Loïc Fauchon: Digital innovation key to providing quality water

The ninth edition of the World Water Forum is scheduled to take place in March in Dakar, Senegal. This will be the first time the event will be held in sub-Saharan Africa.

The seventh Hassan II Great World Water Prize will also be awarded under the theme "Water security in the territories for sustainable development and food security".

Mr Loïc Fauchon, president of the World Water Council, spoke to the Nation on what this means for Africa and how the continent would benefit from the event.

Since the debut of the World Water Forum back in 1997, this is the first time it will be held in sub-Saharan Africa. First of all, why now?

It could have happened before: South Africa was one of the host candidates in 2012 but it didn’t win. This time around, it was time for Africa, as the continent is facing major challenges in the water sector. Senegal was a candidate and won.

Why did you choose Senegal and how does this part of the world stand to gain from this event?

It was due to different reasons. Senegal is facing all kinds of issues concerning water: lack of water resources, quality, distances between the water sources and the population areas.

Also, Senegal has a key geostrategic position.

Another reason is that Senegal is a peaceful and democratic country, which is very important for the World Water Council to be able to organise the forum.

How does this part of the world stand to benefit from the forum, especially now that it is held here?

Africa is facing the consequences of climate change, but also global changes. Today, one of the main problems in most African countries is demography and huge portions of the populations facing lack of water.

This fact was definitely part of our decision to organise the event in Senegal. On the one hand, there is the will to solve this water issue, and on the other hand, the world water community is volunteering to help Africa solve these challenges.

One of the Water Council’s 2019-2021 priorities was water security – to ensure the availability of an adequate quantity and quality of water through storage space, desalination, water reuse, and digital innovation. What do you think are the challenges of achieving this, especially in the developing world, keeping Africa in mind?

Everywhere in the world, securing water resources is one of the main goals. This is because if you’re not able to provide enough quality water, you cannot deliver sufficient water to the population for economic development, daily needs, for food and other uses.

One of the biggest challenges, I would say, is the ability to produce more water and consume less water, which means technical and digital evolution to optimise water use, especially in big cities, with access to all, rich and poor.

Another priority during this period was to study the effects of the pandemic on access to water for all. How has the pandemic affected access to water, especially here in Africa?

Two years ago, when the pandemic started, we didn’t have any masks, we didn’t have any vaccines, and so, for a very long time, water was the first preventative measure against contracting the disease, especially in Africa.

Also, during the first year of the pandemic (which is 2020 and also part of 2021), in Africa, one of the main effects of the pandemic has been to close the borders and this had a negative impact for African countries with no access to the sea.

The pandemic has decreased international trade and it has increased the need mostly for food. Today in some countries in Africa where perhaps they didn’t feel the impact of the disease, they have a real food crisis. In short, the biggest impact of the pandemic in Africa is the food crisis that has arisen from all this, and it is an issue that needs international intervention in some countries.

Apart from these two, there is also financing water – to find concrete solutions to water investment issues and to bring the water community and financiers together. What are some of the suggested solutions you have, especially for sub-Saharan Africa?

The three pillars necessary for good management are the ability to use digital innovation to provide more water, governance, and financing.

How can we find more money for water and bring water issues to the people who have money? In one sentence, water lacks money and money lacks water.

We are working on different solutions, mostly around hybrid financing, which means to mix different ways of financing water, and we will present them during the Dakar forum.

One of the objectives of this ninth forum is to have strong political commitments made by leaders, with practical proposals and actions delivered. How has been the political response to this, especially here in sub-Saharan Africa?

We have the technical, technological, governance and innovative solutions, but now everywhere, not just in Africa but worldwide, we need the political will to make water a main priority. This is because if you’re not able to solve water and energy issues, you cannot provide development, and if you fail to do this, you cannot have peace.

During the forum, different stakeholders will be part of the roundtables: political, private sector, civil society and academia. How’s Africa’s representation?

The era of centralism even in the field of water is over. We need to understand better and let the voices of the water community on the ground express their ideas, difficulties and responses, and that’s the reason this ninth forum in Senegal is called the forum of responses.

Our will is to be able to present a lot of local responses next month, because people on the ground know more than the bureaucrats, and sometimes more than the politicians, how to explain and to bring their own practical solutions.

One of the aims of the seventh edition of the Great Water Prize is to encourage efforts to strengthen the links between water security, food security and sustainable development. Why do you think this is important and how is the current situation in Africa?

In the coming decades we will be facing more food crises. We need more water resources and better management of the water resources, as well as better use of innovative new solutions.

This means we not only need more water but we also need more capacity to produce food. This is a challenge not just for Africa. The Asia Pacific region also faces the same problem.

The value of the prize was $100,000 for the six previous editions. For the seventh edition, the amount has been multiplied by five. What is the motivation behind this increase?

The high value of the price shows that Africa is a real priority for Morocco. We hope we will have a lot of candidates coming from African countries, and perhaps we can have an African nation, people or community as the laureate of this prize.

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