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Gearing up for future water
challenges
The Third World Water Forum and
beyond
As
we enter the 21st century a global water crisis threatens the security,
stability and environmental sustainability of all nations, particularly those
in the developing world. Critical challenges lie ahead in coping with
progressive water shortages, water pollution, coupled as these are to the slow
progress towards providing water and goods derived from water to those who
need them. One such goal has to be met by the year 2015. The Third World Water
Forum in Kyoto from March 16 to 23, 2003, was one step towards this target as
it analysed the current water problems and identified rain utilisation as one
of the options to meet future challenges. Clean and enough water availability can no longer be taken for granted. Increasing access to safe water is now on the agenda of several developmental organisations. In 2000, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a Millennium Declaration wherein world leaders resolved, “to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water,” and, “to stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources.” Water resources also figured prominently at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. The Plan of Implementation adopted there reiterated the Millennium Development Goal on water and set a new target of halving the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation by 2015. In addition, it recognised the key role of water in combating poverty and in the realms of agriculture, energy, health, biodiversity and ecosystems. Water problems are not only problems of developing countries alone. Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations addressing the delegates of the Third World Water Forum warned that while water problems are most acute in the developing world, developed countries were also at risk [1]. This is why several sessions were dedicated to developed country-specific water issues. The
University of Stuttgart has recognised the importance of rainwater management
in managing water. Ready
to meet the challenge that water management poses, the university offered its
help, knowledge and services at The Third World Water Forum in Kyoto.
Recognising the role of rainwater, Professor (Dr) Ulrich Rott and Dipl.-Ing.
Carsten Meyer remarked that rainwater harvesting needs to be implemented to
solve global water scarcity. Says Rott, “In Germany, we must continue
developing and using our facilities for rainwater harvesting. We should then
be able to export it into those areas of the world where they are needed the
most” [2]. Water
scarcity?
There
is already a global water crisis. With increasing population and the current
development paradigms being followed, this crisis will fast emerge as a
serious and frightening problem of monstrous proportions. But
if we look carefully towards the way in which we manage water, we will
recognise just how much of this water scarcity is actually less to do with the
amount of water available. It is more to do with our lack of respect for water
and poor water management skills. One of the reasons for lack of appreciation
is the low price at which water is available. Keeping up to the Swiss saying,
“What does not cost much is not worth much,” the user cannot appreciate
the worth of water, delivered by pipe into his house. Some
Swiss municipalities serve freshwater without any charge to their citizens.
Communities in several developing countries are of the opinion that there
should free access to water, since water is a natural given good. However,
these communities have no qualms while selling water to others. Where the
water flows downhill and can be used without extra energy and extra cleaning
procedure, this attitude may be justified. However, as soon as communities
residing in cities, without awareness and responsibility, expect this water
consumption rises, as does the cost for cleaning and distributing the water. Too much spoiled water
Another
reason for water scarcity is the lack of cleaning of sewage water. If tap
water is taken out of a river, the trouble and expense to clean it is directly
connected to the absence of care for sewage water upstream. Dr Indira Khurana
from New Delhi, India informs that several times through the year, water
treatment and distribution of municipal waterworks are forced to shut down in
her city, the capital of the country. This is because the waterworks are
simply unable to deal with the highly polluted water of the Yamuna River, the
source of the city’s water supply. Rainwater could help here. For instance,
at Kyoto, a Dutch company offered the RainPC, a Purification Centre for
rainwater. This small facility is a readymade product that produces about 40
litres of drinking water per hour, out of rainwater, using innovative
multistage water treatment technology. And there is a lot of rainwater in
Delhi – about 600 mm per year. Water and citiesBy
the target year of 2015, nearly 60 per cent of the world’s population will
make cities their home. Meeting the rapidly growing urban demand for safe
water and adequate sanitation facilities will be a daunting challenge. Some
German solutions indicate how public need can also be a private pleasure. The
public need of rainwater management in terms of stormwater management can be
achieved along with private pleasure in terms of the savings that can be made,
for instance, by substituting rainwater for drinking water, thereby becoming
exempt from rainwater disposal fees. The Sony-Centre in the centre of Berlin
is one such example [3]. A green rooftop, a delayed drainage system, rainwater
utilisation and water recycling can all result in a saving of drinking water. The
theme of the UN department HABITAT (UN-Centre for Humane Settlements) at the
Worl Water Forum was the water economy in cities of the world. In addition,
the UN-HABITAT, released its first report on Water and Sanitation in Kyoto. It
has teamed up with the Asian Development Bank and other partners to create the
Asian City Programme, focused on pro-poor investment in water and sanitation
in a region that is home to two-thirds of the world’s poor. The government
of the Netherlands also stands solidly behind this initiative. One
issue that grabbed attention was the whole issue of who should be the water
and water-related service provider? Out of the options that are available: the
government, a private company or the community itself, which one should be
preferred? The proportion of the world’s population that is currently served
by formal private water providers is still less than 10 per cent but there are
major regional differences. In many African cities, up to 80 per cent of the
population is serviced by small-scale informal private sector water providers.
Losses often go beyond the costs of water treatment. In cities with proper
sanitation and water supply child mortality rate is in the region of 10 per
1000 live births. In cities without proper provision, infant mortality rates
are 10 to 20 times higher. It is estimated that at least 20 to 30 per cent of
the urban population in middle-income countries purchase their water from
vendors, which is often priced 10 to 100 times higher than the unit price of
water from the house connection. Alternatively in the East African nations
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in households without piped water, women spend 92
minutes daily collecting supplies [4]. Rainwater
Rain
– water from the sky – is a blessing for humankind and nature alike.
However, human activities, have converted this boon into a curse. We have
caused changes in climate that have upset monsoon cycles. We have constructed
mindlessly on floodplains and sealed too many open areas. Yet, we are
surprised if these become flooded when it rains! The
economic damage of our anthropogenic intervention into the natural
hydrological cycle is enormous. The
only remedy is appropriate and efficient rainwater management, in a
decentralised manner. Rain must be efficiently handled if at all water and
sanitation issues are to be suitably addressed. The private and public sectors
must coordinate and implement innovative techniques, such as rainwater
utilisation, rainwater seepage, and restriction of surface sealing. For this,
local authorities must set an example by promoting these measures, which are
state-of-the-art now. For
rain to be effectively used for optimal water management, it is important to
realise that what is needed is a technology that is sound, backed by all
sections of society, specially the user, and, adds value. Examples from
various countries can point out what are successes and failures and what needs
to be done to give rainwater utilisation the status it deserves. Current South
Korea for instance has taken several projects on the subject.
In several schools cisterns to gather rain have been installed.
They will use rainwater and the subject will also be part of the
instruction that the students will recieve. Lessons from Kenya
John
Gould of New Zealand, a project coordinator for developing countries, reports
about the outcome of an effort to provide water in Kenya. In the early 1980s,
centrally manufactured high quality 6 m³ water storage tanks were ordered for
Kilifi district, Kenya [5]. It
was a major donor-initiated project on the Kenyan coast, which supported the
implementation of household-level rainwater storage. The villages clearly
needed improved water sources and the water quality of the water stored in
these tanks was excellent. The concept was thus sound. However, the programme
floundered. The reason: lack of community involvement. The implementing
agency’s failure to engage the community as a full partner in the project
led to several flawed assumptions. To start with, it was assumed that the
recipients of the tanks could afford to pay for them and they understood the
contracts, they were required to sign. These contracts committed householders
to repayments – after a two-year grace period – to cover the cost of the
tank plus an additional 6.5 per cent per annum interest charge. It was also
assumed that participating villagers would purchase and install gutters and
down pipes. The long-term plan was that after an initial input from the donor,
money from the loan repayments would fund further tank construction and the
project would become self-sustaining. Later
on Gould started to build ferrocement tanks in situ with unskilled villagers
and succeeded. However, nobody knows how many pre-manufactured tanks could be
used there if the Kilifi project would have been successful in terms of
acceptance to the financing idea. Lessons from Kyoto
While
it is amply clear that developing countries need appropriate technology
alternatives, the Kenya example, is one amongst many that highlight that
successful technology adoption involves more than the technology itself. For
successful technology transfer, in one of the sessions he was convening at
Kyoto, Dr Steve Halls, director of UNEP International Environmental Technology
Centre (IETC) recommended: - Learning
by doing: Initially to demonstrate success, small-scale achievable water
technology projects at the local level should be undertaken. The key would be
to develop and nurture viable opportunities based on the establishment of
clear criteria and the execution of projects and programmes, which can be
funded and demonstrated. -
Effective
communication: Effective communication between governments, the private sector
and other stakeholders must be facilitated. This includes working with local
governments to promote good governance and partnerships in the water sector. - Information:
Transparent, credible information is essential and hence there is a need to
facilitate the effective use of different assessment and decision support
tools and processes for different situations. There is also a requirement to
establish an information database and clearinghouse on water-related projects,
case studies and best practices, and to bring together information on
technical solutions and action plans on the local level. Establishing
local capacity: Innovative approaches and systems for building the capacity to
solve problems at the local level are also needed. This requires the
establishment of a system which permits people to engage and to learn through
their own experiences, ultimately taking ownership of the decision making
process. The
International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) could play a major roll in order to implement the
above-mentioned recommendations. Forecasts
for the Future
The
future belongs to a decentralised infrastructure, which is flexible enough to
adapt to technical progress when environmental policy, local conditions or
individual user needs change. As far as water and sanitation are concerned,
the future lies in the decentralised management of rainwater, through
utilisation, evaporation, retention and seepage (6). Because the impact of
rainwater utilisation on water supply and disposal is tremendous, such
utilisation occupies a special position, as it will play an important role in
optimising the water infrastructure of the future. The
goal of modern and ecologically responsible cooperation in industry should be
to promote the change to ecologically sound water management. This implies
developing environmentally compatible technologies while preserving natural
resources and then making the systems available at competitive prices. Anyone
who takes ecology seriously will have to carry out some strenuous groundwork
rather than engage in wild activism or look for quick profits. If,
in addition, some industries have the opportunity to initiate new business,
that would serve as an example of how the ecology and economy can harmonise.
Thus, manufacturers from all over the globe must inform about their
products and services offered. With
the community and the industry playing their part, it will then be up to
politicians to attract investment in ecological technology and demonstrate the
benefits to the national economy. If all parties are aware of their
responsibilities, the idealistic targets along the path to environmentally
compatible water utilisation can be attained. Water
facts
Source: Water in Crisis, World Water Council, Marseille 2002
Klaus
W. König
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