PBSP’s Water Alliance conducts first training on WDM

WATER scarcity is expected to intensify in the coming years and industries being heavy water consumers have a critical role in addressing this challenge.

To help address this concern, Philippine Business for Social Progress’ (PBSP) Water Alliance will hold the first training of trainers on Water Demand Management (WDM) for companies engaged in managing buildings, hotels, cooling towers, food and beverage, laundry service, and resorts. The training will be start today (Nov. 28) and will continue on Nov. 29 and Dec. 1 at the Seda Hotel in Taguig City. It will gather around 40 participants from various companies nationwide.

The Water Alliance is a multi-sectoral partnership initiated by CEOs, with a strong commitment to create solutions to water security challenges in the Philippines, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Water Security for Resilient Economic Growth and Stability (Be Secure) Project. Emulating the United Nations CEO Water Mandate at the international level, the Water Alliance promotes and supports the rehabilitation of critical watersheds, provision of safe drinking water to waterless communities, as well as the capacity building of water service providers. More importantly, it advocates water footprint reduction among companies.

Water scarcity can have serious impacts on economic growth, health and overall development of the country. But when water resources are well managed, they can create opportunities for improvement and innovation.

“The business community is a heavy user of water specifically in the agriculture, manufacturing and energy sectors. Production relies much on large amounts of water while all forms of energy production need significant amount of water. As water stress is expected to worsen, business has a critical stake in helping address this water security challenge,” said Edgar Chua, outgoing Water Alliance chairman.

Leilani Mc Donough, PBSP Portfolio manager for the Environment, said that the organization recognizes that the business sector can have a significant contribution towards increasing available water supply by being efficient in their water use which will benefit not only the companies but the communities they are in as well.

There are many ways companies can implement WDM in their operations and these will be addressed in the training. These include the use of strategies and technologies to improve water efficiency, policies to reduce water use, water recycling and reuse, efficient irrigation practices and devices, employee education on water conservation, leak detection, meter testing, and replacement.

To put their learnings into practice, participants will also do actual water survey of a facility and compute for potential savings and water that can be conserved.

Thomas Pape, president of Best Management Partners, will be the resource speaker. He is known for his experience in financial and marketing analysis of water conservation activities of several metropolitan areas in the United States. Joining him in the training is his wife Valerie Pape who is renowned for developing and administering indoor and outdoor water efficiency programs for various public utilities in California, including public outreach, training and school programs.

Through this training, PBSP hopes to engage more companies in water conservation, and in coming up with more sustainable solutions to help solve the water security challenge.