By Andy Citawarman, GCIEP Indonesia Team, Mott MacDonald
Last week, I had the privilege of representing GCIEP at the ADB Water and Urban Development Forum 2025, which took place from 27 to 30 May 2025 at the ADB headquarters in Manila. With the theme of “Valuing Water and Enhancing Livability in Asia and the Pacific,” the forum brought together global leaders, development partners, practitioners, academia, think tanks, students and innovators to tackle the region’s most pressing urban and water challenges.
Innovation Marketplace: Surabaya in the spotlight
On 29 May, I presented the Surabaya Drainage Master Plan Climate Assessment at the Innovation Marketplace. The presentation showed how our team was able to deliver valuable work, including a city-scale climate assessment, to the Surabaya City Government in just five weeks. We achieved this using an innovation called “Fathom”, which provided flood depth predictions for three types of flooding (pluvial, fluvial and coastal). This enabled us to share knowledge and recommendations with the government relating to nature-based solutions, sustainable urban drainage systems and climate-smart infrastructure, including advanced flood early warning system.
The audience was fully engaged, with insightful questions from representatives of the Singapore Water Association, Xylem, Egis and ADB’s Urban Water team. The interest in Surabaya’s climate-resilient drainage planning reaffirmed the growing recognition of integrated, data-driven approaches to urban flood resilience.
Rethinking resilience: A provocative panel
I also attended a thought-provoking panel discussion led by John Warburton, FCDO’s Climate Action for Resilient Asia (CARA) Leader, titled “Who Pays for Tomorrow: Rethinking Resilience in an Ever-Changing World.” During the session, I posed a question to panellists from ADB, World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank about Greece’s climate resilience tax, which replaced the country’s tourism tax in 2024. Two panellists responded positively, expressing interest in exploring the concept further – highlighting the need for innovative financing mechanisms in climate adaptation.
Building bridges: Networking for impact
My main task during the forum was to represent FCDO and GCIEP at the FCDO booth, which covered GCIEP, CARA and Urban Resilience Trust Fund (a subset of CARA funds available for ADB to draw upon). Beyond the sessions, I had the opportunity to connect with colleagues from ADB, K-Water, Manila Water, Philippines Government, CARA, GGGI, the British Embassy in Manila, the GCIEP Philippines Team and many others. These conversations sparked new interest in GCIEP’s work on urban flood resilience, land value capture, transit-oriented development and waste management. The energy was infectious, and the potential for future collaboration is exciting.
The forum was not only a platform for sharing knowledge but also a catalyst for action. I left Manila inspired by the collective commitment to building more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities across Asia and the Pacific.
Let’s keep the momentum going!
Published
05/06/25