8.1 Concluding Remarks

WDM has a critical role to play in securing future water supplies. The management of water resources in cities globally has changed in recent years, due to rapid population growth, urbanisation, rising living standards, and impacts of climate change. This has resulted in the need to develop more sustainable and efficient urban water systems worldwide, with urgency.

Water management is dependent on the stage of development of the countries, legal and institutional frameworks, and institutional and financial capacities, among others. Given the current level of water consumption in urban areas, it will become increasingly challenging to manage water demand, unless cities are able to address current water challenges. These challenges include but are not limited to, increased water demand, growing competition between water users, water scarcity and pollution, inefficient water supply systems, and climate change impacts (Arfanuzzaman and Rahman 2017). Hence, the roles of water conservation and water demand management (WDM) measures are crucial in all spheres of the water sector (Kayaga and Smout 2011).

This guidebook is based on an extensive documentation review and synthesis of urban WDM policies and practices both in ASEAN, with international examples. It is designed to be an accessible resource for stakeholders, such as policymakers and practitioners, to assess and implement water demand management strategies and initiatives and promote knowledge transfer among ASEAN countries.

The guidebook draws upon notable WDM practices and policies, which have demonstrated effective demand management outcomes. The guidebook follows a WDM typology developed by the authors and comprises 47 indicators, further classified into three different categories of WDM applications, namely (1) water losses; (2) economic instruments; and (3) non-price mechanisms.

The guidebook recognises the efforts of ASEAN countries in initiating several WDM strategies and planning efforts. As large proportions of water loss in distribution networks are one of the main challenges that water service providers face in ASEAN, all countries in the region have implemented several NRW management strategies to overcome this concern. Strategies include NRW monitoring, leak detection, and pipe replacements. Within ASEAN, Metro Manilla (the Philippines), Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), and Johor (Malaysia), in particular, have been leading protagonists of investment in technologically advanced leak detection equipment and surveillance systems, which have contributed to significant improvements in NRW levels.

As low public awareness of water conservation continues to impede the objective of water-use efficiency, all ASEAN countries have invested in improving public communication and outreach as part of their WDM strategies. Since public campaigns and education programmes focus on behaviour changes, their impacts on water-use efficiency are often difficult to quantify and assess (EEA 2017). Nonetheless, they are both acknowledged as highly useful non-price mechanisms that governments and water service providers adopt (Booysen et al. 2019; Matikinca et al. 2020; Tortajada et al. 2019). In Malaysia and Singapore, campaigns that aim to influence water-efficient behaviours are further bolstered by supportive infrastructure, devices, and initiatives, which include water-saving devices, retrofits, outreach and communication through utility bills, and labelling schemes. Such measures have consistently proven effective in reining in water demand in many countries, including Singapore and Malaysia.

ASEAN countries may strengthen WDM management further by adopting cutting-edge technologies to manage water demand more efficiently, such as smart meters, smart DMAs, and other novel devices for leakage detection and management. They may review their tariff levels and structures to improve cost recovery, which is important as tariffs serve as a primary means for service providers to generate revenue and cover costs for water service provisions (Damkjaer 2020). Underpricing water may also inadvertently contribute to overconsumption and inefficient water usage (Bello-Dambatta et al. 2013; EPA 2016).

Policy and regulatory measures, as well as technical and institutional measures, are necessary components to each country’s WDM efforts. A summary of these measures, for consideration by ASEAN leaders who oversee WDM efforts in their respective countries, is as follows:

  1. (i)

    Policy and regulatory

    • Water demand management can be made a priority issue at all levels of governance—regional (ASEAN), national, and local (and the priority of the local communities) through the development and implementation of coherent regional, national, and local water demand management policy frameworks.

    • Encourage efforts at all levels (regional, national, and local) to promote water demand management through various policies and water demand strategies (e.g. tariffs and non-price mechanisms).

    • Establish the importance of effective water demand management and the need to conserve water resources to help implement the plans for each ASEAN country, which could address broader environmental and development goals (e.g. UN Sustainable Development Goals).

    • Ensure that legal and institutional frameworks possess the jurisdiction to enforce the implementation of national and local water demand management policies and strategies into actionable plans.

    • Ensure that national plans/strategies incorporate achievable water demand management targets, which can be transposed into local water demand management plans and programmes.

    • To support such policies and strategies, various regulatory, social, and economic instruments may be implemented, to ensure compliance by all stakeholders.

  2. (ii)

    Technical and institutional

    • Efficient and transparent institutional arrangements can be established in countries and city to identify and address limitations in service delivery. This can help improve organisational efficiency and encourage inter-departmental/agency cooperation. For instance, an independent national body such as a department of Water Demand Management with clear roles and responsibilities can be established.

    • Decentralisation: Empower mid-level staff of water service providers to plan and implement WDM strategies.

    • Smart and ‘green’ cities that formulate and implement efficient, innovative water demand management measures can be rewarded.

    • Establish and maintain national water demand management statistics, which can be shared with all stakeholders so that they benefit from the shared knowledge. To achieve this, assessments and studies of all aspects of water demand management (e.g. residential and non-residential water consumption rates, rate of physical losses, and benefits of greywater recycling) may be conducted.

    • Research and share information on the development of innovative and emerging water demand management technologies.

Sources Araral (2010), Rivera (2014).

8.2 Water Demand Management Measure Overview

A brief overview of key WDM measures and notable examples of implementation in ASEAN countries that are explained in greater detail in the guidebook can be found in Table 8.1.

Table 8.1 Key water demand management measures and notable examples
Full size table