Asian Water Development Outlook 2025: A Progress Review in Water Security with Tanya Huizer and Vivek Raman, Asian Development Bank

[00:00:00] Piers Clark: Welcome to the Exec Exchange, 15 minute podcast, in which a leader from the water sector shares a story to inspire, inform, and educate other water sector leaders from around the globe.
[00:00:10] Piers Clark: My name is Piers Clark, and on today's Exec Exchange, it's a Special World Water Day podcast where we're talking to not one, but two water sector leaders, Tanya Huizer and Vivek Raman, both from the Asian Development Bank. And we're gonna be talking about some recent work that the ADB's done to rank 50 nations on how their water assets and water behaviors have been performing.
[00:00:36] Piers Clark: Vivek, Tanya, it's wonderful to have you with us today.
[00:00:39] Vivek Raman: Hi, Piers. It's a pleasure to be here a second time, so thank you again.
[00:00:44] Tanya Huizer: Thank you Piers. It's great to join for the first time.
[00:00:47] Piers Clark: Excellent. Well, we always start with a little bit about our podcasters.
[00:00:51] Piers Clark: So, Tanya, let's start with you. Can you give me the potted history of who you are and how you got into the role that you are in today?
[00:00:59] Tanya Huizer: I'm passionate about working with people, communities, and that's also how I ended up in the role where I'm now. I started as a rebel activist to fight for my own community in my hometown in the Netherlands.
[00:01:10] Tanya Huizer: Currently, I'm working as a Senior Water Resilience Specialist and I focus on professionals, fresh ideas and see how we can make change. So, social inclusion and communities are the core of my work in water management. Besides other exciting things that I do like working on the Asian Water Development Outlook and managing a lot of resilience trust fund.
[00:01:30] Piers Clark: When did you start working with the Asian Development Bank?
[00:01:33] Tanya Huizer: About two and a half year Before that, I was working for an engineering firm in Myanmar and Vietnam.
[00:01:40] Piers Clark: Brilliant. And now Vivek, we have actually had a podcast with you before but can I have the same from you, your potted history as to how you got into the role you are in today?
[00:01:50] Vivek Raman: My history is a little bit different from Tanya's. I grew up with no real passion for the water sector or any of that. I mean, I came from a comfortable background in India, very privileged in some ways. Then suddenly when I studied economics and got a job at the World Bank around 15, 20 years ago, and I was put into urban sanitation, that was my first introduction to this sector. It changed my life and I haven't looked back since.
[00:02:15] Vivek Raman: And I've been with ADB for around eight years. I'm deeply committed to this sector. And the best part of working in an organization like ADB is to work with wonderful people like Tanya, to actually see how we can drive change in the sector and this report, I hope will be a key step to that.
[00:02:33] Piers Clark: Well, we're gonna get to that report in a second, but I'm gonna come back to Tanya now. Just in case there's anyone in the audience who's not familiar with what the Asian Development Bank is and does, could you give us that summary?
[00:02:48] Tanya Huizer: Asian Development Bank is a multinational development bank. We are working in all developing member countries across Asia and Pacific, aiming to reduce poverty and improving quality of life.
[00:02:58] Tanya Huizer: Of course we provide technical assistance to governments and agencies. The bank provides financing and where to invest in terms of infrastructure, but also beyond that. We provide policy advice, that's also where the report we will talk about comes in actually for policy dialogues.
[00:03:15] Tanya Huizer: In the end we really want to support the inclusive economic growth, climate resilience, and sustainable development in the countries that we work.
[00:03:22] Piers Clark: Excellent. I love how the IFIs, the International Finance Institutions, like the ADB, is not just about putting money, it's about improving the lives of nations and impacting millions of people. It's a glorious organization to be part of.
[00:03:38] Piers Clark: Now, Vivek, last Sunday was World Water Day. This is a special podcast because we want to focus on some of the international things that are going on around water, and Asian Development Bank sits across many nations. So, can you introduce this recent piece of work that you've done and give us the high level of why you did it and what it showed?
[00:04:01] Vivek Raman: The Asian Development Bank prepares this key flagship report called the Asian Water Development Outlook. This comes around every five years or so, so we are running its fifth edition now. We assess water security writ large by looking at five key dimensions of all nations and economies in Asia and the Pacific.
[00:04:24] Vivek Raman: And these five key dimensions are number one, rural household water security and urban water household security for KD3 as we call it. This is basically to look at the amount of water you have for your drinking purposes.
[00:04:38] Vivek Raman: Then you've got key dimension 2, which is economic water security, which is looking at do farmers have water to irrigate their crops? And then the general economy and how much water the economy needs, along with the industries that depend on economies on water.
[00:04:54] Vivek Raman: KD4 simply put is how's the environment doing? What's the health of the rivers and the lakes and all of the ecosystem that depends on that.
[00:05:02] Vivek Raman: And lastly, we look at how strong is a nation ready to respond to three types of water related disasters: floods, storms, and droughts.
[00:05:12] Vivek Raman: That's basically how we look at it. And holistically, we give all nations a score of out of a hundred. And each key dimension has a score of around 20. We were very lucky to have five key different partners to help us do this analysis and come up with robust conclusions.
[00:05:30] Piers Clark: Excellent. So, Tanya, who are the audience and what are you hoping would be the impact of this report?
[00:05:36] Tanya Huizer: I think the purpose of the report is to make water security more visible and so it's impossible to ignore where we need to focus on. That's why decision makers are actually the core audience to work with. We want to help them to shape their policies to prioritize certain investment based on the progress they're making or actually they're lacking to make.
[00:05:56] Tanya Huizer: Besides decision makers and governments, of course, also communities, cities, technical partners who are interested to use the report in their own analysis, that is definitely encouraged. And to be honest, I think the method is so strong and also so useful for other regions. I think that is definitely an audience that we also want to reach.
[00:06:18] Piers Clark: The moment you know there's a score, then there's a table and someone's at the top of the table and someone's at the bottom of the table. And does that mean the people at the top of the table go, "Well, I don't need to do anything else. I'm at the top of the table, I can stop investing in water."
[00:06:30] Piers Clark: Or is it that because you've got these five different metrics, people will see that they're performing well in one and less well in another, and that they can learn from the people who are performing better?
[00:06:41] Piers Clark: Knowing how the ADB works, I assume this is very collaborative and it's about showcasing best case examples and helping those who are not performing well to climb their way up the table.
[00:06:52] Vivek Raman: We knew you would ask that question, and that is why we've got a great answer for that. First and foremost is we wanna say to all the listeners out there, and particularly to government practitioners, the idea of this tool is to help you improve. So, you are in competition with yourself.
[00:07:09] Vivek Raman: We can benchmark you from the last decade, so this report looks at how you did since 2013. Because as you know, in this sector, you can't just look at every five years, right? So, we went all the way back to 2013 to see what's the narrative that comes up and how countries have done. Resist the temptation to compare yourself with your neighbors.
Number two, is that you are only as strong as your weakest dimension. So, if you may have done great in four out of the five dimensions, but if one dimension is not doing well, your overall score is going to reflect that weakest dimension. So that doesn't mean that you just sit back and just relax because we wanna help countries to be able to improve their water security to reach a stage which is at the top of the water security stats.
[00:07:56] Piers Clark: From that, I guess that means you're not going to tell me who's at the top of the table and who's at the bottom of the table. You're going to refuse to give me that information. But I would like you to highlight some best practice and some areas which are needing more effort, needing more focus. Tanya, can you do that for me?
[00:08:14] Tanya Huizer: I'm happy to share the positive news that the entire region, Asia and the Pacific, has made real progress in water security. Billions of people are better off than a decade ago, but there is still a lot to do. And the climate change is of course, increasingly playing a role in that.
[00:08:29] Tanya Huizer: It makes it very clear that water security is more than pipes and pumps. It's about people, it's about ecosystems and economies, and institutions, inclusion, voices of people. I think the report is very clearly showing that infrastructure alone is not enough.
[00:08:45] Piers Clark: That feels like an evolution. In 2013, we probably weren't thinking so much about those softer elements. It was pour some concrete, build an asset here, that's what will solve this. Am I right?
[00:08:56] Vivek Raman: You know what really surprised me when we were doing this analysis and trying to interpret what this data says to us, is a story of remarkable contrast.
[00:09:05] Vivek Raman: On one hand, you had 2.7 billion people lifted out of basic water insecurity. That means across all the five dimensions, they either had more better quality drinking water, or a little bit more water to irrigate their farms, or some sort of resilience from floods, storms, and droughts.
[00:09:21] Vivek Raman: On the other hand, you've got three critical risks threatening this progress. Number one is you've got disasters that are coming faster in this region than the country's ability to prepare for it. Number two, you've got an investment shortfall, you need around US$250 billion a year to meet just your WASH needs. And that gap is around $150 billion is required by each country. The third one, and which is where is interesting, is 30 out of the 50 economies saw their environmental health score either stay stagnant or decline. It basically means that we built a lot of infrastructure, but at the cost of the environment.
[00:10:03] Vivek Raman: So, if in 2013 the biggest problem for this region was rural sanitation, thanks to a lot of efforts and policies and infrastructure that's been built, big number of people have been lifted out of that. But today, the biggest problem remains key dimension 4, which is environmental health is at incredible risk.
[00:10:25] Tanya Huizer: The point that's made by Vivek is key and we see it also in all the projects that we are developing in the region. I think the fact that we still use hard infrastructure instead of hybrid or nature-based solutions, that all plays a role with that.
[00:10:38] Tanya Huizer: But we also see the shift in mindset of people trying to include not only nature-based solutions, but also in the planning phase already allocate space, allocate attention to restoring ecosystems.
[00:10:51] Tanya Huizer: And one of the examples I want to touch on is the recent initiative of ADB on the laundry transformation in river systems and drainage systems. The laundry transformation focuses on river health in terms of pollutions from microfibers. By doing laundry by hand, a lot of microfibers from clothes come into the systems as well as detergents that are not restricted in many countries. So, there is a win to achieve as well.
[00:11:17] Tanya Huizer: I think in general, the AWDO report is a great achievement in terms of information, but also in terms of what it means for the people and how people can play a role.
[00:11:26] Piers Clark: And do you sense that the audience, the decision makers you are sending this report to are open to hearing this constructive criticism, this pathway to improving or are you concerned that this message is not going to be listened to?
[00:11:43] Vivek Raman: Actually, I don't view it as any criticism at all. What we are able to demonstrate is if countries actually focus on where their needs are, you can see success in just a decade. You guys have done well, but on the other side you've got a little bit more to do and here we are to help you make that journey.
[00:12:02] Vivek Raman: If you look at India alone, I think they pushed somewhere around 840 million people with some kind of sanitation and water projects which was a nationwide campaign that they've been running for over a decade. That is a huge number. So, these big numbers of 2.7 billion people comes predominantly from countries like India who are showing that success can be achieved at scale.
[00:12:26] Vivek Raman: But it requires a whole bunch of things to work together. Political will, leadership, the right governance, the right investments to go where people need it the most.
[00:12:36] Piers Clark: Brilliant. Tanya, I know that you've reached out to a broad section of the communities you interface with to gather the data for this report.
[00:12:44] Piers Clark: Can you talk to me a bit about who those communities are?
[00:12:47] Tanya Huizer: We gathered actually about 50 people from all over the region guided by five young authors, all of them were under 35, to draft text boxes for each of the key dimensions in the report. The text boxes were not just their opinions, they were really success stories of involving youth or letting youth lead certain initiative related to water security.
[00:13:10] Piers Clark: It's getting that next generation 'cause they're the ones who are going to sort out the climate crisis. This is the generation that's got to get their arms around it and resolve it.
[00:13:18] Piers Clark: Now, we can't complete this without name checking, in particular, those who are doing well, but also maybe those who could do better. Could you give us some of that, please?
[00:13:29] Vivek Raman: Let's look at the top performers. Number one is the People's Republic of China. Millions of people being lifted out for rural household water security. Number two, you had Lao PDR with some strong investments in hydropower, irrigation and good governance.
[00:13:45] Vivek Raman: You had another country in Southeast Asia, which is Cambodia. Again, strong government commitments, improvements in tariff.
[00:13:53] Vivek Raman: India I already mentioned. Then you've got countries like Uzbekistan, which also did well because of sustained improvements and investments, coordination, and successes in economic water security.
[00:14:06] Vivek Raman: And for all of you who are interested in more details, just search "AWDO 2025" and there's a website where you can download country scorecards as well.
[00:14:16] Piers Clark: Asian Water Development Outlook 2025. Brilliant.
[00:14:20] Piers Clark: Now, we're running out of time and we like to finish with a bit of a insightful question from our podcaster. So Tanya, I'm gonna come to you and ask you to go back in time, 20, 30 years and tell me what advice would you give your younger self if you could go back?
[00:14:36] Tanya Huizer: I've been thinking about that Piers and what I think is the most important advice is to invest in other people and in relationships with people. Because we can only improve and change the things around by working together. Change only happens through people.
[00:14:51] Piers Clark: Brilliant. And Vivek, you've already been on the podcast once so you get a different question. The question for you is, when did you last cry? And most importantly, why?
[00:15:02] Vivek Raman: So all my friends and family listening know that I'm a very big crier. As you can imagine, the AWDO was almost a year long effort to put together. We had some great highs and there were things that went wrong and one particular moment, very close to the launch of the report, something went awry and I had a good cry in this office.
[00:15:22] Vivek Raman: I just put my head down and said, I need to cry this out, and then I'm gonna fight again. And I had a good 10 minute cry and got back to work.
[00:15:29] Piers Clark: You have been listening to the Exec Exchange with me, Piers Clark and my guests today have been Tanya Huizer and Vivek Raman from the Asian Development Bank, and we've been talking about the Asian Water Development Outlook report.
[00:15:43] Piers Clark: Thank you to our sponsors, and until next time, keep asking questions, keep sharing, and keep safe.