Water storage takes the first place

What is the future of water storage?

What the Future Has in Store: A New Paradigm for Water Storage calls for developing and driving multi-sectoral solutions to the water storage gap, taking approaches that integrate needs and opportunities across the whole system, including natural, built, and hybrid storage, to support many instead of few, for generations to come.

How is water storage developing across the world?

While this may seem like a simple principle, in reality, storage is being developed across the world, across a range of sectors, by a range of stakeholders without one authority in any country with a view of where storage exists. We need a rapid mapping of water storage on a basin by basin basis.

How can we advance a new paradigm for water storage?

The first step towards advancing a new paradigm for water storage is addressing what we think to be storage. We need to look at all storage types, large and small, hybrid, natural and built, storage above ground and underground.

Why do we need water storage?

We also need water storage to mitigate climate change, we need to be able to generate hydropower, we need to be able to enable wind and solar energy to connect to the grid, and we also need to be able to store energy through pump storage. This gap is growing, and the current approaches are not working, something needs to change.

Why is freshwater storage important?

Freshwater storage is at the heart of adapting to climate change, most obviously by saving water for drier times and reducing the impact of floods. Water is at the center of economic and social development; it influences whether communities are healthy places to live, good places to grow food, or have reliable clean energy.

Can stored water be carried over for future use?

Stored water could be carried over for future use when capacity existed; however, carryover water was first to be spilled for flood control. Flood control releases, which are required when reservoir storage encroaches into the flood control pool, were divided among the storage accounts of each water demand.