A cross much of Asia the monsoon rains have arrived. They bring cool relief as each drop of rain rejuvenates parched gardens, reviving the dry and dusty trees offering precious shade in our concrete mega cities.

This relief, however, is often short-lived. In many cities around the region, water is not absorbed due to heavily built-up urban areas, choking the rivers, estuaries, streams, lakes, and wetlands that act as natural water channels of the urban watershed.

As a result, the somber reality of conserving nature and optimizing resources looms with more urgency than ever before. Not long ago, development priorities swerved toward promoting the so-called “green economy.”

The Sustainable Development Goals further strengthened that momentum by articulating goals and targets to guide environmentally-sensitive and equitable growth.

The journey is complicated by rapidly dwindling natural resources from unsustainable consumption patterns... — blog.adb.org/blogs