Jacques Yves Cousteau wrote once that, as a society, “we forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one”. Indeed we do, and often. Keeping one step ahead of a society’s demand for water is an obligation shared by a small number of people in our society, and within that sub-section of management within water utilities are an even smaller number of those with the time and responsibility for strategy setting. As society changes, so too our appetites and needs. Predicting these with reasonable confidence is no easy feat.