Klaas Schwartz, new Professor of Water Services Governance, tackles drinking water supply challenges
Klaas Schwartz, recently promoted to Professor of Water Services Governance, considers addressing governance and management challenges faced by water providers as his main task. He was appointed Professor at IHE Delft and the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on 1 April.
“The challenges faced by the drinking water sector both within the Netherlands and in other countries require more than just technological solutions. Many challenges can only be addressed by also developing governance and management solutions in addition to technological solutions,” he said.
Schwartz, who joined IHE Delft in 1998 as a lecturer, has dedicated his career to improving water supply through governance.
“Water services governance deals with issues surrounding the management and governance of drinking water and sanitation. I aim to work together with other sectors to integrate provision of water services into urban development planning,”
Improving climate resilience
Increasing pressure on global water supplies is causing existing water services to reach their limit, 2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water.
“Droughts, pollution of water sources and salt water intrusion negatively affect the quality of water throughout the world. Less than a third of people living in sub-Saharan Africa have access to safely-managed water,” Schwartz said. “In the future, people in the Netherlands will face the same problems. Water suppliers will have to take measures to become climate resilient to address this. This transition will bring many organizational and institutional challenges, which is what I will research.”
“Droughts, pollution of water sources and salt water intrusion negatively affect the quality of water throughout the world. In the future, people in the Netherlands will face the same problems.”
Water governance
After graduating for his Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Twente in 1997, he completed his PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2006. His research focuses on the governance and management of water services in various countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Read research by Klaas Schwartz
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