| New developments
changed, and it’s been difficult sometimes to construct new reservoirs that we feel are really, really needed. It’s becoming quite explosive, politically explosive,” Suleiman Hussein Adamu commented. “But I think by and large, storing water has been of major benefit to us as we have quite a number of large-scale irrigation systems which would not have been possible without some of the storage that we’d invested on years before.” As the World Bank acknowledges, closing the water
storage gap will require policy and decision-makers to bring together a range of both public and private economic sectors and stakeholders, to develop and drive multi-sectoral solutions that address the water storage gap holistically, effectively, and efficiently. “Done right,” the bank said, “a new paradigm
for water storage will create a stronger foundation for sustainable development and climate action and resilience, paying dividends for populations, economies, and the planet, through years and generations to come.”
Inherently challenging Planning, building and managing water storage is
“inherently challenging” and perpetuates the storage gap, the World Bank report admits. That’s why it has created the 5Rs for increasing storage which have been adopted from the Uncommon Dialogue on Hydropower, River Restoration, and Public Safety that was developed by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment in 2020. The 5RS: Opportunities for Increasing Storage Services are: 1. Re-operation – The modification of storage operations for improved management (efficiency gains), which might include changing the timing of water releases from controllable infrastructure to increased benefits, or adding additional benefit streams, such as flood control or minimising storage losses from evaporation, etc. This may also include managing for synergies between different types of storage or creating new connections between existing storage so that they can be operated as part of a broader system.
2. Rehabilitation – The rehabilitation of natural or built storage to improve storage capacity or performance. This can mean ecosystem and natural landscape restoration to its more natural state or extending the life of existing built storage capacity or restoring original or slightly improved capacity through addressing structural defects, sediment removal, increasing the flow rates of managed aquifer recharge sites, and environmental restoration of natural storage sites, among others.
3. Retrofitting – The upgrading or augmentation of capacity at existing storage facilities, and/or enabling new uses of the facilities. This could be achieved through raising the height of a dam or adding new hydro-mechanical or electro- mechanical equipment to serve different objectives or different customers to make overall gains in the value of storage services. Examples include adding floating solar panels to existing hydroelectric projects, or adding hydropower generation to irrigation projects.
4. Reform: Investing in institutions to manage storage better – In addition to physical investments in storage, policy makers need to invest in institutions
that are required to better plan and manage storage. This includes institutional capacities to manage the data, modelling, and planning systems required to develop smarter storage; enable and incentivise integrated planning, development, and management at multiple scales across multiple stakeholders; mobilising finance and financial incentives that enable storage to be prioritised, planned, and managed in the broader public interest.
5. Raising New: Finding or developing additional storage –This involves exploring the full range of available storage types: natural and built; surface and subsurface; large and small; centralised and distributed.
“Given the growing risks of water insecurity around the world, particularly in the face of the climate crisis, our approach to planning and managing water storage must change,” the World Bank urges, adding that policy and decision-makers have a unique opportunity to lead. Government finance and planning ministries are being encouraged to ensure that natural and built storage are effectively and efficiently serving the needs of the greatest number of stakeholders. If mechanisms for joint planning are not already in place, ministries can host or facilitate joint planning processes, or be a neutral arbiter if the political economy around storage requires one. In addition local governments, storage operators, and water users are urged to champion the new paradigm by engaging in aggregated, integrated planning processes for current and future storage service needs, and evaluating the performance of current storage systems and options for improving them. “This,” the bank cautions, “is no small task.” In addition, the bank says that lawmakers: Can mandate or incentivise joint planning for storage and broader water use if such mechanisms do not already exist in the form of basin authorities or other joint planning bodies. Allocate budget for a range of storage options across the 5 Rs, helping overcome bias toward investing in new and built over improving current and green storage solutions. Institute appropriate legal measures for safety, maintenance, and operation to help ensure storage can deliver benefits long term. While transboundary river basin organisations and their stakeholders are being encouraged to engage in or even lead joint planning processes to identify the shared benefits of cooperative, transboundary integrated water storage management and development, seek ways to engage jointly in risk reduction, and work to develop benefits and risk- sharing frameworks between riparian states. Finally, the banks says that development partners and financiers can convene and support multi-sectoral storage planning processes, invest in activities around the 5Rs that have had proper due diligence, and support countries to engage in transboundary planning processes around storage. The actions required to implement the new paradigm for water storage are multifaceted and challenging, the World Bank concludes. But, it adds, investing in storage as a system is an investment in economic resilience, social welfare, and the environment.
Above:Kinder Reservoir in Derbyshire, UK. More water storage is required the world over
References
Burke,Eileen Rose; Tront,Jacqueline Marie Lyon,Kimberly Nicole; Rex,William; Castera Errea,Melissa Ivy; Varughese,Mili Chachyamma; Newton,Joshua Taylor; Becker,Ayelen Nadia; Vale,Allison Louise. What the Future Has in Store : A New Paradigm for Water Storage (English). Washington, D.C. World Bank Group. http://documents.
worldbank.org/curated/ en/099454002022397507/ IDU031e759b40be95048 5909796045bca5d8e378
https://live.worldbank.org/ events/future-water-storage
www.waterpowermagazine.com | August 2023 | 39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
