Water Neutral - WSSD and beyond.

The 'water neutral' concept was conceived by Pancho Ndebele at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) and became a world summit greening initiative. The idea at the time was to quantify the volume of water consumed by delegates attending the summit and to develop an innovative way to offset the water consumed by the summit delegates. Delegates and corporations were invited to balance their water consumption by purchasing water neutral offset certificates and the money raised was earmarked to fund community water offset initiatives, such as the installation of roundabout play pumps and water efficiency initiatives. In the early stages of Water Neutral we struggled to develop the scientific basis, and at WSSD we had to estimate the volume of water consumed by the delegates over the 10 day summit. Things have since progressed. Today we have the scientific basis and the backbone of the individual Water Neutral calculator, a water footprint concept developed by Professor Arjen Hoekstra.

The Water Neutral concept can be applied in a variety of contexts. Large events that have a significant (additional) impact on local water systems, like the Johannesburg World Summit, the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic Games, can be organised in a 'water neutral' way by minimising water use and pollution and investing in local water projects that improves the management of the water system as a whole, and benefits society at large.

Finally, businesses may wish to become Water Neutral, be it from the perspective of minimising business risks (the risk of running out of water) or being a responsible corporate citizen.