How blockchain, AI and other emerging technologies could end water insecurity

The World Economic Forum's Global Water Initiative, in collaboration with the World Bank Water Global Practice and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, has embarked on a journey over the past year to explore this very question. By convening water policy experts, entrepreneurs and technology innovators in a series of workshops and meetings, we gained valuable insight into several areas ripe for disruption in the water sector. Encouragingly, we also discovered many solutions we need are already at our fingertips.

Here are five examples of how the 4IR could help make water insecurity a thing of the past:

1. Blockchain for improved water resource management

2. Decentralized water reuse systems

3. Basin-level insights to manage water risk

4. Advanced materials for producing new sources of water

5. Water- and sanitation-smart cities