Water infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region is shifting from predominantly short-term benefit planning and development, to a more strategic and long-term benefit planning concept that also addresses ecological efficiency in economic growth.

UNESCO: Water resources in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly threatened by pollution and vulnerable to natural disasters. | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

This will require changes in zoning and planning, maybe at a short-term cost to economic growth.

ECONOMIST: The threat grows from rising water and sinking buildings

Mr Guenier stressed that a "significant number" of big businesses were planning for the short-term problem at midnight on 31 December 1999.

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