Delivering safe and reliable drinking water is not just amatter of providing services; it also involves protecting the water resources on which water supply systems rely. Sometimes the most effective - andcost-effective - way to insure reliable supplies is to focus on protection and restoration of watersheds. For example, by protecting the Catskill/Delaware and Croton watersheds, covering nearly 5,200 square kilometers, the New York City water supply system was able to deliver safe water to its millions of residents by minimizing its filtration costs (it now filters only 10% of its water supply). Now, one of the world's largest and most influential conservation organizations, the Nature Conservancy, is promoting watershed protection as a means of securing water supplies all over the world, including in low- and middle-income countries, through its Resilient Watersheds Strategy and Water Funds. In this episode of the REAL-Water podcast, we are joined by the Nature Conservancy's Brooke Atwell to learn about how nature-based solutions are restoring freshwater yields, improving livelihoods, sequestering carbon and protecting ecosystems. More information on TNC's efforts to support nature-based solutions can be found at its Nature for Water Facility Website. We also invite listeners to hear more about the Cape Town, South Africa Water Fund as featured on the Unsung Science podcast with David Pogue.

Rural water economics are different - and incredibly challenging. Can serving rural customers in Africa possibly be a commercially viable proposition? A bold new arrangement in Benin will help answer this question. In this second full episode of the REAL-Water podcast, we speak with Thierry Barbotte and Mikael Dupuis of UDUMA, a subsidiary of France's Odial Solutions and sister company to Vergnet Hydro. UDUMA has been providing rural water supply services under government contracts in Burkina Faso and Mali for several years, and has just been awarded two out of three regional concessions to operate and maintain water supply systems for Benin's rural population - representing a combined service area with on the order 6 million people. A regional rural water system operating contract of this scale is largely unprecedented. We talk with Thierry and Mikael about how this public-private partnership came into being and why they are convinced it will be successful.

In Southeast Asia, rural water service delivery in low- and middle-income countries has accelerated more rapidly than anywhere in the world. What can we learn from the region's recent water sector history that can be applied elsewhere (as well as continuing it on its impressive trajectory)? In this first full episode of the REAL Water podcast, we speak with Hubert Jenny, whose career in the Asian water sector includes positions with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Investment and Infrastructure Bank, and the Green Climate Fund. We talked to Hubert about the $1 billion loan program for the Vietnamese water sector that he developed and managed - its goals, how it came to fruition, and what we can learn from it, looking through our regular lenses of governance, financing, and innovation.

Ranjiv Khush and Jeff Albert of the Aquaya Institute introduce the podcast of the USAID-funded REAL Water project, a research effort dedicated to solving one of the great development challenges of our time: delivering safe and reliable water supply services to the hundreds of millions of rural citizens who do not yet enjoy it.