Recently, María Paula Molano has had to buy enormous quantities of bottled water, not only because the “unbearable heat” that afflicts Mexico City, but also because rationing has affected the bar where he works as a bartender, so to maintain the business he had to opt for “the most expensive, but most effective option.”
Thousands of kilometers away, in Bogotá, Enrique Melo also deals with restrictions on the drinking water service, amid attempts by Colombian authorities to try to increase the level of their reservoirs. Now, he usually saves a certain amount of this resource for the day when his household has to live this measure: “At first, it was strange because we never lacked water. Now, we get used to it at home. What we do is prepare.”
Although they are two completely different and distant cities, both fight for the same objective: preserving water levels, in the face of its scarcity, a concern that, according to the experts consulted by the Voice of Americais latent throughout Latin America.
Data from Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas of the World Resources Institute indicate that 25 countries, home to a quarter of the world’s population, face extremely high water stress each year, regularly consuming almost all of their available water supply. And at least 50% of the world’s population (about 4 billion people) lives in conditions of severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. And by 2050, an additional 1 billion people are expected to live with extremely high water stress.
According to a survey carried out by the VOA Of around 1,300 people, 76% say they are very concerned about a possible water shortage that may occur in their country.
What’s going on?
For the experts, environmental phenomenainappropriate public policies and the change that societies and industries have undergone influence the problem to increasingly increase.
According to Juan Carlos Bello, regional director and representative of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) for Latin America and the Caribbean, the world is facing a triple environmental crisis, at the planetary level, as a result of the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity and pollution.
So, for the particular case of water, it is observed a global warming trajectorywhich transforms all the climatic processes of the planet, which translates into extreme events that are added to phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, in very short periods, and where “droughts are increasingly more intense and periods of rain They are much more intense.”
Additionally, there is a loss and transformation of natural ecosystems, indiscriminate spending by human beings and their economic and productive activities.
On the other hand, Víctor Arroyo, director for Spain, Portugal and Latin America of Isle Utilities, a company specialized in innovation and adoption of hydraulic technologies, emphasizes that “the population, economic development and distribution of water is not homogeneous.”
Normally, says the expert, there are areas in which economic activity takes place, especially agriculture and other industrial activities, where there is not abundant water, and there the great “challenge” consists of taking it from the source to where it is needed, which which involves “very expensive” engineering works, which are also “complex, involving many interested parties and which usually, or on many occasions, are not all aligned.”
An explanation that Miguel Doria, UNESCO regional hydrologist for Latin America and the Caribbean, agrees with, pointing out that Latin America is the most urbanized region on the planet: “More than 85% of the population of Latin America lives in cities and this means that there is demographic concentration, where water resources are often not available. I mean, there are quite a few countries where the capital is in massive drought, but to the north, south, etc. there may even be floods.”
Although it occurs in several areas of the region, one of the examples, according to the Isle expert, is Peru, “where all the agricultural and population development is in the coastal areas, which are dry areas and you have other areas in the country, more towards the Andes and the Amazon, which are very rich in water.”
Doria also emphasizes that times have changed. The population has increased and industries are increasingly producing more, which generates greater water consumption: “ We cannot continue thinking about water resources as we did in 1900, because then there is a quite notable reduction, ten times less water per capita,” says the expert.
In other words, “we were fewer people, less water was used, it rained more” and the current governance, regulatory frameworks and water culture “come from a framework of abundance and the framework has changed and will continue to change,” he adds.
Affected countries
According to Bello, there are regions and countries that “were always considered rich in water, where water was thought to be surplus, but it is no longer surplus.” For example, in Uruguay, which “was considered part of a hydrographic basin… and, at this moment, the challenge they are facing is drought, and these are things that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.”
As unthinkable as the ‘salt water’ crisis experienced there a year ago. The tap water in Montevideo and the neighboring departments had such an amount of sodium and chlorine that the authorities raised the maximum limits allowed for drinking water.
“It was quite an event because we are not used to it happening,” Uruguayan Cecilia Álvarez told the VOAwho recalled that the crisis disrupted daily life and the first reaction was to stock up on bottled water, causing “rows and rows” to buy it and even a shortage of it.
“There were complicated schools to supply water to their children,” said the mother of two daughters, who believes that, although “it has been a lesson” and “it left a warning,” there is still a lot to be done to raise awareness, not only at home, but by the authorities.
Bello also explains that, in all countries in the region, the impacts of climate events have generated serious crises, from Mexico to the Southern Cone.
“Mexico is going through a very serious water crisis. In Central America, there is the entire dry corridor… where even many people, especially from rural areas, are having to migrate… And, fundamentally, it is not only because of the temperature, but because of the lack of water. “They can’t farm, they don’t have access to drinking water, to anything.” Another example is some countries in the Andes, such as Peru, and countries in the Southern Cone, such as Chile and Argentina, he adds.
But Bello emphasizes that one of the most dramatic cases is the Brazilian Amazon, one of the richest regions in water worldwide, which “is facing in some parts a very serious desertification process. So, it is “worrying” to see how these types of “are becoming landscapes that tend toward the desert.”
Will rationing continue?
Experts consider that, if we do not act quickly with local and global measures, rationing will become increasingly continuous and common, since “the productive systems, industries, buildings, infrastructure, are not designed to take care of the water” and when extreme situations reach, “we are terribly vulnerable,” says Bello.
“As these levels of consumption and environmental degradation continue, and global warming continues to increase,” these measures will become more common and last longer, he added.
Arroyo shares this opinion, saying that if public policy decisions are not made in time, they are due to a lack of planning.
Both the Mexican María Paula and the Colombian Enrique say they feel comfortable with the measure and are already used to it. In the case of the bartender, according to what she told the VOA, the establishments where he works have chosen to share water jugs to save money “because it is an extra expense that is not contemplated.” Although he confesses that they still face two challenges: finding ice and serving customers with non-functioning bathrooms, while they are with water restrictions.
For the people of Bogotá, “it is a way in which we can help society and our future (…) Be aware that we must save water and not waste.”
How to prepare?
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the aim of maintaining temperatures, multiply efforts to recover natural ecosystems, move towards a transition in the adoption of circular economy models to rationalize and reuse water, especially the agricultural and livestock producers, which are one of the sectors that generate the most consumption, are some measures that can help mitigate the problem, says Bello.
For Arroyo, there are “emergency solutions”, technology that can help reduce water consumption by agriculture, by populations, reduce leaks, water losses in canalization systems and distribution of the liquid, and that have been taken in drastic episodes.
According to Doria, in addition to current technologies, there is also “an enormous cultural wealth” that has been lost and is based on ancestral hydrotechnologies that have been known for several years and have been abandoned. He also emphasizes the importance of investing and research, taking into account that the world is changing very quickly.
For Arroyo, from the public sphere, adequate hydrological policies must be generated, which must have a long-term vision – three decades or more – that allow water to be available to everyone. But, in addition, “promote education” and manage the economic incentives that affect citizens who become aware of the water resource.
Responsible citizens
Experts also agree that it is vital to have responsible and conscious consumption.
Andrea Devis Morales, doctor in Oceanography and professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Universidad del Rosario, explained to the VOA that a normal consumption of a family made up of three or four people “should not exceed 15 cubic meters of water. That is equivalent to people’s bathrooms, the kitchen, the toilet.”
But, according to the expert, in cases of rationing, a person should spend a maximum of about 30 liters of water. Possibly, she added, we could talk about up to 100 liters of water, but not in a savings situation.
In that sense, he says that it is necessary for each person to know their consumption, but in general, establish measures, such as taking showers of a maximum of three to five minutes, brushing your teeth with a glass of water and keeping the faucet closed during the process. Turn off the dishwasher faucet while soaping the dishes and other kitchen utensils and, when rinsing, do not open the faucet as much as possible, but only as much as necessary.
In addition, wash clothes between one and two days a week, with the appliance capacity at its maximum. Check for possible leaks in the home and companies must have initiatives that save the resource.
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