Servicios de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento - La Tribuna del Agua

WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SERVICES
economic activity in a region – also tending to be
found within urban and suburban zones. Contin-
gency plans or insufficiency through shortage or
drought highlight the priorities for use and make
the possibility of exchanging or transferring rights
of use between urban and agricultural sectors
clear, both in interim situations and within stable
frameworks of resource reassignment.
Water efficiency should be a basic indicator
when evaluating options for resources reassign-
ment and global availability, not forgetting op-
tions for improvement in this search whose achie-
vement neither need be immediate nor cheap.
Climate change could alter the conditions of
resource availability and this must be taken into
account when planning the evolution of urban
systems. This would be through reinforcing the
principles of evaluation and risk management for
insufficiency and improving adaptation procedu-
res for possible scenarios that have not been pre-
dicted and will be necessary to face.
Water loss in urban and irrigation systems re-
present a potentially large volume of recoverable
resources, which in relative equivalent terms would
mean greater contributions in the case of irrigation
systems. However, it is important not to confuse
real water loss within infrastructure with apparent
losses due to inadequate equipment, control pro-
cedures and measures or fraud that hasve been
ignored. Therefore, once real losses have been
carefully assessed, it is necessary to ensure their
reduction is feasible economically and environ-
mentally within the outlooks and scenarios con-
templated vis a vis to other alternative possibilities.
It is also important to check – when dealing with
considerable quantities of water such as irrigation
improvements – that environmental effects are not
generated making implementation unadvisable.
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POSITIONING DOCUMENT
As all traditional and alternative resources are
valid tools to ensure the right of access to water
and its availability in sufficient quantities, new
alternative resources – desalination and water reclamation
– are good ways to protect the traditional
natural resource. Their future depends on
their energy viability – with all the environmental
implications and increase in total costs – and their
acceptance by society. Liquid waste is a component
in the water equation that increases with
urbanisation and economic growth. Reuse and
desalination are a resource with less uncertainty,
found within the area itself and unlimited by political
issues – whether national or international.
Efficiency improvement in all water
systems must be an alternative to be considered
prior to mobilising resources, but
no option should be excluded if is sustainable.
Alternative resources imply changes
in the water paradigm and energy use and
should be valued equally, though their acceptance
by society should be promoted.
Population increase that is centred
on cities
The best way to reduce migrations from rural
areas to the cities and from inland to the coasts
is by developing future possibilities and opportu-
nities – including access to water – within those
areas from which the migrants are moving.
Water authorities should work side by side with
urban planners and with land models to integrate
development and sustainability.
The environmental feasibility of water
supply and sanitation must be ensured first
before promoting sustainable urbanisation.