Asit K. Biswas | Global-is-Asian, 2012, Issue 14, pages 15-16
Lawrence Peter once said, “An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.” In terms of predictions, most professions, including water, are not very different. While forecasting the future in an extremely difficult task, one issue can be predicted with complete certainty—the world in two decades will be vastly different to what is today.
The water sector is an integral component of the global system and thus would not be immune to these changes. However, unlike earlier times, many of these changes will originate from nonwater sectors and non water-related issues on which the water sector will have no, or at most, limited say or control. Thus, water management beyond 2025 will become an exceedingly complex task and this complexity can only increase with time.