'The City of the Future' is an attempt to project the needs of cities 30-50 years from now. SWITCH (Sustainable Water management Improves Tomorrow’s Cities’ Health) aims at developing, applying and demonstrating a range of scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions towards achieving sustainable and effective urban water management schemes.

The project is a partnership between the European Union and a consortium of 32 world wide partners and will run for five years. It has a budget of 22 million Euros, mainly funded by the European Union as part of its efforts to promote efficient water use and integrated water management. These are needed to address growing pressures from population growth, urbanisation and climate-change. The idea for the project was developed by IRC, which invited UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education to take the lead.

The project was presented at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City, and the launch meeting with all 32 partners took place in Delft from 18-21 April 2006.

Challenges

The project will develop scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions that contribute to effective urban water management schemes. It deals with challenges related to the quantity and quality of water, ineffective sanitation systems, poor governance and costly water management. SWITCH is expected have wide ranging practical results in cities. Richard Meganck, the director of UNESCO-IHE, said: "The City of the Future depends on the success of this project".

Using innovative approaches, SWITCH is designed to cover all elements of the urban water cycle: water demand management, storm water management, waste prevention, treatment and re-use, governance and asset management, river rehabilitation and eco-hydrology.

Three Activities, Nine Demonstration Cities

SWITCH will test new solutions in nine demonstration cities: Accra (Ghana), Alexandria (Egypt), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Beijing (China), Birmingham (UK), Hamburg (Germany), Lodz (Poland), Saragossa (Spain) and Tel Aviv (Israel). Research, training and demonstration projects will be carried out by partners. Learning Alliances will be set up to ensure a smooth exchange of knowledge and experience between activity clusters and between demonstration cities.