Torkil Jonch Clausen
DHI

"We have realized that water is not just for water people to deal with. We cannot do this alone. So I think in the last 10 years, we have been a lot better at actually going out of the box, as we said we would. We engage much more now with other sectors, mostly the food and energy sectors and in that process this nexus has been very helpful. It has helped getting these others actors to the table. This is a very important positive development, I think, within the last 10 years.

Another development that I think is really notable is that a lot of the countries in the south were depending on development assistance, and we now see a totally different world, a lot more self reliant and a much stronger role of the private sector. Infrastructure in Asia and Africa is mainly built by the private sector, not by the governments anymore. Another change has been the whole focus on climate change, it has really shown us how we deal with risk management, and we need to manage change much more than we did, and this discussion is easier now because of the focus on climate change.

My hope for the future is that these positive developments are not just passing. I am very happy about a dedicated water goal but I’m very concerned that in the process we don’t think about ‘where’s water in the other goals?’ My hope is that we’ll get out of our box much more and then we’ll not have another summit like Rio+20 where there was not one word about water in the energy chapter and energy in the water chapter. I hope we are able to build a lot more on the potential of the last 10 years. "