The signals are clear, and they are accumulating. Drinking water companies have to produce more and more to meet demand, while the quality and availability of sources are declining. Pollution from, among others, pesticides, pharmaceutical residues and industrial substances makes extraction and treatment more complex and more expensive. At the same time, longer periods of drought result in less water in the system.
On the demand side, we see a different pattern: the Netherlands is prosperous and uses large amounts of drinking water. Larger homes, rain showers, swimming pools and garden irrigation further drive up consumption, while drinking water has remained relatively cheap.
The bottleneck lies not primarily in technology, but in governance and choices. We are trying to solve a new water problem with old assumptions.
Three issues come together here:
How do we prevent water shortages in the Netherlands, while water still seems self-evident to us? As long as that question is postponed, decisions will remain fragmented.
At Been, we approach the water transition, just like the energy and food transition, as a system change. The core lies in reconnecting supply and demand: the way we use water must align with what the system can actually provide.
In our perspective, the challenge does not lie in making more plans, but in realising multiple forms of value through targeted steering:
What makes the water transition complex is that these values often do not come together in the same place: decisions are made locally, effects are regional or national, and costs and benefits rarely lie with the same party.
We are thinkers who do: we connect long-term ambitions with decisions that can be implemented today, and help organisations work within the limits of the system rather than against them.
For executives and management teams of industries, agricultural organisations and other water-dependent sectors, water is shifting from a precondition to a strategic issue. This requires different questions at the table:
The Rli’s call for a non-voluntary national drinking water strategy underlines this. Governing here means: giving direction to scarcity.
The water transition forces honesty. About what is still possible, what is no longer possible, and who bears which responsibility. As long as clean drinking water seems self-evident, urgency will remain abstract. But governance that waits until the tap really starts to falter is too late.
Which choices are you postponing today, while they are inevitable for tomorrow’s water security?