There is enough water available to meet human need, but…
Although less than one per cent of water on the Earth is currently accessible for direct human use, there is enough water available to meet human and environmental needs. The challenge is to secure enough water of good quality in a way that doesn’t destroy the very ecosystems, rivers, lakes and aquifers, from which we take our water supplies.
We all live at the water’s edge, whether we are at the end of a pipe or at the bank of a river. We need water for our basic survival, for cultivating crops, for generating energy and for producing the goods that we use every day. However, the use of freshwater ecosystem service is now well beyond levels that can be sustained even at current demands and forecasts consistently suggest that demand for water will continue to rise in most parts of the world.
River fragmentation
Increased demand for water and hydroelectricity
, together with efforts to control flooding and aid river navigation, have led to the construction of dams and other infrastructure on most of the large rivers around the world. Water infrastructure can bring benefits but it also has profound impacts on freshwater ecosystems and on those who depend on services provided by such ecosystems. Dams alter river flow regimes by changing the quantity, timing and quality of water that flows downstream. The largest dams can completely sever ecological connections between upstream and downstream habitats, for migratory fish for instance. Flood defense structures can sever the connection between a river and its floodplain, impacting on wetland habitats. Growing demand for low-carbon energy, water storage capacity and flood control appears to be causing a new drive to build dams and other infrastructure across the globe.
Rivers running dry
In recent decades, increasing abstraction of water has led to some of the world’s largest rivers running dry. The Nile in Egypt, the Ganges in South Asia, the Yellow River in China, and the Colorado River in America are among the major rivers that are so dammed, diverted, or overtapped that little or no fresh water reaches its final destination for significant stretches of time. In order to satisfy increasing demand, water is also being transferred over great distances from one river basin to another, which can compound ecological impacts. Sometimes this is on a large scale, as in the case of the south-north water transfer scheme in China.
Water pollution
There have been some great successes in addressing problems of urban and industrial pollution in developed countries in the last 20 years, often due to stricter legislation and the allocation of very significant budgets to improved wastewater treatment facilities. Nevertheless, pollution remains a major problem for many river systems. After it has been used for domestic, industrial or agricultural purposes, any water that hasn’t evaporated/transpired is normally returned into freshwater ecosystems. These return flows are often loaded with nutrients, contaminants and sediments. They can also be warmer than the receiving waters, for instance when water has been used for cooling purposes in thermal power generation. Every day two million tonnes of sewage and other effluents drain into the world’s waters.
In China, close to 80 percent of the major rivers are so degraded, they no longer support aquatic life. Less than 25 percent of the population of Pakistan has access to clean drinking water, so polluted has that country’s surface water become. Fewer than three percent of Indonesia’s residents are connected to a sewer, leading to severe pollution of nearby lakes and rivers. Seventy-five percent of India’s and Russia’s surface waters are so polluted they should not be used for drinking or bathing. The UN has revealed the unprecedented deterioration of all of Africa’s 677 major lakes and every one of its major rivers. Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile, is being used as an open sewer. In Latin America, more than 130 million people do not have access to clean drinking water because of the pollution of lakes and rivers. Major cities such as Sao Paulo and Mexico City are facing the twin crises of over-consumption of water and mass pollution. Only about two percent of Latin America’s wastewater receives any treatment at all. The situation in the North is better, but not good. Twenty percent of all surface water in Europe is “seriously threatened” and 40 percent of U.S. rivers and streams are too dangerous for swimming, fishing or drinking, as are 46 percent of lakes due to massive toxic run-off from industrial farms.
Virtual water and global trade
With new water footprinting tools we are able to understand the full extent of a nation’s, or a company’s, dependence on global water resources. The numbers can be startling: the water footprint of a cup of black coffee, for instance, is about 140 liters. When goods and services are traded between countries, so is the virtual water they contain. This global trade may add substantially to a country’s water footprint. For example, while an average household in the UK uses around 150 liters per person per day, UK consumption of products from other countries means that each UK resident effectively soaks up 4,645 liters of the world’s water every day. The source of this water is also important. A recent study found that 62 per cent of the UK’s water footprint is virtual water embedded in agricultural commodities and products imported from other countries; only 38 per cent is used from domestic water resources. Most of the virtual water comes from Brazil, Ghana, France, Ireland and India. Brazil provides soybeans, coffee and livestock products, while France provides mainly meat products, and India, cotton, rice and tea.
However, the impact of these footprints may not be reflected in the number of liters of water. A smaller footprint can create more negative impacts in a river basin which is relatively more water stressed. Conversely, certain water footprint figures have large green water components, which may have a positive impact in the production regions by supporting the livelihoods of local communities. What this shows is that UK consumption of food and clothing (and indeed that of all countries that import food and clothing) has an impact on rivers and aquifers globally and is inextricably linked to the continuing security and good management of water resources in other parts of the world.
Water Commons
The commons is a new way to express a very old idea; that some forms of wealth belong to all of us, and that these community resources must be actively protected and managed for the good of all.
The commons are the things that we inherit and create jointly, and that will (hopefully) last for generations to come. The commons consists of gifts of nature such as air, oceans and wildlife as well as shared social creations such as libraries, public spaces, scientific research and creative works.
Water Commons Principles
- Affirm water as a commons, that is, it belongs to everyone and no one, passed onto future generations in sufficient volume and quality
- Ensure that the earth and all of its ecosystems enjoy rights to water for their survival – indeed it is on those ecosystems that human life depends
- Conserve water as society’s first course of action (enforced by law), including suggesting drastic changes to industrial and agricultural practices
- Treat watersheds – the source of water - as a common as well and not simply the water itself
- Encourage local, community management while legally binding communities to respect upstream and downstream neighbors’ rights
- Forge or affirm trans-boundary agreements that respect water sovereignty for both communities and nations
- Provide water as a basic principle of justice, not as an act of charity
- Ensure public delivery and fair pricing of water
- Promote enshrining the right to water in nation-state constitutions, laws and a UN covenant
- Employ innovative legal tools to protect water and manage water as a commons, including through public and community trusts
Recently the United Nations General Assembly voted to affirm “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” It is a great step, but we still have a long way to go.
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