Publics@IIHS | Transitions to Sustainable Futures: Urban and regional water systems

IIHS hosted a panel discussion with Joyeeta Gupta, Distinguished Professor, Climate Justice, Sustainability and Global Constitutionalism; Aromar Revi, Director, IIHS; Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Dean - IIHS School of Environment and Sustainability; and Kavita Wankhade, Associate Dean – IIHS School of Systems and Infrastructure.

55 percent of the world’s population now lives in urban regions, with urbanisation rapidly increasing in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa (UN, 2018). As we move towards an increasingly urban planet, urban regions and their governments need to avoid getting locked into development pathways that put an increasing pressure on their natural and economic resources and may not be sustainable in the long run. Often, cities and urban regions rely intensively on natural resources, like water, from beyond their physical footprints, often with far-reaching consequences that impact their ability to transition to sustainable development pathways. This is also further compounded by unequal access to natural resources such as water. Urban regions across the world therefore have populations that are increasingly vulnerable as the benefits of development are highly unequal across socio-economic classes. Access to water-related services and linked economic activity are deeply enmeshed with poverty, informality, sub-optimal technical arrangements and high relative costs that are often borne disproportionately by marginalised groups.

Drawing on research and policy work globally across a range of social, political, and economic contexts, this panel focussed on challenges that urban regions face particularly in the context of water and water systems and explored potential mechanisms to enable transitions to sustainable and just futures.