Andriy Demydenko

During the last 30+ years, all my activities were dedicated to research, management, assessment, evaluation, and capacity development in environmental and water governance in the water-energy-food nexus. As a Ph.D. physicist, I have academic experience in introducing risk-based integrated management into national and regional sustainable development planning, water security governance, disaster risk management, and building resilience to climate change at the central and community levels. As a certified consultant and trainer, I am experienced in the development and evaluation of project proposals and project management of UN, WB, OECD, EU, USAID funded projects on environmental planning, Integrated Water Resources Management, Post Disaster Needs Assessment, flood/drought risk management planning, Social and Environmental Impact Assessment / Strategic Environmental Assessment of regional development programs, climate change adaptation, building resilience, early warning, preparedness and response to climate change impacts, assessment of the degree of national implementation of water-related UN SDGs 6, 11, 13, 16, 17; institutional gap analysis of adaptation in NDCs and DRR strategies; implementation of EU acquis and MEAs (UNECE Water Convention, UNFCCC, UNCCD, Sendai Framework) in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries, application/transposition of EU Water Framework, Flood, Strategic Environmental and Environmental Impact Assessment Directives tools and instruments For the first time, I faced water security controversies more than 30 years ago, after the Chornobyl disaster, as a member of the Task Force to assess the distribution of radioactive contamination in water bodies. Once Deputy Prime Minister asked our experts – What is the contamination in Dnipro river (the main source of water for Ukraine)? The answer was a perfect example of an ecological approach – Good for drinking but not for irrigation. Deputy Prime Minister said – As a former scientist, I understand what does it mean trophic chains but I do not endorse your recommendation as I do not know how can I explain it to common people. Since that time, in different capacities, I am fighting this false sense of water security as the absence of risk (so-called “zero-risk approach”) by promoting instead understanding of water security as the management of acceptable levels of all water risks where risk is a product of two factors – likelihood and impact, and therefore there are two alternative ways of elimination of risk.