The Future of Water with Dr. Josh Newton

In this episode, Sarah sits down with Josh Newton, a consultant at UN Water and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, to discuss key takeaways from the UN’s recent 2nd Conference on Water and the importance of preparing a future workforce for the water sector.

Transcript

Josh Newton (00:00): 

Historically it’s been that water is something we take for granted often, and it’s something we need to change. That’s one of the big behaviors that we need to change is we can’t take water for granted anymore. We need to conserve, protect it, be more efficient with it. So really, by having an informed public, we can have better policy decisions, better management, better governance of water.

Sarah Johnson (00:25
):

Welcome to the Pathway Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Johnson, and thank you for joining us for this episode. Pathway to Tomorrow is a nonprofit with initiatives in housing, environmental conservation and water security. In this podcast series, we engage with leaders working on solving some of the world’s most challenging problems by exploring innovative solutions being implemented by leading NGOs, nonprofits, think tanks, companies and international organizations focused on issues like homelessness, environmental conservation, climate change and water security. 

(00:59):

Our guest today is Josh Newton, a consultant and thought leader in global water political processes, governance and stakeholder engagement. Josh currently works at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Josh is also the founder of Josh’s Water Jobs, a platform that connects young people with job opportunities in the water sector. Josh has 20 years of experience in consulting and transnational water diplomacy at organizations such as UN water, the World Bank, the Global Water Partnership, National Geographic, the African Development Bank and the World Wildlife Fund. Josh is also an adjunct professor at Sciences Po. 

(01:38):

Josh, it’s such a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.

Josh Newton (01:42
): 

Thank you, Sarah, it’s great to be here.

Sarah Johnson (01:45): 

To start us off. Josh, can you tell us a bit about your background and current work as a consultant at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe?

Josh Newton (01:54):

Yeah, sure. So by trade, I’m not a technical water person. I’m not a hydrologist or engineer. But I studied international relations as it relates to water. And that often takes the form of how countries cooperate over how they share their water on transboundary rivers, such as the Nile, the Danube, the Amazon. So the first half of my water career, I focused on transboundary conflict and cooperation over shared waters. And then as I started to work more on that,  I started to question what’s going on at the global level. So how do all countries who are coming together mostly in the United Nations, how do they cooperate, talk about, advance progress on sustainable water management? 

(02:50):

So about halfway through my career, I switched to looking at these types of issues – so global water governance and looking at what was happening formally and informally in those spaces and how the world kind of as a whole was moving forward on advancing sustainable water management solutions. So my current work is kind of a mix of these two parts of my career path.  At the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UN, there was the recent, or back in March now, UN 2023 water conference. And stakeholders – so countries, NGOs, international organizations, the private sector – all came together to make voluntary commitments. 

(03:42):

So my task right now is to kind of do a first progress report on where those commitments stand. There’s over 830 of them. So to assess how much progress they’ve made, what gaps  will there still be even after fulfilling these commitments and basically coming up with a report that gives us a snapshot of where we stand. And my work for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is on the transboundary water side of things. I help coordinate  what’s called the Transboundary Cooperation Coalition. And it’s a coalition of almost 30 countries and organizations that try to advance transboundary cooperation worldwide. So, yeah, so that’s what I’m currently working on.


Sarah Johnson (04:31): 

Thank you so much for sharing that, Josh. Such an interesting background and very important work. So you recently attended, and you just mentioned, the UN’s second ever conference on water. What were some of the key takeaways from the conference and what calls to action were identified that can help us better address the growing global water crisis?

Josh Newton (04:50
):

Yeah. So I mean it was really – the first conference was 47 years ago – so we’re way overdue for another, say, global level conference on water within the UN system, and especially with where things stand with water right now. I mean we’re seeing water crises in the news almost every day – whether that’s floods, droughts, cholera outbreaks – it’s much more frequent than it’s ever been. So the conference was very timely. And I think  for me who’s been working in this field for a while,  it made it clear even with all the – I think there’s almost 10,000 people that went – you see a lot of the activity that’s going on, but it’s the fact that we need to do more. And that really, the conference, while galvanizing as it was in bringing together the international water community, it was, in essence, water people talking to water people. 

(05:58):

And we don’t need to convince water people that water is important or that there needs to be action on water. We need the people who work on agriculture, on energy, on health. We need politicians at the highest levels to prioritize water. And so this was for me – and coming at it  having been to a lot of conferences over the years –  it was more of  a realization or what came out is that water isn’t being prioritized in the right places. The water community obviously is. So that was  kind of another wake up call – that we need to be able to communicate better with non- water people to really demonstrate the importance of water for our societies, for livelihoods, for the environment. And yeah, so it’s still in the end, not getting the attention that it deserves. 

(06:55):

One of the – for me in this work – at the global level, one of the great outcomes, was that the UN Secretary General said that we, the United Nations, would have a Special Envoy for water. That person still has not been named yet. We’re still waiting with bated breath for that. But it’s  really a remarkable step forward to have someone at a very high level within the UN system who’s specifically focused on water and able to talk to heads of state, heads of UN organizations, private sector CEOs and multinationals to be at that level to really help bring water to the forefront, to help prioritize water. So that was a huge advancement that we’re now looking forward to seeing who this person is and getting to work with that person, to support them in the work that they do.

Sarah Johnson (07:55
):

Thank you so much for sharing that, Josh. Clearly it’s time, like you said, for a role like that. So that’s encouraging. My next question, Josh, is, regarding your platform – Josh’s Water Jobs. You talk a lot about the importance of preparing a future workforce for the water sector. Can you tell us more about this aspect of your work and how you came to found Josh’s Water Jobs?

Josh Newton (08:17):

Yeah. So the website is a kind of labor of love in that  it started I think over a decade ago now where in all our fields, if you have a colleague, you know, you who will say, “hey, I have this job, will you please, you know, send it to your network, this job opening.” And so I think at one point I was like, oh, who are these people that I would send it to? And I was more of a young professional then. So I got my 30 water friends into an email list, and then whenever a job would come out, I’d copy paste their emails and send it out. And then I think it might have been that I had like 4 or 5 jobs for some reason that came at the same time, and I made a little list out of it and sent it out. And so that would keep happening. And then I started looking for jobs to add to this little list. And then I’d be at conferences and I’d tell people, hey, I have this little jobs list that I send, like once a month that has a few jobs on it, it’s free. 

(09:22):

And so little by little, I was having more jobs in this list and people were adding  to the list – more emails were being added.  In over five years, just through word of mouth,  you know when I would meet people, it grew to something like 60 jobs every week to 800 people. And at that point, it made sense – because friends were quote, unquote, complaining that they couldn’t find the older jobs in the lists – to make a searchable online database. So that’s when Josh’s Water Jobs, the website, was born. And it’s grown significantly since then. And it’s one of the, if not the only, water specific international job website out there. 

(10:13):

So because of the website, it really started for me to look at the issues of the water and sanitation workforce. Talking to young professionals, talking to organizations, and looking at different studies that have been published, about what the future of this workforce will look like? And it’s a pretty, in many ways, it’s a pretty bleak picture in that – there was a study done by the Brookings Institute a few years ago saying that – you know, the baby boomers will be retiring here in another 5 or 10 years. And the US will lose in some places, up to 50% of its water workforce. But there isn’t the backfill of younger professionals that are filling those vacancies. So I think the study says that the US will need about 1.4 million more people working in water in the next ten years, which is a very large figure. 

(11:22):

And then other countries, say in the global north, in Europe, have similar issues. But then in the global South, there’s not the capacity to implement water projects and they’re missing a workforce in it from a different point of view.  So the issues exist pretty much everywhere. And it’s getting worse. So because of the website, I’m starting to look more at these issues and trying to help bridge that gap between the workforce that exists and the one that we’ll need within the coming few decades.

Sarah Johnson (12:06):

Thank you for sharing that, Josh, and for the work you’re doing to address that growing problem. So my last question for you, Josh,  something I like to ask all of our guests is what would you say are some of the behavioral changes that need to take place in the public and private sectors, as well as on an individual level, to help advance SDG 6-  clean water and sanitation for all?

Josh Newton (12:29
):

Yeah. So I think for me it really comes down to education. And that’s from the individual level to say the company level to the highest political levels. And for water,  it’s about what we call kind of water literacy. It’s understanding water. Understanding the importance of water – not just because it’s what we drink and we need it to survive, but what water provides for us. And that’s health, it provides food, energy, a healthy environment, biodiversity – very important things that we all depend on, that all life depends on. And it’s, you know, starting at a very early age to really educate individuals – so students, children –  about water and then all the way up  to CEOs. 

(13:35):

And this is becoming more evident as companies are starting to realize that not having secure access to water can impact their bottom line. So it’s looking at water risk and water stewardship for companies. And that’s for all ages starting at, you know, kindergarten level all the way up  to senior politicians, CEOs and everybody in between. We really need a water literate public to be able to move forward in a more sustainable way.

Sarah Johnson (14:13
): 

Thank you for sharing that, Josh. And thank you so much again for joining us today. It’s been a pleasure to learn more about your work and the work you’re doing through Josh’s Water Jobs. And to get your insights on the growing global water crisis. Question for just our listeners, those interested in using Josh’s water jobs to find jobs, is it a listserv that you join, or is it just going on the website and searching for jobs directly?

Josh Newton (14:38):  

It’s both. So you can go to www.joshswaterjobs.com, where you will find all the jobs. But then on the website, you can also sign up for a weekly listserv that will provide all the new jobs every week.

Sarah Johnson (14:53): 

Wonderful. Well, thank you again, Josh. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Pathway Podcast to get alerts on new episodes featuring thought leaders working in housing, environmental conservation, climate change and water security.