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💦 As a follow-up from our last issue on cooling we wanted to talk about ice’s melted form: water!

🌬️ In Indonesian, the word for water is “air” but unlike the air conditioning that we discussed last week, it’s pronounced as “ah-yeer” not “ehr”

😵 So don’t be surprised if you message your Indonesian friend to “go outside for some fresh air” and they bring you a freshly poured glass of water as you respond “water you doing?!”

😅 OK, that’s enough puns for this issue…

🤿 This week, we’ll be diving into the nexus between climate change and water

So water you talking about here?

🥥 Upon sipping cold coconut water after accidentally ingesting seawater, you’ll know that not all water is created equal…

1. 🚰 Clean / Potable Water: safe for human consumption, typically going through treatment processes to remove contaminants making it suitable for drinking.

2. 🛀🏻 Grey Water: wastewater from sources like sinks, baths, and laundry machines that still contains traces of contaminants, detergents, and organic matter.

3. 🚽 Black Water: primarily refers to wastewater from toilets and sewage systems, containing feces, urine, and toilet flush water, often heavily contaminated with pathogens and organic matter.

Potability of the water is determined by salinity in the case of saltwater or brackish water, and chemical concentrations as is the case with industrial wastewater.

♿ ASEAN faces large intra-region disparities in clean water access. For instance, in Cambodia around 3 in 10 people lack access while in Singapore there’s basically universal access to clean water. In total, around 110M (1/6 of the population) live without access to safe water in Southeast Asia; they primarily reside in poorer countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar but also in remote areas of Indonesia and the Philippines (Eco-Business, 2019).

Climate change makes H₂O into H₂OhNo…

Water resources are threatened by climate change in Southeast Asia in many ways including:

1. ☔ Irregular rainfall: Climate change leads to irregular precipitation patterns, resulting in prolonged droughts or intense rainfall and flooding, which can significantly impact freshwater availability. At present, Southeast Asia is facing drought conditions due to El Nino, which exacerbates water scarcity (ScienceDirect, 2023).

2. 🌊 Sea level rise and salinization: In Southeast Asia and other regions of the world with large coastlines, rising sea levels due to climate change threaten freshwater sources by causing saltwater intrusion. This is already happening in the Mekong Delta with rice cultivation in particular (VOA, 2022).

3. ⛈️ Extreme storms: The frequency, intensity, and irregularity of tropical cyclones (AKA typhoons) have been increasing due to climate change. These events can cause flooding or wind damage that disrupts water infrastructure, contaminating water sources. For instance, in November 2013, a massive typhoon called Haiyan swept across the Philippines, devastating communities’ water supplies—fortunately, our friend Carlo launched a NGO called Waves for Water stepped in to launch their Filipino operations at this time.

4. 🏔️ Glacier melting: In regions like the Himalayas, which provide water to Southeast Asia through major river systems like the Mekong, climate change-induced glacier melting affects the quantity and timing of water flow affecting millions of livelihoods downstream (DW, 2022).

⛏️ Beyond climate-related challenges to clean water access, it’s also worth noting that environmental degradation caused by activities like mining is also threatening freshwater supplies. For instance, in northeastern Luzon, Philippines gold and copper mining activity poses a major risk to indigenous communities (Envirotech, 2023). Moreover, nickel mining in Sulawesi, Indonesia has been contaminating surrounding water sources (Rest of World, 2022).

Making this H₂Okay…

☔ Rainwater harvesting

🌧️ Southeast Asia has some of the highest annual precipitation in the world—as a region overall it has twice the global average at 2 meters per annum (FAO, 2020). Thus there’s a massive potential for rainwater to be collected from rooftops or other surfaces. However, it’s worth noting that rainwater can pick up certain contaminants if air quality is poor, which of course as we had mentioned in our first issue: is indeed true for many urban centers around the region. Reservoiar is an example of a startup that’s doing exactly this, specifically in Indonesia.

🏗️ Dams & pumps

🪣 Without the proper infrastructure for storing water sustainably during periods of erratic rainfall, techniques like rainwater harvesting are ineffective. Moreover, tools such as water pumps that are powered by clean energy can help provide water access while also tackling fossil fuels and can even be used in off-grid communities. An example of this includes a solar-powered water pump capable of bringing 100K liters of water to a remote village in Sulawesi, Indonesia (Pumps & Systems, 2018).

⚙️ Desalination & wastewater treatment

🧂 In a region surrounded by saltwater, why don’t we just reduce the salinity of the saltwater to make potable water? Well that’s exactly what Singapore is doing. In fact, they just built their fifth desalination plant! However, desalination can be an energy-intensive process, so the climate-friendly solution would be to run it as efficiently as possible and with clean energy sources (Southeast Asia Infrastructure, 2022).

Desalination facilities like this are typically massive in scale, requiring a huge investment and effort to get up-and-running. Fortunately however, MIT researchers recently developed a portable device that generates clean drinking water without the need for high-pressure pumps, which could be key for remote areas that lack both freshwater sources and rainfall (MIT News, 2022). Lastly, wastewater treatment is another viable way to get clean water, in fact Cambodia is investing heavily in this (Southeast Asia Infrastructure, 2022).

🌴 Nature-based adaptation

🌿 Protecting and restoring natural ecosystems like wetlands, forests, and watersheds can help regulate water flow, prevent soil erosion, and maintain water quality to boost resilience (ADB, 2023). For instance, mangroves are particularly adept at preventing saltwater intrusion and are a widespread plant species across Southeast Asia (IRENA, 2022).

➕ Promotion of water-efficient practices

🔽 Finally, encouraging the adoption of water-saving appliances for households and climate-smart practices in agriculture, such as drip irrigation and the use of drought-resistant crops can help citizens and farmers reduce water demand altogether!

📚 Want to learn more about this topic?

1. “Asia’s water security—the glass is still half full” from ADB

2. “Water: 12 Things to Know” from ADB

3. “Southeast Asia and the right to safe water” from Eco-Business

📢 Shout-outs to Komodo Water and Solar Chapter!

🦎 Komodo Water is a social enterprise based in Labuan Bajo that started in 2012. They provide affordable clean water powered by renewable energy.

They’re currently fundraising for USD5M to accelerate the expansion of untapped fishery and agriculture ecosystem potential nationwide for the next 5 years. If you’re keen to learn more, click here or connect directly here.

🌞 Solar Chapter, founded in 2017, is dedicated to fostering sustainable development in rural Indonesia with a particular focus on East Nusa Tenggara. Their primary focus is the installation of community-driven, solar-powered pump systems to enhance the climate resilience of rural communities where 93% of the population relies on rainfed farming. Their efforts have transformed the lives of over 16K individuals, cutting down the time to access water from three hours to a few minutes.

As they aim to scale their solutions, they are actively seeking partners who share their vision of empowering communities and building a more sustainable, future.

🗞️ Recent News

👍🏻 Good News

📈 Singapore start-up Atera Water, NTU Singapore and SIT to make large-scale clean water production more affordable for developing nations (Eurekalert, 3 October 2023)

📄 USAID releases Indonesia global water strategy high-priority country plan (US Embassy, 21 July 2023)

👎🏻 Bad News

🚫 Indonesia to restrict ground water use to halt Jakarta’s sinking (Bloomberg, 13 November 2023)

⛰️ The uphill battle for Singapore’s water security is set to continue (The Straits Times, 9 November 2023)

🦫 Indonesia needs 300 more dams to face water crisis: Ministry (Antara, 16 October 2023)

💸 Singapore to raise water prices by 18% over two phases in 2024 & 2025 (Channel News Asia, 27 September 2023)

📢 Other Voices

💗 “Into the Heart of Muntigunung” by Edward Speirs (Now! Bali, 3 November 2023)

🌾 “Solutions for Vietnam’s water scarce Delta” by Thong Anh Tran (East Asia Forum, 2 May 2023)

🚣🏻 “Beyond Borders: Navigating Asia’s Water Challenges” by Farwa Aamer & Susanne Schmeier (The Diplomat, 19 August 2023)

🎙️ Interview with Lisa of Nazava

💡 Why were you initially inspired to tackle the water crisis?

🌊 In 2007, I went to Aceh to do disaster response for the tsunami relief efforts. It was there that I discovered that there was a lot of e-coli & other pollutants in the water, making it undrinkable 🤢.

Effectively, there was no quality control nor maintenance of the water infrastructure. This is especially problematic for impoverished populations who typically turn to boiling the water ♨️. This is an issue because they typically rely on dirty fuels to boil the water; moreover, acquiring fuel is expensive for poorer communities. Our mission became to solve this issue, aiming for safe drinking water at the point of use.

In 2009, Nazava was born. We took the name from the word for “clean” in Arabic. My husband, Guido, and I invested our own savings to kickstart it and initially sourced the filters from a manufacturer in Brazil, but in 2016 we eventually started to manufacture our own water filters 🛠️ by leveraging a partnership with TU Delft in the Netherlands to help with the design.

🛠️ How exactly is Nazava solving it?

Because only 30% of the Indonesian population gets piped water 🚰 with the remaining 70% acquiring it from other sources such as wells and rivers, our solution addresses the issue with safe drinking water at point-of-use. Our water purifiers consist of ceramic, nano-silver and activated carbon for the filtration and are the only WHO-certified product in Indonesia.

For distribution we rely heavily on partnerships with microfinance institutions who have the right channels to reach our target users. Our products are also available on Indonesia’s e-commerce sites and we also work with large international organizations like UNICEF. So far we have distributed to 32 countries, including Ukraine and Nepal. We also have a subsidiary in Kenya.

😲 What is a surprising fact about clean water?

😭 In Indonesia, annually 64K people die of diarrhea, this is equivalent to 3 crashed Boeing 747s ✈️ full of people each week!

🎬 What actions can readers take now to support your cause?

We are looking for partnerships to support our school program; for less than 2USD per student we can ensure school kids in Indonesia have safe water each day. This not only improves their health but leads to better academic performance and leads to less plastic waste at schools.

Feel free to connect with Lisa via email to explore further.

🦸🏻 What do you do when you’re not saving the world?

🏊🏻🚵🏻🏃🏻‍♀️ I enjoy being outdoors and do triathlons, trail runs, and bike tours when I’m not working on Nazava.

🎧 New Full Circle podcast episode!

🧑🏻‍🌾 Today, we’ve published our third podcast episode, in which Karina interviewed Max Nelen about the intersection between tech and impact through his agriculture startup, Agros.

🔗 You can find a link to that episode here.

⏭️ Next week, we’ll be discussing industrial decarbonization 🏭, a massive climate challenge especially as it relates to cement and steel fabrication.

❓ Did you enjoy this week’s issue? If so, please forward to your friends who would enjoy the read as well. Also, feel free to let us know what you thought by giving us feedback at [email protected].

🌊 SEA you next week!

Karina & Massimiliano