It’s been raining all day here in Istanbul on this fourth day of the 5th World Water Forum. As I dodge puddles and armed security, I keep thinking about the poor timing of this rain. Not because I—along with 20,000 other Forum participants—am getting soaked, but because rain never seems to fall where or when we need it. And where it does fall, we get too much all at once and then can’t use it. 

What’s more, we don’t know how much we have to work with. Watershed managers around the world feel the one-two punch of underestimating the amount of water in key river basins and the impacts of climate chaos on water resources.

This “ecological credit crunch” has brought the international water community to Istanbul for a full week of workshops and panels on everything from local adaptation strategies to financing water infrastructure and balancing water needs for people, ecosystems, and energy. The issue on everyone's mind—and yet to be resolved—is the absence of a global water management authority that has overall responsibility, accountability, and vision for how to address all the issues connected to water.

The other theme that keeps coming up: when it comes to managing water resources, whether we’re civil society, governments, or the private sector, we all share the risk.

The private sector can move mountains when it comes to water management. But a couple of things need to happen. First, the talk about “green growth,” “green jobs,” and the road to Copenhagen has been defined in terms of carbon. The conversation needs to include water, land use, and nutrients.

Second, a water footprint is more than just numbers. For many companies, their supply chains represent the largest portions of their footprint, but the risk is less about the size than it is about scarcity in the watersheds where those supply chains operate. Conducting a water footprint is also asking questions like: Is water being pulled out of water-stressed regions? What are the implications of the price of that water? Who else needs that water?

Third, companies have an opportunity to influence how others think about water. From changing product design and materials to helping suppliers introduce alternative crops that are more appropriate for local conditions, a company can send a different signal to its entire value chain that water has long-term implications.