader spheres such as governan...

There is now overwhelming scientific consensus that a significant part of global climatic anomalies witnessed in recent years is caused by anthropogenic climate change. To help address this and to mitigate some of the most severe impacts of flooding, China plans to continue to add more hydropower capacity by constructing new dams at economically fe...

In this chapter, we provide a case study of a privately owned water utility in Cambodia, Chamkarleu Water Supply (CWS).

This chapter has three sections. In Sect. 6.1, we assess the choices a household has in accessing water for consumption and analyse how households view these different water sources.

1001fontaines (1001f) is a French NGO that was founded in 2004, after Chay Lo, a young Cambodian graduate of the National School of Rural Engineering, Water Resources and Forestry (in France), met François Jaquenoud, former senior executive of Accenture, and Virginie Legrand, volunteer at an NGO called Enfants du Mekong (Children of the Mekong).

Piramal Sarvajal (henceforth Sarvajal) is an Indian social enterprise headquartered in Ahmedabad.

Rehan’s entrepreneurial spirit had been stirred when he was an undergraduate at Stanford University, California, USA, leaving him keen to do something real and creative in the area of public service.

China has suffered extreme weather events recently. This year it recorded lowest ever temperature of -53°C and also hottest ever at 52.2°C. Beijing endured over 35°C for 14 consecutive days, longest since records started in 1961. Typhoon Doksuri poured 744.8mm of rain in Beijing in 4 days, more than average annual rainfall of 644mm. It was heaviest...

Writings on water crises due extreme droughts and floods, frequent and longer heat waves, wildfires, sea level rises and climate change issues, have become a growth industry. Putting “water crisis” in Google brings 570 million results! Yet, in-depth analysis of water crisis indicates that this crisis is not because of physical lack of this resource...

Scotland is well-endowed with water and its water environments are in relatively good ecological condition compared to neighbouring countries. However, if Scotland is to become a true ‘Hydro Nation’, it needs to go beyond the current mindset of sustainable water management and focus on how its immense water wealth can be used as an engine for econo...

During the past 50 years, temperatures have been rising by 0.2 C every decade, with an accelerated rate of increase since 2010 and the warmest decade on record thus far being 2010-2019. Worryingly, the period from 2015 to 2019 has been the warmest five years on record, with 2016 being the warmest year, followed by 2019. According to the World Meteo...

Unlike the current mainstream view, world is not facing a water crisis because of a physical lack of this resource but due to decades of poor water management. The two views are very different: solutions are also very different. A renewable resource like water can be used and wastewater can be collected, treated and reused again. With good manageme...

India’s urban water and wastewater management has been on an unsustainable path for centuries. The situation started to improve, but rather slowly, during the post-independent period of 1947–1980. Thereafter, changes were somewhat higher until 2014. Since 2015, momentum has increased quite significantly, but not enough. Unfortunately, water has ne...

Countries across the world are facing major problems which are too complex for any single country, no matter how powerful, to solve them alone. So all countries, big and small, should first agree to a common solution and then endeavour to achieve it and collectively contribute to realizing common prosperity.

The United Nations (UN) 1977 Water Conference at Mar del Plata (MDP) sought to avoid a water crisis of global dimensions by 2000 and to ensure an adequate supply of good quality water to meet socioeconomic needs. While much has been achieved, the MDP goals are not yet realised. Unsafe, or perceived to be unsafe, drinking water still affects at leas...

The United Nations (UN) 1977 Water Conference at Mar del Plata (MDP) sought to avoid a water crisis of global dimensions by 2000 and to ensure an adequate supply of good-quality water to meet socio-economic needs. While much has been achieved, the MDP goals are not yet realized. Unsafe, or perceived to be unsafe, drinking water still affects at lea...

In March 1977, UN organised a Water Conference, at high policymaking level, in Mar del Plata, Argentina. It was attended by 116 governments, most of whom were represented by their Water Ministers. This 2-week long meeting had major impacts on global water developments for the next three decades, a most remarkable achievement. It generated a wealth...

Technological developments have been very significant in recent decades. Consider the following. Until 1900, human knowledge used to double every century. At the end of 2nd World War, doubling time declined to 25 years. By 2013, it was 13 months and soon it will be 12 hours. Nearly 90% of data in the world were generated during last 2 years. In 198...

The importance and relevance of dams all over the world have gone through ups and downs during the past decades. Until about 1975, in general, in nearly all countries, large dams were considered to be beneficial for the social and economic development of the countries. During the late 1960s, slowly but steadily, controversies developed on the socia...

Three general concerns with desalination are at present. First, it is expensive because of its high energy requirements. Second, is its environmental costs, especially in terms of brine disposal. The third is the carbon footprints of the construction and operation of desalination plants. For most locations, desalination is the most expensive form o...

Groundwater policies in India have mostly been introduced as ad hoc measures, and they areseldom implemented. In over 80% of districts in Punjab, India’s breadbasket, groundwater levelsdropped by a metre each year between 1998-2018. Despite these alarming developments, the countrystill doesn’t have central laws on groundwater regulation.

Russia and Ukraine supply more than 30 countries that are net importers of wheat with at least 30% of their wheat imports. Both countries are top global exporters of barley, maize and fertilizers. Ukrainian grain feeds some of the world's most vulnerable people. It supplies over 50% of wheat that is distributed by the UN World Food Programme to all...

In 2021, Paul Polman, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Unilever between 2009 and 2019, and Andrew Winston, a specialist on sustainable business, wrote Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. This highly readable book provides a new and more appropriate framework for business, eschewing decades of dog...

Global warming is producing all types of extreme weather anomalies around the globe. In the past decade, wildfires have become rampant and received considerable attention. However, only during the last few years have extreme temperatures drawn global attention. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the world ex...

Populations in urban centers of developing countries have increased very significantly during the post-1960 period, primarily due to urbanization. Rates of population growth during this period simply overwhelmed their financial, institutional, and technical capacities to manage all types of basic services, including the provision of clean water and...

River is a new open access international peer‐reviewed journal. One may ask why a new journal is necessary when there are at least 150 water‐related journals published from different parts of the world in the English language alone. There are several reasons why we believe such a journal can play important roles in promoting sustainable management...

The rapid increase of knowledge in the field of hydrology during the nineteenth century is indeed remarkable. The experimental methods, that were successfully pioneered by Perrault, Mariotte and Halley in the seventeenth century had already taken firm roots, and, undoubtedly, the major developments during the nineteenth century were in the fields o...

Singapur está utilizando la digitalización para gestionar su suministro de agua urbano. La Agencia Nacional del Agua de Singapur (PUB) es responsable de garantizar el suministro de agua de una manera sostenible y eficiente, la alta variabilidad de las precipitaciones, que dificulta la previsión, tiene implicaciones más amplias, como en la gestión d...

Cingapura está usando a digitalização para gerenciar seu abastecimento de água urbano. A Agência Nacional de Águas de Cingapura (PUB), é responsável por garantir um abastecimento de água sustentável e eficiente em Cingapura, a alta variabilidade das chuvas - dificultando a previsão - tem implicações mais amplas, como no gerenciamento de inundações....

Singapore sta usando la digitalizzazione per gestire la sua fornitura d'acqua urbana. La National Water Agency (PUB) di Singapore è responsabile di garantire un approvvigionamento idrico sostenibile ed efficiente a Singapore, l'elevata variabilità delle precipitazioni - che rende difficile la previsione - ha implicazioni più ampie, come nella gesti...

Singapur nutzt die Digitalisierung, um seine städtische Wasserversorgung zu managen. Singapurs National Water Agency (PUB) ist für die Sicherstellung einer nachhaltigen und effizienten Wasserversorgung in Singapur verantwortlich. Die hohe Variabilität der Niederschläge – die eine Vorhersage erschweren – hat weitreichendere Auswirkungen, beispielswe...

Singapour utilise la numérisation pour gérer son approvisionnement en eau en milieu urbain. L'Agence nationale de l'eau de Singapour (PUB) est chargée d'assurer un approvisionnement en eau durable et efficace à Singapour, la forte variabilité des précipitations - ce qui rend difficile la prévision - a des implications plus larges, comme dans la ges...

Singapore is using digitalisation to manage its urban water supply. Singapore’s National Water Agency (PUB), is responsible for ensuring a sustainable and efficient water supply in Singapore, the high variability of rainfall - making it difficult to forecast - has wider implications, such as in flood management. PUB has managed this challenge by tu...

Water security has been an important issue for India’s socio-economic development. However, not only has its water management practices have been on an unsustainable path for centuries but also the water situation has steadily deteriorated during the past 40 years. As population, urbanization and economic activities have increased, more water is ne...

From solar farms to carbon capture, PUB (Singapore's National Water Agency) is looking at all ways and means to meet rising demand for water while keeping down carbon emissions. To meet its net-zero carbon goals, PUB has formulated a three-pronged strategy to replace carbon, reduce carbon and remove carbon. It plans to use more renewable energy in...

World Water Day, which falls on March 22, is an occasion to reflect on how we manage this vital resource amid the uncertainties of climate change. PUB is tackling the challenge with an array of digital approaches, from radar rainfall monitoring to robotic swans.

Simply speaking, ethics are a set of moral principles that steer overall societal behaviour. They guide any specific society’s beliefs as to what could be considered right or wrong, or what is just or unjust. They, thus, affect the individual as well as societal behaviour. From a historical and global context, ethical values are neither constant ov...

Water security and climate change are only two of the major problems humankind is facing at present, and they will continue to be so for decades to come. However, important as they are, there are many other critical problems the world will have to confront for the rest of the 21st century. Most of these problems are now known, but there may be some...

India’s water management has been on an unsustainable path for centuries. Its record on wetlands management has been even worse. Over the past 500 years, India’s water management practices have improved slowly and at best incrementally, even though its water demands have grown exponentially. Not surprisingly, India’s water situation has deteriorate...

Water security and climate change are only two of the major long-term problems the world is facing at present. Increasing population, urbanisation and demands for a better quality of life all over the world mean more food, energy and other resources will be necessary in the future. Increasing food and energy supplies will require more efficient wat...

This book highlights the likely impacts of climate change in terms of global and national water securities, how different countries are attempting to address these complex problems and to what extent they are likely to succeed. A major global concern at present, especially after the social and economic havoc that has been caused by COVID-19 in only...

100 years ago, China was ravaged by imperial mismanagement, foreign colonialism and civil wars. Its 400 million people lived in poverty. In July 1921, 13 disillusioned people met secretly in Shanghai’s French concession and Communist Party of China was born. Mao Zedong became the leader of this fledgling Party. In about three decades, the Party was...

COP26 will start in Glasgow, 31 October to 12 November 2021. The event will bring together governments to accelerate actions to achieve the goals that were unanimously agreed to in the Paris Agreement during COP21, in 2015. This Agreement was a momentous event during which all the governments of the world agreed to work together so that global warm...

Globally, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to a warming planet which is changing climates. While scientifically it is still not possible to say if a specific climatic event was intensified by global warming, and, if so, by how much, the overall trajectory of available scientific evidence during the last two decades is becoming...

The societal roles that hydropower and dams can play, including mitigation and adaptation to climate change, are neither fully appreciated nor understood in most countries. These have been a serious bone of contention between pro- and anti-dam lobbies since mid-1980s. During the post-2010 period, discussions on the benefits and costs of large dams...

China has proven all the doomsayers wrong. It has not slid into stagnation like Japan or the Republic of Korea, as the doomsayers had predicted, because of two key factors.

The future of water and wastewater management was an important issue of discussion during the 2021 Singapore International Water Week (SIWW). Within a short period of 12 years, SIWW has become the premier event globally where participants learn about the first-in-class practices developed in different parts of the world on different aspects of urba...

The 1920s were not a good time for China. Its 400 million people mainly lived in rural areas, mired in poverty. The government of the day couldn’t do much to improve the lives of the Chinese people. The Chinese people faced poverty and famine. The reform and opening-up initiated by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s totally changed the economic and so...

Covid-19 has resulted in loss of life and livelihoods while deepening political fault lines and exposing governance shortcomings. Emerging from the economic upheaval of the pandemic will be the next great policy challenge. Industries like tourism and education are among those affected most by the crisis.

Despite contributing a tiny fraction of global emissions, the Singaporean Government’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions is an example that large emitters should follow, Asit K Biswas and Peter Joo Hee Ng write.

‘Boom and bust’ rainfall is one challenge as weather patterns change. The other is how to produce more potable water through processes such as desalination without raising carbon emissions. Too much, too little, and never quite enough – that sums up Singapore’s water challenge now compounded by climate change. As we mark World Environment Day toda...

Chinese President Xi Jinping took the world by surprise by declaring that China will “aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060”. To achieve these objectives, China will pursue “more vigorous policies and measures”.

The pandemic has seriously disrupted global plans to achieve SDG targets because of unexpected and very high economic, social and health costs. All governments had to borrow heavily and divert focus to counter the pandemic’s immediate adverse impacts, leaving limited resources and efforts towards achievement of SDGs.

An important reason as to why water is not a priority item in the political agenda of any country for an appropriate length of time is because the way the water profession has framed its discussion. It is all about issues like supply and demand, efficiency of use, good planning and management, risks and uncertainties, etc. Policymakers have very li...

Within a span of 40 years, China has lifted about 800 million people out of absolute poverty and become the second-largest economy in the world. In 1980 China’s per capita GDP was $194.80－10 percent of Brazil ($1,947.28) and 73 percent of India ($266.58). But thanks to years of good economic management and rapid growth, its per capita GDP increased...

India’s water management has been on an unsustainable path for decades. This has ensured that not enough water of appropriate qualities is available not only for basic human needs like drinking, cooking and proper personal hygiene but also for industrial, commercial, agricultural and environmental purposes. There is not a single Indian urban centre...

While the importance of water for human and ecosystem survival has been known for thousands of years, water has not been on the international political agenda until around the mid-1970s. In 1977, during the United Nations Water Conference, held at a very high decision-making level, it firmly entered the global political agenda for the first time. T...

A comparison of Glasgow and Singapore on health services.

This section analyses gaps in the physical, operational, financial and institutional domains of PPWSA under the status quo situation. The term “gap” in the current context, stands for what is lacking in each of the domains from the perspective of going from “what it is at present basis” to “what it should be at basis.” What it should be at basis is...

The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) is responsible for supplying drinking water to Phnom Penh. It was formally established in 1959 under a Royal Decree as a state-controlled business under the direct supervision of the Phnom Penh Municipality. However, the piped drinking water supply in Phnom Penh started well before 1959. In 1895, Compag...

Based on detailed analyses of PPWSA, PUB, National Water Agency of Singapore, and several other successful Asian water utilities carried out by the authors, a tool kit for possible consideration of the Chief Executives of water utilities in the cities of developing countries, both public and private, is proposed herewith.

The Khmer empire was the predecessor state to modern Cambodia. Angkor was its capital city till the early fifteenth century. Phnom Penh became the royal capital for 73 years, from 1432 to 1505. However, at that time, it was known as “Chaktomuk” (Four Faces), because of its location next to the four-branched confluence of the rivers Mekong, Tonlé Sa...

By any criteria, both the operational and financial positions of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, in 1993, were untenable. It has undergone major transformation during the 1993 to 2019 period. This can be best illustrated by noting the extent to which its business expanded during the 26-year period between 1993 and 2019.

Any good and usable framework for analysis has to define its unit of analysis, identify main intended users of the framework analysis and the end objective to be achieved by it. The proposed 4-D framework of analysis is primarily meant for the managers of urban water utilities. They can use it as a management tool to understand the strengths and we...

Phnom Penh is the capital city and is also the political and the economic centre of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Ravaged by internal conflicts and social and political turbulences for decades, Phnom Penh’s drinking water infrastructure, as well as the city’s overall management of all other services and infrastructure, were in shambles in 1993. Any sane...

Interviews were carried out with selected residents of Phnom Penh about their views and experiences with the providers of different urban services. The sample size of twenty was small and was not randomly selected. However, the interviews provide a good insight into residents’ views on the qualities of different urban service they are currently rec...

An important reason for the success of any organisation is the quality and the commitment of the people who work for it. The current top management team at PPWSA is a very experienced one. Most of the Deputy Director Generals have been with the institution for more than two decades.

The Four-Domain (4-D) Framework is used in this section to analyse PPWSA “business” in its four key domains.

This book analyses how a water utility from a developing country, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, that was totally dysfunctional, corruption-ridden and literally bankrupt in 1993, became one of the most successful water utilities of the developing world in only about 15 years. By 2010, some of the performance indicators of this public sector uti...

Any objective review of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) will show it has been a game changer for China. The plan has promoted the transition to ecological civilization and green growth through significantly strengthened environmental policies and legislation, which have reinforced earlier efforts to control. environmental pollution, and promoted...

A comprehensive strategy to manage floods in Singapore would comprise engineering, green and digital solutions.

India’s National Water Policy is meant to provide a definite course of action on water management, ensuring the country’s population of nearly 1.3 billion and industries have access to adequate water for various uses. In this piece, we provide some dos and don’ts for developing a credible NWP which will have an impact on India’s water management po...

COVID-19 will unquestionably delay achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the latest global attempt to improve the quality of life of billions of people around the world by 2030. Increasing access to clean water and sanitation are among the 17 SDGs. During normal times, and even more during the present pandemic, access to clean w...

This article describes how COVID-19 crisis will increase demand for cleaner, safer water and more reliable and effective wastewater treatment everywhere. But success is far from guaranteed, not least because the pandemic also seems to be strengthening another trend: declining trust in public institutions.

China has made great advancement in assessing risks, by studying the changes in flood-prone areas, and identifying ways to reduce those risks. And apart from making remarkable improvements in forecasting and monitoring floods, and strengthened its warning and communication system, China has built extensive flood-control infrastructure along rivers...

Chinese translation of the opinion piece published by the The Conversation, June 8, 2020.

On June 6, after 56 days of zero COVID-19 infections, Beijing recorded its first new case. The man had not left Beijing or had been in contact with anyone from outside the city for 14 days. He worked at Xinfadi market, Beijing’s largest. On June 11 emergency response was upgraded to Level 2. Schools were closed again. 60% flights at Beijing Airport...

On June 11, Beijing reported a new outbreak of novel coronavirus after 56 days of "zero new cases". A 52-year-old man surnamed Tang was the first among the new cases to test positive for the virus. He had been to Beijing's largest wholesale market, Xinfadi, which supplies about 80 percent of Beijing's vegetables, fruits and meat. After the infectio...

Pandemi COVID-19 akan pasti menunda tercapainya Tujuan Pembangunan Berkelanjutan atau Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yang dicanangkan oleh PBB sebagai upaya berskala global untuk meningkatkan kualitas hidup miliaran orang di seluruh dunia, yang diharapkan dapat tercapai pada tahun 2030. Peningkatan akses terhadap air bersih dan sanitasi meru...