484 Risk, Resilience, and Water Security with Dr. Newsha Ajami

Industrial operations depend on water of a predictable quantity and quality, yet many organizations still treat that reliability as a given. Dr. Newsha Ajami joins Trace Blackmore, CWT, to examine water security as a business continuity issue and resilience as the ability to withstand pressure, maintain operations, and recover quickly when systems fail. 

Connecting Risk, Resilience, and Recovery 

For industrial water users, water security means maintaining access to the quantity and quality required to operate without interruption. That reliability depends on more than the water source itself. Treatment systems require energy, critical processes need backup plans, and organizations must understand what happens when one part of the system becomes unavailable. 

Dr. Newsha connects risk assessment directly to resilience planning. Organizations can reduce exposure by developing portfolios of water sources and solutions, building redundancy, preparing for power disruptions, and allocating resources before a crisis occurs. Recovery should also create an opportunity to reconsider infrastructure, governance, and institutional structures rather than automatically rebuilding the same system in the same way. 

Investing Before the System Fails 

Proactive water decisions often require leadership willing to invest before the immediate need becomes visible. Dr. Newsha highlights Arizona’s decision to store Colorado River allocations underground, Yuba Water Agency’s collaboration with Blue Forest to support watershed and infrastructure resilience, and San Francisco’s on-site water reuse requirements for qualifying buildings. 

These examples demonstrate that resilience can be strengthened through policy, financial models, external partnerships, water reuse, supply planning, and business model innovation. They also show why public agencies and private businesses may approach risk differently—and why each can learn from the other. 

Data Centers as a Water Challenge and Opportunity 

Data center development places new attention on water availability, cooling demand, energy use, and community infrastructure. Rather than treating these facilities only as a threat to local resources, Dr. Newsha encourages water professionals to examine where they are built, how they are cooled, and what innovations could reduce their water and energy requirements. 

Potential strategies include more efficient computing models, chip-level cooling, heat-absorbing materials, recovered-heat applications, water recycling, and co-location with facilities that can use excess heat. Collaboration between data center developers and host communities could also direct new investment toward aging or inadequate water infrastructure. 

Making Water a National Priority 

The Aspen national water strategy initiative brought together participants from agriculture, industry, energy, transportation, engineering, technology, rural and urban communities, Native American communities, and different political backgrounds. The goal was to identify shared principles and actions that could guide water decisions across national, state, and local levels. 

Dr. Newsha argues that water must be managed as a national security issue. That requires investment not only in technology, but also in institutions, policies, business models, research, natural infrastructure, and the governance structures that shape decision-making. 

Industrial water professionals can contribute by helping clients identify vulnerabilities, challenge assumptions, and make reliability investments before an interruption forces the decision. 

Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge! 

 

Timestamps 

01:19 — Trace Blackmore shares highlights from the previous week, including the Fourth of July, the daytime edition of The Hang with AWT Young Professionals, and the Scaling Up Nation’s role in raising the bar across industrial water treatment. 

03:05 — Trace recognizes several July 10 observances before turning the spotlight toward the water treatment industry’s own annual celebration. 

04:36 — Industrial Water Week 2026 returns October 5–9 with dedicated episodes covering pretreatment, boilers, cooling, wastewater, and careers in industrial water. 

06:38 — Words of Water with James  

09:15 — Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals

11:01 — Interview with Dr. Newsha Ajami, founding director of the Risk Resilience and Recovery Program at Stanford University, about water security, resilient infrastructure, risk planning, recovery, and the policies and financial systems that shape water decisions

12:17 — Dr. Newsha explains how her engineering and hydrology background expanded into water policy, regulation, and infrastructure finance. 

13:50 — Water’s everyday invisibility can create a false sense that reliable access will always continue without deliberate planning or investment. 

15:35 — Water security for industrial users means maintaining the quantity and quality required to operate reliably and avoid business interruptions. 

16:23 — Resilience requires systems that can tolerate pressure, maintain operations through redundancy, and recover quickly after failure. 

17:45 — Risk, resilience, and recovery connect through better vulnerability assessment, diversified water sources, backup plans, and improved rebuilding decisions. 

21:26 — Utilities, insurers, financial institutions, nonprofits, and government agencies all influence how resilient water systems become. 

22:09 — Reactive business models and inflexible funding structures often delay resilience investments until after a disaster has occurred. 

25:51 — Arizona’s groundwater storage, Yuba Water Agency’s watershed investments, and Moulton Niguel Water District’s operational changes demonstrate different approaches to long-term resilience. 

29:45 — San Francisco’s onsite water reuse requirements show how policy can support development while reducing pressure on centralized water supplies. 

38:32 — The Aspen National Water Strategy seeks to create a nonpartisan roadmap shaped by diverse regions, sectors, communities, and political perspectives. 

41:13 — Dr. Newsha explains why water should be treated as a national security issue and why innovation must extend beyond technology to policies, institutions, and business models. 

43:44 — Stanford’s Risk Resilience and Recovery Program examines how governance, insurance, finance, and legislation affect preparation for natural hazards and disaster recovery. 

45:46 — Dr. Newsha invites listeners to connect through Stanford and LinkedIn to follow the program’s research, partnerships, and future events. 

47:51 — Trace summarizes the conversation, emphasizing risk awareness, system redundancy, improved recovery planning, and collaboration among all stakeholders. 

51:00 — Trace encourages professionals to apply past operational data, involve every relevant stakeholder, and help more water treaters discover the Scaling UP! H2O podcast. 

 

Quotes 

“And even when they break, be able to bounce back quickly.” 

“Data centers, a challenge and an opportunity.” 

“But we use we have to use this opportunity to, we have to use this as an opportunity to change, to do better, to build our infrastructure.” 

“Water is an invisible connector across everything we have, we do, we depend on.” 

“We do talk about water, but we do not manage water as a national security issue. And water is a national security issue.” 

 

Connect with Dr. Newsha Ajami

Email: [email protected]  

Website: Stanford University  

LinkedIn: Newsha Ajami, PhD | LinkedIn 

 

Guest Resources Mentioned  

ASPEN – National Water Strategy 

Governance for Risk, Resilience, and Recovery (GR3) 

Aspen National Water Strategy Initiative 

Arizona Water Banking Authority — Water Storage 

Blue Forest — Yuba I Forest Resilience Bond  

Dr. Newsha Ajami — Stanford Profile 

Article 12C of the San Francisco Health Code 

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — Onsite Water Reuse  

Yuba Water Agency — Forest Resilience Bond 

 

Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned 

AWT (Association of Water Technologies) 

Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses 

Submit a Show Idea 

The Rising Tide Mastermind

 

Words of Water with James McDonald

Today's definition is water lost from a cooling tower as liquid droplets entrained in the exhaust air. It is independent of water lost by evaporation. 

 

2026 Events for Water Professionals 

Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE. 

 

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