Waterproof is Partners for Water's podcast that travels the globe sharing uplifting stories about how today's water crises are being tackled through smart ideas, local knowledge and international partnerships. Hosted by water expert Tracy Metz, Waterproof delves into crucial water themes with local and international experts, researchers, practitioners and other water professionals.
This is Waterproof Live! – recorded during Waterproof 2026 at the Fokker Terminal in The Hague.
During this special live podcast episode, recorded in the middle of the event floor, Tracy Metz ( https://www.tracymetz.nl/) speaks with experts about one of today’s most urgent water challenges: how do we move from ideas and innovation to implementation and long-term resilience?
Together with Jonathan Groubert and guests Neha Mungekar (IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (https://www.un-ihe.org/)), Philip Minderhoud (Wageningen University & Research (https://www.wur.nl/en) / Deltares (https://www.deltares.nl/)) and Stephen Teeuwen (Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (https://www.eia.nl/en/)), the conversation explores climate adaptation, land subsidence, governance, local collaboration and the human side of water solutions.
As one of the guests puts it:
“You don’t have to be an expert, you need to be human.”
Listen now to this special live edition of the Waterproof Podcast.
23 Apr 2026
Failing Forward
Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” If you agree with that, you’ll love this edition of Waterproof, where we speak with people who learned to ‘Fail Forward’.
We start with Esther Shaylor of UNICEF and the WASH Failure Movement, who talks about the little jerrycan that couldn’t. Zahid Amin Shashoto of Bangladesh’s Uttaran shares the story of well-meant, high-tech water solutions that had unexpected consequences. Lindsey Schwidder of the experimental Green Village in Delft explains that sometimes you need to get wrapped up in red tape to learn how to get free of it the next time around. And Mr. Water himself, Henk Ovink, who says, like Edison, failure is about learning, even between nations. Failing Forward...in this 11th edition of Waterproof.
QUOTES
Esther Shaylor – UNICEF
“We really want to talk about failure. We want to talk about when things go wrong and we want to openly and freely share it so that we can learn from it.”
Zahid Amin Shashoto – Uttaran
“People cannot make a living. My community is primarily farmers, and if farmers doesn't have farmland, it's underwater, they go out”
Lindsey Schwidder – Green Village
“For us it's interesting to look at things that are new, that are not yet applied or not yet validated. And here they are also allowed to fail.”
Henk Ovink – Global Commission on the Economics of Water
“A lot of things go wrong before things really go right. Learning - that is exactly what failure is about.”
19 Mar 2026
Wet Breakthroughs!
What if cities could float? What if we could predict floods before they happen? Or even create water from air?
In the latest episode of our Waterproof podcast, we explore bold ideas and breakthrough innovations that could reshape how we live with water. From floating urban developments and digital twins that help predict floods, to new approaches to water governance and solutions that improve everyday lives.
Featuring insights from:
Rutger de Graaf (Blue 21) on the shift from fighting water to living on water
Mary Matthews (UNDP) on why governance and policy are the real innovations we need
Florian Witsenburg (Tygron) on the role of data and digital twins in managing floods
Rueben Moore (Solaq) on trust and culture in adopting new water sources
Tanya Huizer (Asian Development Bank) on how the Laundry Transformation can improve women’s lives
Together, they show how technology, governance and social innovation can turn water challenges into opportunities.
21 Jan 2026
Early Warning!
Host Tracy Metz interviews Jurjen Wagemaker, Evelyn Aparicio Medrano, Dorien Lugt, Frank Annor, and Sindy Mthimkhulu about using data and technology for effective early warning systems that save lives and bolster water resilience.
16 Dec 2025
The Indigenous Voice
Host Tracy interviews Julia Watson, Dr. Yolanda López Maldonado, Anna-Kari Kroik, Dr. KaiLei’a Duriano, and Dr. Milika Sobey about how indigenous knowledge can solve modern water crises, highlighting the importance of including indigenous voices.
6 Nov 2025
Drinkable Rivers, Swimmable Cities
Activists Matt Sykes, Li An Phoa, Robert MacFarlane, and Harpo 't Hart advocate for legal rights for rivers and nature, striving for clean, swimmable urban waterways in this interview episode.
13 Mar 2025
From Financing Green to Greening Finance
From financing green to greening finance.
The difference is bigger than just syntax. So we speak with FMO, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Bank about the “secret sauce” that allows them to loan money to projects most financiers would consider too risky. Projects like Taprobane Seafood in Sri Lanka, which FMO financed, even after 30 years of political instability. So why did they do it?
We also speak with ABN AMRO Bank Chief economist Sandra Phlippen and Netherlands Water Ambassador Meike van Ginneken about what needs to happen to get banks and funds to be less risk averse when it comes to “greening” their finance.
That’s coming up in this sixth, and last, episode of Waterproof.
26 Feb 2025
Nature's Recipe: Water, Biodiversity and Food
Water, biodiversity and food: it’s Nature’s Recipe. But how do you keep these important drivers balanced, healthy, profitable and resilient? And what do jaguars and strawberries have to do with it?
This episode of Waterproof tells stories all about how water, biodiversity and food meet. Did you know that 70% of the world’s freshwater is used for food production? And that food production causes 70% of biodiversity loss. So, this show is about how scientists, engineers, officials, experts and indigenous people come together to work on solving these profound problems. So, we speak with guests in Ghana, Colombia, Mexico and the Netherlands who show the world CAN be more sustainable, or in the case of the berry growers in Jalisco State, Mexico, a sweeter and juicier place.
29 Jan 2025
Build-Neglect-Repair-Repeat
This episode of Waterproof is all about breaking the Build-Neglect-Repair Cycle. As we have called it: Build Neglect Repair Repeat. With the best intentions, countries in the global north often spend a bundle of money building something that people in developing countries need, or that the donor thinks they need. Then the locals can't maintain it, or can’t afford to, or they don't know how. It falls apart, and the donor either has to come back to repair it - or doesn’t come back at all. It’s a vicious circle .
So we travel to Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mozambique and the city of Chennai in India, to speak with people who are doing their best to break this cycle.
8 Jan 2025
Locals in the lead
Once upon a time, Europeans would turn up in emerging countries with mega-infrastructure projects meant to help people. They were well-meaning, but often deaf to what the local populations wanted or needed. Times have changed and, as you’ll hear in this episode of Waterproof, more and more, the locals run the show!
So, we bike through Amsterdam, where gardens and flood prevention measures are put in by the city and then maintained by Amsterdammers. In Ghana, water projects are consulting village elders to make sure the plans align with their needs - and maybe even benefit from their local knowledge.
And as a massive, but slow new Delta Plan gets underway to control flooding in Bangladesh, we look into small-scale projects implemented by locals that have benefits for their people right now. Locals in the Lead!
3 Dec 2024
The Salty Intruder
This second episode of Waterproof is all about “The Salty Intruder”.
All over the world, arable land is becoming more and more saline, threatening farmers’ livelihoods and our food security. But there are smart, innovative people looking for solutions - and the Dutch are helping, for example with a new Virtual Reality game to teach farmers to plant salt tolerant crops.
In Egypt, where the Nile delta is getting saltier, farmers like Tariq el Arini are switching from water-intensive rice to saline loving potatoes. And Vietnam’s ‘Sokfarm’ has moved from coconut milk, ruined by salt, to coconut sugar, made from the sap of the flower. Even Dutch farmers are struggling to come to terms with the intruder. But then we meet Hans Elenbaas, who has harvested salty sea vegetables his whole life! And he loves it.
WATERPROOF ONLINE (https://partnersforwater.nl/news/waterproof-podcast-launch-21-november-2024/)
PARTNERS FOR WATER (https://partnersforwater.nl/)
KATE NEGACZ (https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/katarzyna-kate-negacz)
PETER PRINS/SALTA (https://salta-cluster.com/contact/)
SOKFARM VIETNAM (https://sokfarm.com/)
A VIDEO ABOUT SOKFARM (https://youtu.be/eynkNEM8MHM?si=eZJO08O984phVaAA)
HANS ELENBAAS/ZEEKRAAL.NL (http://zeekraal.nl)
19 Nov 2024
Let Nature Do It!
For centuries, the Dutch have been good at keeping the water out using increasingly engineered structures of concrete and steel like the Delta Works. And for years, they’ve exported that technology too.
But times are changing. Macho dikes keep the water out, but they’re terrible for nature and biodiversity. The Dutch are - slowly - discovering that you can work with nature rather than against it. It’s called Nature Based Solutions and they work - in the Netherlands, in Ghana, basically everywhere. And that is why this week’s show is called: Let Nature Do It!
We speak with Bregje van Wesenbeeck, who is experimenting with willows and mangroves to see how they stand up to storms. Carel Nobbe of the Blue Deal says: first you have to make sure the people you’re working with are on board. Wetlands ecologist Emmanuel Nii Attram Taye from Ghana is working to save the mangrove forests that protect the coast. For the Netherlands, says Alex Hekman of NL2120, it’s both: Nature-based Solutions are essential, but always in combination with hard infrastructure.
PARTNERS FOR WATER (https://partnersforwater.nl/)
WATERPROOF ONLINE (https://partnersforwater.nl/news/waterproof-podcast-launch-21-november-2024/)
BREGJE VAN WESENBEECK & DELTARES (https://www.deltares.nl/expertise/onze-mensen/bregje-van-wesenbeeck)
CAREL NOBBE AND THE BLUE DEAL
EMMANUEL NII ATTRAM TAYE AND THE CENTRE FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION RESEARCH
(https://cbcr-ug.org/)ALEX HEKMAN AND NL2020 (https://www.sweco.nl/carriere/onze-mensen/alex-hekman/)
14 Nov 2024
Trailer Waterproof Podcast
Waterproof is the six-part Partners for Water podcast that travels the globe sharing uplifting stories about how today’s water crises are being tackled through smart ideas, local knowledge and international partnerships. Hosted by water expert Tracy Metz, Waterproof delves into six crucial water themes with local and international experts, researchers, practitioners and other water professionals. Following each episode, listeners can participate in live meetups with other water professionals to go deeper into the themes.
Listen to the trailer and discover what the “Waterproof” podcast is all about.
Who has been a guest on Waterproof
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Jurjen Wagemaker
Evelyn Aparicio Medrano
Dorien Lugt
Frank Annor
Sindy Mthimkhulu
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
2,455
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
8 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
25
Social presence
0
YouTube
68
Engagement
32
Contact Waterproof
Guest appearances
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