Servicios de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento - La Tribuna del Agua

WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SERVICES
Availability of resources and climate
change.
Barely 5% of the water resources on Earth con-
sist of freshwater (springs, rivers or aquifers). Of this
5%, only 0.3% is easily accessible. The rest can be
found trapped in the polar icecaps or in glaciers.
This tiny percentage is spread around the world in
an unequal way and its distribution over the sea-
sons is also not equal. Climate change is altering
this irregular distribution and it seems there will
be a reduction of resources in many areas where
consumption is great and growth is huge, with the
result that there will be more zones suffering from
water scarcity around the planet. Water resources
pollution as a result of human activities also affects
water use for many purposes – reducing availabi-
lity or making its end use much more expensive.
Water is a finite element which is renewed on
a planetary scale and appears in various forms and
locations. Its cost tends to be subsidised and, unlike
in case of crude oil, it is not worth transporting
it over great distances. This conditions its availability
in some urban locations to the costs and
prices that are determined by the local authorities.
Available accessible resources are being
reduced due to the demand increase and
because of climate change effects.
Population increase that is centred on
cities
6,000 million people inhabit the world today
when just 40 years ago that number was 3,000
million. According to the latest report on popu-
lation evolution from the UN, in the coming 40
years there will be over 9,000 million people on
Earth. Never in human history has population
grown so fast – though there are some apparent
signs of stability – and never has there been such
a notable difference in quality of life between va-
rious regions of the planet.
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POSITIONING DOCUMENT
In 2008, half the population – in other words
3,000 million people – lived in cities and half of
these were to be found in developing countries.
Forecasts point to this trend which if continuing
will mean an increase in the cities dimensions
while suburbs will occupy land currently destined
for crops and woodland.
Furthermore, there is an unstoppable migratory
movement towards the coasts. Currently, 20%
of the world’s population lives less than 25 km
from the coast and 40% at less than 100 km. In
these areas water sources are scarcer and more
complicated to tap – unless desalination processes
are considered and these, while effective, are
currently high energy consumers which means
the cost of running them is often non-viable in
countries that have under-developed economies.
Urban growth of and the population
increase in the cities are making
it ever more difficult to combine supply
and demand while at the same time
concentrating effects on water bodies.
Governability of water and institutional
guidelines
Water as a public service is considered a priori-
ty by relevant authorities. It gains notoriety in po-
litical programs and is the source, in many cases,
of frustation and conflict of authority and gover-
nability between agents and entities that mana-
ge the complete water cycle, in particular in the
urban scene where social implications regarding
management are much greater. All of this leads to
impediments on efficiency which always end up
with repercussions for citizens and the environment
and make it difficult to appropiately look at
matters in the medium- to long-term.
Therefore, the following premises must be
taken into account: