OOSKAnews Voices is a series of guest “opinion columns” on water, written by senior participants in different parts of the international water community. The columns provide a global platform for organizations and individuals to promulgate their views and messages.

In this column Adrian Sym argues for creativity in puruit of solutions.

Sym is Chief Executive of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), a global membership-based collaboration that connects organizations dedicated to promoting responsible use of freshwater. The AWS Standard provides a globally-applicable framework for major water users to understand their water use and impacts, and to work collaboratively and transparently for sustainable water management within a catchment context. The AWS Standard system includes third party certification and a network of accredited professional service providers who support and assess the implementation of the Standard, overseen by a multi-stakeholder governance system. AWS regional partners engage local stakeholders and strive to establish localized networks, expertise and data sets that facilitate contextually-appropriate water stewardship actions within the globally-consistent framework of the AWS Standard.

A development and sustainability professional, Adrian’s recent work has been in sustainability standards, aiming to drive change through voluntary market-based systems. Prior to this, Adrian spent seven years working on disability and development programs in Bangladesh and Nepal. This diverse experience, together with his academic background (Masters in International Policy and Diplomacy), has helped to shape Adrian’s view on sustainable development, believing that true development can only be achieved through effective partnerships amongst and between stakeholder groups. Adrian is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

As a frequent participant in water conferences, I am often struck by the multitude of “solutions” on offer to big and complex water-related challenges. Naturally, the solutions on offer are in response to perceived problems. For example, where the problem is perceived to be water scarcity, a solution may aim to increase water use efficiency. Where the problem is perceived to be water quality, the solution may be a piece of kit to treat or purify water. Financing “solutions” are often geared towards large-scale adoption of such solutions. Governments in many countries provide incentives for implementing solutions to perceived problems. However, the potential of these solutions is inevitably limited by the context in which they will be applied, and by the scale and characteristics of the change we are aiming to affect. How we approach a situation we are seeking to change needs to be compatible with the level and nature of change we are seeking to achieve.

The dominant approach tends to be the “problem solving” approach. This is inherently a reactive approach that is based on stopping what we don’t want to happen. An alternative is the “creating” approach that is rooted in the future we want to have. Too often, we seek to achieve transformational change of complex systems by adopting the problem solving approach. Well-intended “solutions” will inevitably fail to take account of the complexity of water resource management and lead to disappointing outcomes – one man’s solution is another man’s problem.

Where simple, incremental change is the objective then a problem solving approach can be useful. Incremental change situations are not complex and existing rules and power structures are likely to be preserved or strengthened. Adoption of water saving technology may be an effective solution for an individual user to reduce the water input per unit of output ratio. But even widespread adoption of such technologies is unlikely to catalyze transformative or systemic change on its own.

Broader transformational or systemic change, as is the case with big and complex water challenges, needs to understand the actions and interactions of a complex system. New sets of rules will be needed to facilitate changes in the behaviour of multiple water users, each of whom has a different perspective, priorities and set of endowments. Transformational change must accommodate and reward progress, rather than focusing on success.

Making a distinction between pursuit of solutions versus pursuit of progress is not just an overindulgence in semantics. How we approach things matters because it determines to a large degree the general trajectory and the range and roles of participants.The wrong approach can serve to reinforce the power imbalances that contributed to the situation in the first place. Ignoring politics and power has consequences at all levels, from major infrastructure projects to village-based initiatives. And in the ultimate analysis, complex water challenges are usually more political than hydrological, so neglecting this softer element is a good recipe for disappointing outcomes.

This does not mean that progress is equal to the lowest common denominator. Indeed, understanding diverse needs and developing rules that are contextually-appropriate can be a great driver of innovation, both in technology and in softer approaches like governance and partnerships.

Possibly the most critical of the softer elements is trust. Building trust is an essential component of collaboration, which in turn is essential to making sense of complex situations. Trust, like a good reputation, is hard to win and easy to lose. When building trust, one misplaced step forward often leads to several steps backwards. Building trust needs a safe place to understand and reconcile differences, and establish a pathway forward that meets different needs.

The ability to provide a safe place to begin conversations and build trust is one of the less explicit, but most significant benefits of the AWS Standard. It achieves this primarily through the transparent multi-stakeholder processes through which it was developed and is maintained. As a neutral framework, the AWS Standard helps water users to understand context, build transparency and trust, and ask the right questions. Our members and partners are helping us understand the diverse range of settings in which the Standard can support efforts, not to solve short-term problems for individual water users, but to achieve to transformational change based on a shared vision for future sustainability.