Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

2 9 6 / M A N A G E M E N T C H A L L E N G E S : S T E W A R D S H I P A N D G O V E R N A N C ESharing Water: Defining a Common InterestBox 12.1: Competition for water in Valle Province, ColombiaThe small town of Felidia uses a mountain stream as thesource of its piped gravity water supply system. Thecommunity has installed a multistage biological treatmentsystem. The catchment area of the mountain stream isused for forestry and irrigated agriculture, to whichfertilizers and pesticides are applied. The area is home tosome 100 families who use the same stream for drinkingwater, tapping into it with either individual gravity systemsor small group systems. They are not connected to themain gravity supply, as this would involve pumping. Thecatchment area is also becoming popular with people fromthe city of Cali (2 million inhabitants) for weekendrecreation. Wealthy inhabitants have summer houses there.The water and land use patterns of these differentinterest groups affect both the quality and the quantity ofthe water. The houses in the catchment area have latrinesand pigsties draining directly into the river area. Soilerosion from land clearing for forestry and agriculture hasincreased the turbidity of the water to such an extent thatthe treatment system gets clogged. It is increasinglydifficult to deal with the chemical and bacteriologicalpollution, and women in particular suffer from the poorquality of the water.The rich summer-house owners use large volumes ofwater, primarily to fill swimming pools, and as the greatestbeneficiaries of the flat water rate, they have so farresisted all attempts by the permanent population of thetown to change the tariff system aided by their strongeconomic and political ties. The people most affected bythe competition for resources are the women of thecommon town households who initiated and built thesupply. Their water is inadequate in quantity and qualitybecause, unlike weekend visitors, they require water sevendays a week. There are no large reservoirs for storage andsedimentation and the low tariff prohibits enlarging thecapacity of the scheme. Efforts are now being made toseek compromises through a more integrated watershedmanagement in which all interest groups are involved.Source: Van Wijk et al., 1996.chapter 6 on the protection of ecosystems, but it is essential tobear in mind the needs of the environment when discussing theissues surrounding water sharing. One example of the cost of suchneglect comes from the Florida Everglades in the United States.Channelling flow within the wetland to satisfy human needs forwater supply and land development, has dried up the Everglades.Today values have changed and the costs of undoing these previous‘improvements’ are being paid. A thirty-year agreement to ensurean adequate water supply for the restoration of the Everglades hasnow been signed by the federal and state governments. Water madeavailable through the restoration plan will not be permitted for aconsumptive use or otherwise made available by the state of Floridauntil such time as sufficient reservations of water for the restorationof the natural system are made. The US$7.8 billion Evergladesrestoration plan will restore about one million hectares of theEverglades ecosystem, providing the region with an additional 700 Mm 3of freshwater per day. Estimates put the total cost of the restorationin excess of US$20 billion, but this value is similar in magnitude tothe annual income from tourism in Florida, which would besignificantly reduced if the environmental degradation continues.Meanwhile, in South America it is proposed to convert theParaguay-Paraná Hidrovia river system into an industrial shippingchannel to expand agribusiness and mining activities. This couldhave irreversible impacts on the Brazilian Pantanal, the world’slargest wetland area, and other valuable ecosystems in Argentina,Bolivia and Paraguay. The 300-member Ríos Vivos coalition ofenvironmental, human rights and indigenous groups are opposingthe project. Fortunately, at the same time a project funded by theGlobal Environment Facility (GEF) has resulted in the implementationof a detailed watershed management programme for the Pantanaland the Upper Paraguay River basin. Project activities will seek toenhance the environmental functioning of the system through thestrengthening of basin institutions, capacity-building, publicparticipation and integration of environmental concerns intoeconomic development activities.In Africa, the Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM), withGEF support, has conducted a transboundary diagnostic assessmentthat will lead to a strategic environmental programme to improvemanagement of the basin’s resources. The objectives of this projectare firstly to develop methodologies to promote sustainable use ofnatural resources in critical areas, and secondly to develop