World Economic Forum2018 – All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, includingphotocopying and recording, or by any information storageand retrieval system. About “The Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth” series The “Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth” is a publication series highlightingopportunities to solve the world’s most pressing environmental challenges byharnessing technological innovations supported by new and effective approachesto governance, fnancing and multistakeholder collaboration. About the World Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, isthe International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engagesthe foremost business, political and other leaders of society to shape global,regional and industry agendas. World Economic Forum91-93 route de la CapiteCH-1223 Cologny/GenevaSwitzerland 3Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Water ContentsPrefaceThe Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Earth Preface: The Fourth Industrial3Revolution and the Earth Foreword4 The Fourth Industrial Revolution and5the agenda for changeObtaining a complete, currentand accessible picture of water supply and demand Providing access to and6ensuring the quality of water,sanitation and hygiene (WASH)services Managing growing demand 7 Ensuring water quality 8 Building resilience to climate change Transforming ‘business as usual’ in11water21st-century water infrastructuresystems and management Enhancing operational excellence The shift towards12decentralized or off-grid systems Real-time, interoperable water 13data Empowered communities and consumersRedesigning supply chains 14 Diversifed sources of supply Risks or challenges to manage 16 Funding Utility sector digital technologyinnovation adoption Cybersecurity 17 Open-access data and information Accelerating innovation and18impact: Opportunities andrecommendationsPriority 1: Promoting the rise of an innovation environment Priority 2: Shifting towards19agile multistakeholder governance models Conclusion 20 Annex I 21 Acknowledgements 22 Endnotes 23 The majority of the world’s current environmental problems can be traced backto industrialization. Issues such as climate change, unsafe levels of air pollution,depletion of fshing stocks, toxins in rivers and soils, overfowing levels of wasteon land and in oceans, and loss of biodiversity and deforestation are negativeconsequences of industrialization. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution gathers pace, innovations are becoming faster,more effcient and more widely accessible than before. Technology is becomingincreasingly connected, and we are now seeing a convergence of the digital,physical and biological realms. Emerging technologies, including the Internet ofThings (IoT), virtual reality (VR) and artifcial intelligence (AI) are enabling societalshifts by seismically impacting economies, values, identities and possibilities forfuture generations. We have a unique opportunity to harness this Fourth Industrial Revolution – andthe societal shifts it triggers – to help address environmental issues and transformhow we manage our shared global environment. The Fourth Industrial Revolutioncould, however, also exacerbate existing threats to environmental security or createentirely new risks that will need to be considered and managed. Harnessing these opportunities and proactively managing these risks will require atransformation of the “enabling environment”, namely the governance frameworksand policy protocols, investment and fnancing models, the prevailing incentivesfor technology development, and the nature of societal engagement. Thistransformation will not happen automatically. It will require proactive collaborationamong policy-makers, scientists, civil society, technology champions andinvestors. If we get it right, it could create a sustainability revolution. This “Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth” series is designed to illustrate thepotential of Fourth Industrial Revolution innovations and their application to theworld’s most pressing environmental challenges. It offers insights into the emergingopportunities and risks, highlighting the roles various actors could play to ensurethese technologies are harnessed and scaled effectively. It is not intended to beconclusive, but rather to stimulate a discussion among diverse stakeholders toprovide a foundation for further collaborative work. This paper looks at the FourthIndustrial Revolution and water. 4Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Water Foreword Over the course of history, scientifc discoveries and technological advances have helped tackle theworld’s most complex and daunting challenges, and enabled innovations that have enhanced ourquality of life. Vaccinations now exist for diseases that previously eradicated entire populations. Theworld’s information and knowledge are now available to anyone with an internet connection. Theinvention of sanitation systems alone helped to extend our lifespan by 40 years.1 Just as these discoveries helped open new chapters of possibility and opportunity, today’s rapidlyemerging technologies such as artifcial intelligence, blockchain, big data and nanotechnology –what the World Economic Forum has coined the Fourth Industrial Revolution – are enabling similartransformations across systems such as healthcare mobility and education worldwide.A comparable opportunity exists today to open a new innovation chapter for the water sector, as theworld struggles with the rapid and painful transition from believing that water was plentiful and free(or, at the very least, inexpensive) to facing the impacts of water scarcity, poor water quality and thevariabilities of hydrologic events from climate change. Already, too many water crises have unfolded incities, including: Flint, Michigan; Cape Town, South Africa; Bangalore, India; and So Paulo, Brazil.What the world is now experiencing can no longer be framed as “normal”. The past can no longer beused to predict seasonal weather events and precipitation. There is a pressing need for new publicpolicies and business strategies as well as for innovations in technology, fnancing and partnershipsto thrive in the 21st century. These developments will be possible only with better-quality andmore accessible data, and the creation of more useful information. This is a role that technologicaladvancements can play in supporting leaders from all sectors.Imagine the potential of harnessing the power of remote sensing to provide vastly improvedpredictions of droughts and fooding, real-time monitoring of water quantity and quality withinwatersheds, improved water-utility asset management, off-grid and localized solutions coupled with“frictionless” water-trading platforms. Digital technologies such as connected devices (IoT), predictiveanalytics and artifcial intelligence are emerging as powerful tools in achieving sustainable, resilient andequitable access to water. Admittedly, Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies alone will not solve water-security challenges.They can support and help inform decision-makers from governments and other sectors only if thesesolutions are designed together with the engagement and commitment of diverse stakeholder groups– incumbents, start-ups and entrants from other sectors.Through the World Economic Forum’s Global Water Initiative and its Water Security Rewired platform,these stakeholder groups are converging to explore the applications of Fourth Industrial Revolutionsolutions for the water sector, with aims of accelerating adoption, rapid expansion of competitivechoices, new investment into innovation and potential leapfrogging to solve 21st-century waterchallenges. As a community, we have a tremendous opportunity, as well as a responsibility, to embrace thepotential technology and innovation at our fngertips, and to crea