At Waterproof 2026, earth scientist Philip Minderhoud opened his talk with an image of a church steeple rising from the sea. What followed was a 15-minute keynote address that reframed the urgency of climate adaptation and set fifty roundtables in motion.

What a drowning delta looks like

The audience at the Fokker Terminal in The Hague had barely settled when Philip Minderhoud shared a photograph on the screen. It was a church steeple. Surrounding it, was open water as far as the drone could capture. This was not a flood, but the permanent new reality of a village in the Philippines. “This is the people attending the last mass,” he said, “before they abandoned their entire village.”

Two crises

Minderhoud is an associate professor at Wageningen University & Research and an advisor at Deltares. He specialises in Coastal-Deltaic Land Subsidence and Relative Sea-Level Rise, in other words: the way deltas sink and what that means when combined with rising sea-levels. His participation at Waterproof 2026 was a call to look at both crises at the same time. The one visible and the one happening invisible happening under your feet.

That invisible crisis is land subsidence driven largely by one thing: the extraction of groundwater. When water is pumped from deep aquifers, the clay layers above slowly compress and reorient: an irreversible process. Groundwater, Minderhoud explained, does not just carry water. It carries the elevation of the land itself. Over extracting it and you pay with altitude.

Subsidence up to 20 cm/year

In the Mekong Delta, subsidence rates have more than doubled in fifteen years. In the Pampanga delta north of Manila – where Minderhoud conducted a field survey in September 2024 – the ground is sinking up to 20 centimetres per year. He showed what that looks like on the ground: schools with flooded classrooms that open and close with the tides; roads raised a metre and a half; special tricycles built taller to navigate high-water streets; a relocation site for a thousand families, itself partially submerged within years of construction and rice fields that turned to open water between 2020 and 2024.

77-132 million more people at risk

The scale of the exposure is larger than most risk assessments suggest. More than 90 percent of coastal hazard assessments use satellite elevation data referenced to a global geo-id model that, in tropical regions, significantly underestimates actual sea level. In parts of Southeast Asia, the difference is up to a metre. A paper he co-authored in Nature (Seeger & Minderhoud, March 2026) calculated that this systematic error means between 77 and 132 million more people are exposed to the impacts of one metre of relative sea-level rise than current projections show. “If sea level in reality is higher for your particular island or coastal city than was previously assumed,” he said, “the impacts will happen sooner than projected.”

Our responsibilty: the impact of a failed pilot

His conclusion was pointed: the sector spends its energy adapting to what is visible at the surface. However, the more effective intervention is to address the drivers underneath. Reduce groundwater extraction. Protect aquifers. Understand the system before you design for it. He closed on a slide that underlines the responsibility water professionals have: “A failed pilot for us may mean losing their homes for them.”

What water professionals would do about it

After the keynote, fifty roundtables were asked one question: what bold action should the global water sector take to accelerate climate adaptation and be ready to pitch at the UN Water Conference in December? The responses, collected live via Mentimeter, mapped the priorities of a sector in the middle of rethinking its own defaults.

Alternative water solutions
The most recurring suggestion was structural action on groundwater. Tables called for a moratorium on commercial extraction in vulnerable coastal zones, groundwater pricing modelled on carbon trading and serious investment in surface water alternatives, such as fixing leaking pipes (globally, around 50 percent of extracted groundwater leaks away before it reaches users), harvesting rainwater and scaling desalination and wastewater reuse.

Always consider systematic change
Nature-based approaches attracted both strong support and sharp critique. The emerging consensus: stop funding isolated interventions, start designing for systems. “From nature-based solution towards nature-based system approach” was one of the most submitted responses. “Don’t do a pilot – they are about the livelihoods of real people. Always consider systemic change,” submitted another table.

Include community and intergenerational knowledge
Community knowledge and local ownership featured prominently. Participants called for youth at the steering wheel of climate decisions, intergenerational knowledge in adaptation planning and local communities holding formal ownership over their own rivers and groundwater. One table asked a question that lingered: “What can we learn from our grandfathers and grandmothers?”

Scale up investment capacity
Regarding finance, one number stood out. Total global green bond issuance: US $3 trillion. Total blue bond issuance for water: US $15 billion. “If we’re really serious about water, we need to scale up investment capacity 100 times by 2030.” True-cost pricing, watershed investment funds and debt forgiveness for low-income countries were all proposed as mechanisms to move that number.

Look beyond the water sector
Across themes, one message recurred: the water sector cannot solve this alone. Proposals included requiring 50 percent non-water-sector representation at the UN Water Conference committee, bringing colleagues from finance, agriculture and tech into the dialogue and going to other sector’s conferences rather than only hosting your own.

Whats next?

The outputs from the session will be carried forward by Partners for Water as direct input to the UN Water Conference agenda in Dubai on 8-10 December. Philip Minderhoud’s question – can a delta drownclearly answered at The Hague. The harder question is what the world does about it before the window closes.

This year, Mozambique and the Netherlands mark 50 years of cooperation in water and agriculture – a long-term partnership built on solidarity and shared learning. To reflect on this milestone, Maarten Gischler (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Richard Bahumwire (SDU Beira) and Gerard Vos (FOUNT) share their perspectives on how decades of collaboration have evolved from technical assistance to a partnership for urban climate resilience, and what lies ahead in the decades to come.

It’s 1975. Mozambique has just gained independence. The country faces a collapsed economy and a shortage of skilled professionals. To fill the gap, the government invites foreign experts – known locally as cooperantes – including Dutch engineers specialised in water and irrigation. These Dutch cooperantes help to establish systems that would shape Mozambique’s water management for decades.

Over time, this technical assistance evolved into something much greater: a true partnership.

From technical assistance to partnership

“I think we started from the idea that we knew how everything should be done, because our water infrastructure is so well organised in the Netherlands,” reflects Maarten Gischler, Delta Coordinator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and long-time advisor to the Dutch water programme in Mozambique. “Over time, we learned to really start listening to what is happening locally, to enable local leadership, and to focus on long-term processes rather than quick results.”

The long-term involvement of Dutch experts fostered deep trust between Mozambican institutions and the Dutch Embassy. What began as sector-wide technical assistance gradually developed into sustainable, integrated water management – where governance, land management and finance all form part of the same equation. Nowhere would this become more evident than in Beira. Here, a 25-year vision for urban resilience would turn lessons into practice.

Beira’s masterplan becomes reality

By the early 2010s, Beira had emerged as a focal point. The city’s port was economically vital, growing 10 to 15 percent annually under a concession to a Dutch port operator since 1997. However, the port city was increasingly threatened by floods and rising sea levels.

Gischler: “When a Dutch mission visited in 2010, the city’s late mayor made a decisive request: ‘It’s great that you’re looking at the port, but half our city is under water time and again. We need a plan for that.’” That call led to the Beira Masterplan 2035, developed with support from Partners for Water and the Dutch Embassy. After being approved in 2014, it became more than a document. “The plan became a living chessboard,” recalls Gischler. “The late mayor laid that map on his table in the city hall, and projects were chess pieces that could move, connect and synergise.”

The results span new infrastructure, improved governance, better service delivery and more financial resources. “Neighbourhoods that once flooded for weeks now see water recede within days,” says Gischler. “The city’s cadastre system was digitalised, enabling property tax collection that grew from €600,000 to €2 million annually. That’s empowering for a city government. Being able to collect your own money and having an accountability relationship with citizens.” But infrastructure alone wasn’t enough to build climate resilience. It also required addressing other long-standing national challenges.

Why financing blocks resilient housing

When Cyclone Idai struck in 2019, followed by Cyclone Eloise in 2021, the storms exposed Beira’s deeper vulnerability. “Seventy percent of houses were damaged,” Gischler recalls. “It showed us that resilience is not just about drainage and dikes, it’s also about the homes people live in.”

One of the root problems for resilient housing? “Financing,” explains Richard Bahumwire, CEO of Sociedade de Desenvolvimento Urbano da Beira (SDU Beira), the municipal land development company. “Across Mozambique’s 34 million people, only about 600 mortgages have ever been issued.” Interest rates hover around 25 percent, and banks consider low-income households too risky. Without access to credit, people build informally – often in unsafe areas. “Self-built homes dominate the landscape,” Bahumwire adds. “They are affordable, yet extremely vulnerable. If roofs keep blowing off, you can’t call a city resilient.”

SDU Beira – a public-private company established in 2018 and fully owned by the Municipality of Beira – was set up to carry out the city’s Masterplan 2035. In response to the cyclones, it shifted its focus toward developing climate-resilient housing. The company started with the preparation of flood-prone land for construction. “Beira is like Rotterdam,” Bahumwire explains. “It lies below sea level. so if you want to build, you first need land that doesn’t flood.”

But how do you build affordable homes when potential buyers can’t access loans? “Local private developer Casa Real became a pioneer in tackling this challenge,” shares Gischler. In partnership with the Municipality of Beira, which secured the land and land titles, Casa Real has built, sold or rented around 150 affordable, climate-resilient homes since 2018 in the Inhamízua neighbourhood. “When Cyclone Idai struck, the first batch of ten houses was put to the test, and all subsequent homes benefited from improved cyclone-resilient design. Casa Real also experimented with different financing models, both for construction and for end-users.”

Maraza: breaking the financing deadlock

This year marked a breakthrough. The first stone was laid in Maraza, an integrated affordable housing project aiming to build 25,000 homes in Beira following the 150 homes in Inhamízua. With support from Partners for Water and the Dutch embassy, three hectares of land were raised by two metres, and essential infrastructure was installed. Casa Real then built eight pilot homes, merging their private-sector experience with the municipality’s public-sector initiative. “It’s just the beginning,” explains Bahumwire. “The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.”

A revolving fund model that scales

“The eight houses prove more than concept – they also demonstrate a new financing model,” explains Gerard Vos from FOUNT, a Dutch impact investment advisory firm that helped to structure the financing. He continues: “Partners for Water provided a grant and loan to SDU Beira, which loaned funds to local developer Casa Real to build the homes. Once residents move in and prove they can pay their monthly instalments, GAPI Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO) refinance the completed houses through a separate affordable housing facility.”

Residents enter “rent-to-buy” arrangements: monthly instalments at lower interest rates than commercial banks offer, with flexible schedules suited to irregular incomes. “When GAPI and ILO refinance the homes, SDU can reinvest that money in the next batch of houses,” explains Vos. “That’s how you scale.” He adds: “The model reduces risk for developers, makes housing accessible for buyers, and creates a sustainable investment cycle – all without traditional mortgages.”

From pilot to blueprint

“Affordable housing will be a game-changer for Beira,” says Bahumwire. “The city is growing, the port is expanding, industries are coming… people will need safe, affordable homes close to work.” The dream is ambitious: 25,000 homes in Maraza, transforming flood-prone land into safe, vibrant communities. But realising this vision requires proof that the model works at scale. “A track record is vital,” explains Vos. “You need to show investors: we’ve built, we’ve sold, we’ve refinanced. Meanwhile, the project is capturing payment data which is crucial for banks. Do that a few times and larger parties will say: okay, now we’re interested.” Bahumwire adds: “The Ministry has already asked us to present our model, because it is interested in scaling it to other Mozambican cities.”

Climate resilience requires system change

In Beira it became apparent that everything is connected when building a climate-resilient city. As Bahumwire states: “It’s not just about building resilient houses and water infrastructure, it’s about changing the system.”

For the Netherlands, Beira represents a learning laboratory. “What began as technical assistance has become a partnership of equals,” reflects Gischler. “The successes in Beira show that long-term, patient collaboration works.”

Fifty years of partnership have built trust, knowledge and system change. The foundation is laid. The proof of concept is nearing delivery. Now comes the scale-up, showing that climate-resilient cities are not only about infrastructure, but also about system change. And ultimately, about giving people a place to live, thrive and stay safe.

An active delta, 140 polders and increasing climate pressures, Bangladesh faces an urgent challenge of maintaining its water infrastructure in a sustainable way. Dr. Robin Biswas of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) is pioneering a shift from reactive maintenance to strategic asset management, a transformation that could shape the country’s water future.

As a river management specialist and long-time advocate for participatory water governance, Dr. Robin brings both technical insight and deep field experience. He is now working to guide BWDB’s transition from reactive operation and maintenance (O&M) towards a proactive and holistic approach: asset management (AM). This shift is not merely technical, it is systemic. For years, infrastructure development has followed a cycle of build–neglect–repair (BNR). A recent Partners for Water root cause analysis found that 90% of BWDB’s O&M budget is spent on emergency repairs, leaving little room for forward-looking budget planning.

“That cycle needs to be broken,” explains Dr. Robin “With limited funds and high demand, emergencies always take priority. But by identifying and protecting critical assets, their lifespan can be extended – delivering more reliable and cost-effective services in the long term.”

Changing needs, changing systems

The case for change is clear. Many polders were built in the 1960s and 70s. While they have provided increased water safety and security over the decades, much of the infrastructure is now aging. Meanwhile, livelihoods within these polders are shifting rapidly – from rice cultivation to shrimp farming, vegetables to cash crops – creating different water management needs. “We need infrastructure that can adapt to these realities,” says Dr. Robin. “People are changing their livelihoods, but our systems were designed for a different time.”

This is where asset management comes in. Through a structured, evidence-based approach, BWDB can make better decisions about where to invest and what to maintain. That means using limited resources more effectively, while extending the lifespan of vital infrastructure. This approach aligns with the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, which highlights the need for adequate funding, strengthened institutional and governance framework and data-driven planning to ensure that infrastructure remains resilient and future-proof.

From pilot to policy: anchoring the transition

With support from the Partners for Water Program, BWDB undertook an organisational maturity scan and is now developing a roadmap to institutionalise asset management. The Asian Development Bank and BWDB are currently considering 5 new polders, with the aim to incorporate elements of the roadmap into these new polders.

This includes integrating AM principles into feasibility studies and project design phases, so that sustainability is embedded from the start. It also means ensuring that AM is not an add-on, but an institutionalised practice, championed from within. “We want this to be a lasting change,” says Dr. Robin. “That’s why we’re engaging not only our engineers, but also local communities, NGOs, knowledge institutes, departments like agriculture and fisheries and policymakers.”

A shift in mindset and governance

Unlike the Netherlands, Bangladesh’s informal economy and limited tax base mean there is no “beneficiary pays” model for water infrastructure. BWDB relies on central government funds. To secure these, it must demonstrate results and that requires effective governance, inter-agency collaboration and meaningful local participation.
“If farmers don’t understand what we’re doing, we can’t expect them to contribute or cooperate,” says Dr. Robin. “That’s why we focus on building capacity at the local level, not just among our staff, but within the community itself.” He envisions simple tools like mobile apps, local indicators and peer benchmarking to increase transparency and engagement: “If people can report issues, track performance and see the impact of their own efforts, they will take ownership.”

Looking ahead

For now, the roadmap is clear:

1. Demonstrate value
2. Build momentum
3. Align with the Bangladesh Delta Plan’s 2100 goal of raising O&M spending to 0.5% of GDP

And most importantly: keep learning, adapting and involving others. “Asset management is a way to make water infrastructure adapt with time, not get lost in it,” Dr. Robin concludes.

Want to know more about the Bangladesh asset management pilot or Partners for Water’s involvement?

Between 4 and 11 July, the WAVE Partnership held a series of in-person workshops and events in the Aconcagua Valley in Chile, kicking off its three-year strategy for bringing the catchment back into balance. 

Water is becoming an ever scarcer resource. The impacts of climate change and overproduction on water security are becoming clear in real time. Agriculture is both a driver and victim of this, representing over 70% of global freshwater withdrawals, whilst increasingly being affected by droughts and other climate impacts.

Yet most projects and programmes in agriculture aimed at addressing this fall into the same trap. They focus heavily on technical solutions at farm level, without adequately addressing the market dynamics or enabling the environment needed to sustain them.

The WAVE Partnership thus focuses on building catchments in balance, where water inflows, outflows, and storage are sustainably managed to support ecosystems, communities, and long-term supply chain resilience. In doing so, it represents a shift from farm-level action to catchment-level water stewardship.

This article was produced in collaboration with New Foresight.

What is the WAVE Partnership

WAVE is a multi-stakeholder partnership consisting of supply chain partners, farmers, and government. Initiated in 2025, it is dedicated to scaling a collective action approach to strengthen water and biodiversity management in agriculture, with a focus on agri-food supply chains.

The WAVE Partnership has a three-tiered strategy focused on action at the level of farmers, supply chain, and enabling environment. It started in Chile and is gradually being scaled to other key origins at water risk, such as South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and Mexico.

WAVE Aconcagua (2025-2028) is the first project under the WAVE Partnership. The collective action project was initiated through the RVO Partners for Water program, building on pioneering work by Nature’s Pride, the Government of the Netherlands, Greenticket, and NewForesight. The WAVE Aconcagua project is run by Nature’s Pride, Salling Group, Dole Food Company, Westfalia Fruit, the producer-driven Aconcagua Network, and the Government of the Netherlands, and is coordinated by NewForesight.

Learning from Aconcagua, Chile, brought to scale

Supported by the Partners for Water Programme, in 2023, we launched the organisation’s first project in Chile’s Aconcagua Valley – a supplier of high-quality avocado, citrus, cherries, and other fruits to the UK and EU markets – with avocado exports to these regions alone valued at 151.39 million USD per year.

However, the water balance is increasingly negative, as groundwater outflows exceed inflows due to unsustainable water extraction for agriculture and other sectors, coupled with climate change.

The NewForesight team, led by Joost Backer and Susanna Kluiver, together with Greenticket, Partners for Water, the Netherlands embassy in Chile, and Nature’s Pride, convened key actors – farmers, buyers, and government representatives – to help advance the Partnership’s goal of bringing the catchment back into balance. Between 4th and 11th July, the WAVE Partnership held a series of in-person events in Chile to kick off the next three years.

At the farm level we strengthened collaboration with the Aconcagua Network – a group of producers taking an active role in addressing these shared challenges. Together, we began work on the Regenerative Agriculture Guide to help farmers improve, measure, and communicate progress in areas such as water efficiency, water footprint, biodiversity restoration, reforestation, and carbon sequestration.

We also had the opportunity to visit Urmeneta (30 ha), Corporafruit (444 ha), and Jorge Schmidt (2,050 ha). From solar-powered irrigation to reforestation efforts and biodiversity conservation, these producers are actively implementing sustainable farming practices.

At the enabling environment level, we engaged with key government and institutional actors, including Chile’s national water authority (DGA), the Ministry of Environment, CORFO, ProChile, and regional representatives. These conversations signalled growing momentum for public–private collaboration. The WAVE Partnership aims to structurally raise dialogue at this catchment level.

At the buyer level, we engaged with teams from Nature’s Pride, Dole Food Company, and Westfalia Fruit to explore how market players can help drive the transformations needed for more sustainable and resilient supply chains. Buyers increasingly recognize the role they can play in incentivizing more sustainable farming practices and supporting producers through transition.

There is significant interest in understanding evolving demands from European markets, underscoring the importance of WAVE’s role as a bridge between producers and buyers. At the same time, producers expressed a clear need for simplification and alignment across certifications (e.g. RA, GlobalG.A.P., LEAF).

What happens next?

Water is not just a technical challenge, but a systems issue that needs to be addressed at a catchment level. This requires shared responsibility, smarter incentives, and collaborative governance. That is what the WAVE Partnership stands for; starting in Chile, and scaling up to other origins in the fresh fruits and vegetables sector.

The next steps in the partnership include deepening and expanding collaboration by engaging additional producers and strengthening ties with local governments, civil society, and the DGA. The partnership will also continue advancing work with producers on the Regenerative Agriculture Guide to support the measurement, communication, and implementation of sustainable agricultural practices.

Want to know more? Contact Joost Backer from NewForesight, the lead consultant in this work or Thaísa Martins Fernandes Pessanha from Partners for Water.

*WAVE stands for Water, Agriculture, Values, and Ecosystems – the key elements this Partnership aims to integrate into international trade and pre-competitive collaboration

In 2019, Cyclone Idai destroyed large parts of the Mozambican port city of Beira. Two years later, a second cyclone struck the city. 70% of Beira’s buildings were damaged in these events. Without thoughtful urban management and water management, the city remains vulnerable to flooding and increasingly extreme weather. In order to build resilience, Peter van Tongeren from the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, in collaboration with Partners for Water and the municipality of Beira, has been working on a better functioning land registry. Van Tongeren explains how this is forming the foundation for a climate-resilient city.

“Beira, partly situated below sea level, is administratively an exception within Mozambique,” begins Van Tongeren. While the country has been governed for almost 50 years by the Frelimo party, Beira has been in the hands of the opposition party Movimento Democrático de Moçambique, founded by former mayor David Simango, for 22 years. “This city administration has a strong motivation to demonstrate that democratic governance and transparent service delivery are indeed possible.” Their vision is supported by a long-term delta cooperation with the Dutch government. This cooperation is financed and managed through the Partners for Water (PfW) program and the Dutch embassy and is locally implemented by VNG International and Kadaster International.

The Beira Master Plan 2035: The foundation for climate-resilient water infrastructure

Beira’s vision for the future is laid out in the Beira Master Plan 2035. This plan was developed in collaboration with the Netherlands and former mayor Simango, to make the city climate-resilient and economically robust. It focuses on crucial themes like drainage and water treatment, coastal protection, waste management, urban planning, economic development and improving living conditions for citizens. However, to maintain and further develop the services delivered and the governance of the city, a solid financial and administrative foundation is needed. And all this begins with a properly functioning land registry.

‘Our man in Beira’

A key figure in the long-term collaboration between the Netherlands and Beira is Peter van Tongeren, known as ‘our man in Beira’ among his Dutch colleagues. A professional HR and organisational consultant by training, he came to Mozambique in 2017 via VNG International to strengthen the municipal government. He found a city with great ambitions, but without the essential foundation of a land registry and clear urban planning to convert that potential into sustainable development.

“When I arrived in Beira, the land registry was stored in the basement of the town hall – and that basement regularly flooded,” explains Van Tongeren. “Files were lost or illegible. People received duplicate land licences, which led to conflicts. Without a proper land registry, you cannot properly plan a city, collect taxes, or manage water infrastructure.”

This realisation led to the start of a large-scale digitalisation project, funded by PfW, the Dutch embassy and others. The project was implemented in collaboration with Kadaster International and the municipality of Beira.

Transforming a flooded basement into a digital database

“The project began with the digitalisation of land registration. A team of twenty local staff was trained to scan and register 40,000 plots. A new database was developed in which all land and property data were correctly stored,” explains Van Tongeren.

With an organised land registry, property rights could be better guaranteed, and urban planners could gain an overview of the available space. But perhaps even more importantly, the municipality gained a means to efficiently collect taxes for water management needs.

“The land registry is the foundation,” explains Van Tongeren. “You can only have a well-functioning climate-resilient city if you are able to maintain essential water infrastructure through taxes. Property tax has the biggest potential for own source revenue. However, in order to collect it, you must know who lives where, which buildings exist, and who needs to pay property taxes.”

From land registry project to sustainable water infrastructure

One of Beira’s major problems is the lack of financial resources. The city is largely dependent on contributions from the national government, which are often delayed or sometimes not paid at all.

“By linking the land registry with the tax collection system, the municipality has been able to triple its income from property tax. It increased from €600,000 in 2018 to €1.8 million in 2023,” explains Van Tongeren. “And that’s just the beginning. We expect that this amount will increase further to €10 million per year in the coming years – equal to the current city budget.”

“With this income, Beira can maintain and expand its water infrastructure,” explains Van Tongeren. “That means money for drainage, sewerage, and coastal protection – essential aspects in a city that is so vulnerable to flooding.

Long-term international delta cooperation

The success of the land registry project is no coincidence. It’s the result of years of consistent cooperation between Beira and the Netherlands. In this effort, PfW and the Dutch embassy work with the local government to provide technical solutions, but also to build governance capacity for sustainable water management.

This cooperation has been made possible in part by the long-term vision of Beira’s previous mayor, Daviz Simango. When he came to power in 2003, he found a city in decline: widespread open defecation, poor waste management, cholera outbreaks, and barely functioning services. “Simango had a clear mission to transform Beira into a prosperous, climate-resilient city and saw cooperation with international partners as essential,” explains Van Tongeren. Under his leadership, the Beira Master Plan was established in 2013, and it still serves as a guide for urban development.

“His unexpected death in 2021 had a significant impact,” says Van Tongeren, “but his successor, Mayor Albano Carige, is continuing his work with the same vision.”

Initiating system change for sustainable water management

“What began as a cadastre project developed into true system change. It has now altered many other areas – from urban planning to governance structures – all working together to sustain Beira’s urban development and water infrastructure,” explains Van Tongeren. “New neighbourhoods are designed in advance rather than emerging spontaneously, and there is also a strong connection with water and sanitation management. For example when new homes are built, flood-prone areas are taken into account.” The PfW-funded VNG project also strengthens Beira municipality’s IT capacity, communication skills, leadership skills and donor coordination, all essential to improving and maintaining quality water infrastructure.

Beira as a model for the climate-resilient city

Beira has now become a role model for other Mozambican cities. “During a seminar in December 2024, multiple municipalities showed interest in the digitalisation model,” says Van Tongeren. “There is much admiration for what Beira is doing. Hopefully, this approach will also be applied in other cities.”
Yet there are challenges. Many municipalities are overwhelmed by day-to-day problems, preventing them from developing long-term resilience strategies. But if one thing is clear, it’s that a well-functioning land registry lays a foundation upon which a climate-resilient city can build.

From reconstruction to climate resilience

What began as a collection of wet papers in a flooded basement is now the backbone of Beira, which is rebuilding itself into a prosperous, resilient and climate-proof city. Thanks to the combination of local vision, international delta cooperation and water management cooperation, and a long-term strategy focused on system change, Beira is becoming a truly climate-resilient city with sustainable water infrastructure.

The Welang River in East Java, Indonesia, is a crucial lifeline for nearby communities, providing water for daily use and supporting local agriculture. As cities expand and populations grow, however, the river has faced increasing challenges such as flooding, erosion and pollution. The Governments of Indonesia and the Netherlands, through its Partners for Water programme are investing in the Welang River Basin Transformation Project to tackle these challenges and protect both the river and the people who depend on it. This is the third article in the miniseries on the Welang River Basin project, highlighting the role of Nature-based Solutions for integrated water management.

During the rainy season, the Welang basin, specifically in Sidogiri and Welang Lama, experiences floods at least once a year. Notably during the recent rainy seasons in 2022 and 2023, floodwaters of up to one-meter caused the Welang Lama river to overflow, inundating several districts including the villages of Sukorejo and Karangketug. This disaster caused economic and infrastructural losses to affected people in this area.

In response to the recurring flooding issues, the Indonesian government, through the East Java Province, has partnered with the Netherlands government to implement the Welang River Basin Transformation Project. This initiative will be executed by a Netherlands-Indonesian consortium, consisting of Witteveen+Bos, Nuffic Southeast Asia and AidEnvironment. Sidogiri and Welang Lama were selected as pilot sites to address the flooding challenges. One of the project’s primary objectives is to design effective flood protection measures for these areas through a collaborative co-creation and design phase.

Collaborative co-creation (co-design) supports participatory design as a fundamental aspect of Sustainable Design Principles (SDPs). The co-design process involves active participation from local communities, landowners and government stakeholders, fostering inclusivity and ensuring that the final outcomes are tailored to the specific needs and contexts of those involved. The process is divided into four stages:

• Needs and Demands: this stage focuses on identifying the challenges and needs of the communities while understanding local environmental issues. To achieve this, the consortium, in partnership with students from Universitas Negeri Malang (UM), Universitas Brawijaya (UB) and Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), conducted site visits along the Sumber Pinang and Welang Lama rivers. These visits included hydraulic modelling and flood assessments to gain a comprehensive understanding of the area’s vulnerabilities.
• Co-Creation of Solution: during this stage, technical expertise is combined with local knowledge to design effective interventions. Stakeholder workshops were organised, involving the consortium, the Department of Public Works and Water Resources, universities and local villagers. These sessions facilitated knowledge sharing and discussions, leading to the identification of potential structural and non-structural measures to address flooding.
• Complementing Solutions: Solutions were refined based on community feedback and further analysis. Conceptual designs were developed in collaboration with the Department of Public Works and Water Resources, the consortium and the universities. These frameworks were then shared and discussed with villagers to ensure that the solutions reflected their needs and input.
• Validation and Implementation: The final stage involved evaluating the proposed solutions to ensure their effectiveness and alignment with institutional policies. Final outcomes were presented to the communities, outlining the next steps with an emphasis on transparency and trust-building.

By following these structured stages, the co-design process promotes inclusivity, knowledge sharing and community-driven solutions to effectively address local environmental and flooding challenges. Each phase employs distinct participatory design approaches to ensure that all parties are involved and can contribute based on their background and expertise. The following table outlines the co-design process, detailing each stage and the corresponding participatory design methods used:

Miniseries on the Welang River Basin project

This is the fourth article in the miniseries on the Welang River Basin project, highlighting the role of youth in sustainable waste management. Below you can find the links to other articles in the series:

Article 1: The role of trusted advisors
Article 2: Practical implementation of Nature-Based Solutions
Article 3: Empowering youth for sustainable waste mangement
Article 4: A participatory design approach

On 30 August 2024, Dutch and Indonesian water experts came together for an important webinar discussing the Pantura Java Integrated Coastal Development (PJICD) project. This initiative focuses on safeguarding Jakarta and the northern coast of Java from severe flooding, an increasingly urgent issue due to rising sea levels.

At the start of the webinar, Victor Coenen explained the evolution of the project’s terminology, highlighting why the term “Giant Seawall” has been replaced with “outer seadike.” And also why this new term doesn’t fully encompass the 850 km-long coastal development project, which aims to provide comprehensive protection for the entire northern coastline of Java.

Thought-provoking questions

Over 30 professionals attended this interesting webinar. Were you unable to join? You can now watch the recap of the webinar online. Here a some thought-provoking questions raised by the attendees:

• Is it possible to join forces with the Koreans and come up with a combined plan?
• Will a Strategic Environmental (and Social) Assessment (SEA) be part of the planning process?
• Can we afford to shift away from traditional seawalls?