Overview
The water we use every day is directly dependent on the landscapes through which it flows, yet nearly half of global drinking water sources are significantly degraded. To tackle water insecurity, we urgently need to restore resilient, healthy watersheds from where our water is sourced.
Nature-Based Solutions for Water Security (NbS-WS) offers a promising path forward. NbS-WS protects, sustainably manages and restores natural or modified ecosystems to help alleviate water insecurity. The challenge is designing and implementing these solutions as they are complex and often lack technical know-how and investment partners.
The Challenges
Studies indicate that NbS can help ensure the long-term reliability of water supply by improving quality, quantity, and timing of water resources. However, despite growing market interest for NbS among utilities, local governments, corporates and development finance institutions, less than 0.1% of the annual $800bn in water sector spending is allocated towards upstream watershed investment.
This gap in interest and investment is in part due to the lack of ‘know-how’ to design, organise, and implement watershed investment programs. Many organisations do not have the in-house capacity and knowledge to initiate and lead these projects themselves, and the professional services network for NbS-WS is in its infancy. Skilled strategic and technical advisors do not exist across the full development lifecycle, and ‘continuity of care’ is absent, leaving local champions frustrated and discouraged.
The Solution
To meet this demand efficiently and cost-effectively, whilst addressing the current market failure, Pegasys has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to create The Nature for Water Facility, a technical assistance facility that help actors across upstream watersheds prepare and implement NbS-WS projects to address their water security challenges.
This initiative aims to meet the demand for the design, creation and establishment of long-term watershed investment programs by supporting local champions with technical assistance and resources necessary to move through the Watershed Investment Program Lifecycle. Examples of these services include water security diagnosis and pre-feasibility assessment, ROI analysis and business case development, and strategic program design and sustainable funding.
These services help the client answer key questions such as what their focus should be, who their key stakeholders are, what steps they need to take to develop a Watershed Investment Program (WIP), who can execute the work, and how this all fits together.
The Impact
The Nature for Water Facility has three core focus areas through which it works with partners to create impact:
- The Facility hosts a semi-annual call for proposals where winners receive the Facility’s team and resources to advance their NbS program. It aims to support 30-40 engagements over the next three years.
- The Facility aims to pioneer an integrated NbS consultancy model (fee-based partnerships) that serves client needs and delivers long-term water security objectives.
- The Facility is committed to delivering knowledge and impact management. A dedicated team has been established to facilitate knowledge feedback loops and an integrated impact management framework.
All Facility outputs will be shared publicly with the aim of formalising a gold standard for investing in nature-based solutions for water security.
By delivering on its three core focus areas, the Nature for Water Facility will scale up nature-based solutions in critical areas, with the aim of improving the management of 4,000 km of rivers, 8,000 hectares of wetlands, 275,000 hectares of land, and supporting climate adaptation benefits for over two million people — all by 2025!