The next decade will not be judged by future generations on fractional improvements in efficiency and affordability, according to AWA President and SUEZ CEO Kevin Werksman – it will be judged on how we choose to value water, and how prepared we are to commit and invest in the approaches and technologies required to bring that value to life.
The sector is facing a convergence of pressures that are familiar but more complex together: ageing assets, climate variability, growth, affordability and capability constraints. Yet beneath each of these sits a more fundamental question.
“One of the top priorities is the conversation we need to have around the value of water. That means our communities, that means our government stakeholders, as well as ourselves,” he said.
“What we value in terms of quality of our services, the quality of drinking water, the management of wastewater, the health of rivers and environments, and the impact on our economy, not just from an affordability perspective but to enable prosperity.
“But the conversation also needs to be honest and transparent on what will be needed over the next 10 years in order to maintain the current level of services, and whether this is the right level of service.”
While the cost of service is one element of the challenge, it is also about improving Australians’ understanding of their water ecosystem and what they expect from it, and the resilience of services that are often taken for granted.
Werksman said these themes are not new, just more urgent: “The same things were important 10 years ago. The difference is that today, we have come to a pinch point.”
Assets across the country are moving deeper into renewal cycles and replacement costs are rising. At the same time, population growth is reshaping infrastructure demand, economic demands are growing for industries such as mining, energy and data centers, and climate impacts are increasingly influencing both urban and regional systems. Individually, each challenge is manageable. Together, they require clearer choices.
“Our biggest challenge is engaging in that conversation,” Werksman said, “and in having the honest conversation on how we thread the needle to ensure we meet our goals.”
For Werksman, the “pinch point” is not abstract. It is structural.
“We’ve come to a pinch point where we have ageing assets, and assets at that point where their replacement cost is higher than the available budget. And this issue is increasing dramatically,” he said.
This is occurring at the same time as cities expand and infrastructure footprints stretch, as economic demands grow, and as we increase our expectations on service delivery and reduce environmental impact. The decisions we make now will have lasting cost and resilience implications.
“If we don’t engage in the right conversations around that, we’ll be faced with an even bigger affordability challenge,” Werksman said, and the sector needs to be involved in those planning decisions “so that we know the real trade-offs.”
Climate change adds another layer of complexity. The impacts are now visible in both metropolitan and regional communities, influencing asset performance, environmental health and service reliability.
“From that perspective alone, sadly, we’re not going to have the same level of service and level of environmental health as we have in the past,” Werksman said. “We are faced with change. How do we navigate that change?”
For Werksman, the starting point is transparency.
“What’s the gap between affordability and what we need?” he asked. “How do we lift either our affordability appetite or make choices on the risk appetite needed?”
While these are not easy discussions, Werksman said they are necessary if the water community is to make deliberate decisions about service standards, resilience and long-term investment.
Werksman said it’s also important to ensure the conversation about value also extends beyond balance sheet and the urban service environment, and into the issue of regional equity.
“From a national perspective, we need transparency from an equity perspective. We think of ourselves as the ‘fair go country’, but our level of service is not equal across the country,” he said.
Regional and remote communities often operate with different service levels, capabilities and access to expertise. Werksmand said bringing that disparity into clearer view is about ensuring policy and investment decisions are informed by reality.
“We need to shine a light on that so that we can make the right choices,” he said.
As AWA President, Werksman sees the Association is set to play a more structured role in helping the water community confront these issues head on.
“AWA’s true north remains a sustainable water future. What has sharpened in its new Strategy 2030 is the focus on impact,” Werksman said.
“Our vision now is to step in and inspire system change. Inspiring system change isn’t doing something different from what we’re currently doing. It’s putting more structure around it, more purpose around it, and tracking how we’re making that impact.
“The difference between inspiring and transforming is taking that more active role and being the catalyst for change.”
For Werksman, moving towards transformation means connecting stakeholders, curating insight and providing clarity about where the sector stands and where it needs to go; it represents an actively managed journey, where information shared from one event or connection is synthesized and carried forward to the next.
“Our role as AWA is to provide the information, the transparency of what exists to help to inspire change,” he said.
“That includes strengthening digital capability, building human capital and ensuring that collaboration extends beyond traditional technical boundaries. A sustainable water future involves planners, operators, asset managers, finance professionals and community voices working together across the whole of life of infrastructure. AWA represents everyone who cares about water.”
Werksman said Ozwater’26 will provide an opportunity to test many of these ideas in practice as a meeting place for critical discussions.
Australia is entering what Werksman describes as a “water wave” of investment and projects, where financial constraints and workforce capability are both under pressure, while delivering efficiently and effectively remains crucial.
“How do we do that better?” he asked. “How do we get better at sharing openly the purpose of the investments early on and allowing interaction from all stakeholders around that? How do we ensure we’re getting the best whole-of-life outcomes? How do we ensure we’re considering all innovations and solutions, including nature-based solutions, early enough to implement them?
“We as a sector pride ourselves on being collaborative. But I’d love us to ask ourselves: are we connected or are we truly collaborative? And what does true collaboration mean?
“Do we want to change that narrative in the water space? If so, how? I hope these are the types of questions and conversations unfolding at Ozwater’26.”
Interested in learn more about what’s on offer at Ozwater’26? Take a look at the program here.