It's called "Day
Zero": when Cape Town, South Africa's bustling port city, sees its
water taps run dry, and its population thrust into a perilous situation.
Originally projected for this year, the impending crisis has been
delayed in part by severe measures — the city instituted restrictions that
amount to less than one sixth of an average American's water consumption. Yet
despite that effort, "Day Zero" is still projected to arrive
next year.
And when it comes, the crisis will see the government switching off
all the taps and rationing the resource through collection points.
That future isn't just Cape Town's. It's a scenario cities around the
globe may face, experts say.
It may be hard to fathom just how cities could be at risk of a water
scarcity crisis when approximately 70 percent of the world is made up of the
resource. The stark reality, however, is that the percentage of fresh water
probably only amounts to about 2.5 percent, according to often-cited assessments.
A public swimming pool, in a suburb of
Cape Town has been emptied due to local water restrictions on March 6, 2018.
Even then, a significant supply is locked up in ice and snow, which
means just 1 percent of all fresh water is easily accessible to the global
population.
Inequality in access to water is also quickly becoming a problem.
While the affluent can find ways to get access to water— through deliveries or
in-built tanks — poorer populations are left to their own devices.
That situation oftentimes leads to water theft — for profit, for
survival, or for both.
A
'wake-up call'
A nation's development has frequently come at the cost of undercutting
its sources of clean water, Betsy Otto, director of the World Resources
Institute's global water program told CNBC.
"For example, quite a bit of scientific evidence has shown that
deforestation changed the hydrological cycle in the Amazon," she said.
Although water scarcity is a very real and pervasive problem, experts
said most cities are not immediately at risk of running out of water.
Still, it is extremely important that water scarcity is acknowledged
as a global problem because cities should begin working on unique solutions to
local problems now, according to Rebecca Keller, a senior science and technology
analyst at intelligence firm Stratfor
"It won't be the same exact scenario that Cape Town is
facing," Keller said. "It might be pollution, drought, drier climates
or significant population growth."
An indian woman carries drinking water in
steel and plastic containers, walking towards her temporary shelters in
Rataiora Village on December 15, 2016.
The troubles faced by Cape Town should serve as a "wake-up
call" for other countries about the realities of increasing water
stress, Otto said.
Water stress occurs when demand for the resource exceeds the available
supply. It taxes the reserves and may lead to deterioration of fresh water
resources.
In recent years, California faced
a drought that lasted years, Australia survived the millennium
drought, and Sao Paulo faced a water
shortage crisis in 2015 due to both drought and inefficient
infrastructures.
Otto summed up the global state of preparedness for water scarcity,
saying: "We've either under-invested in measures or allowed existing
structures to fall apart."
Water
theft
The United Nations'
2010 recognition of water as a human right has complicated the issue of water
theft, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the foreign policy program
at think-tank the Brookings Institution.
"The right to water does not mean the right to free water,"
Felbab-Brown explained, saying many people had misunderstood the UN. "In
the same manner that people have to pay for food, they should expect to pay for
safe water."
That sentiment hasn't stopped outright water theft on a large scale in
countries like Brazil, India and Mexico. Companies and individuals
illegally tap into pipelines and reservoirs, or they find other ways to avoid
water meters.
There's no single solution to the issue, however, as the context of
water theft varies between places, Felbab-Brown said. But, she pointed out,
better law enforcement, water monitoring, and creating comprehensive databases,
are good starting points for governments.
"Governments need to recognize that they can't just apply law
enforcement without providing legal alternatives," she added.
As of now, water smuggling mostly operates within countries' borders,
but it will eventually occur on an international scale, Felbab-Brown said.
Ethiopian construction workers working on
the Grand Renaissance Dam near the Sudanese-Ethiopian border on March 31, 2015.
That could become a point of geopolitical tension between countries
dealing with transboundary water issues, Keller said.
For an example of international water tensions, take the construction
of the Grand Renaissance Dam in the Nile, a $4 billion hydroelectric project
financed by Ethiopia. It's left Egypt fearing a
potential disruption to its fresh water supply.
Controling
demand
Mitigating water scarcity has proven to be a tricky political subject
because, in many countries, environmental or climate solutions tend to have a
hard time gathering enough political support to become a reality.
It is also extremely expensive to build out new water supplies, dams
and desalination plants.
"Unless there is an acute event — a severe drought for example —
it is the [political] constraints that play out in a long time frame,"
Keller said.
Consequently, many governments have done little to guide their
citizens on water-efficient behavior. That can be implemented through price
controls, Otto said, but it's rarely a popular measure.
"There should be two tiers of pricing. Conservation pricing,
which charges the minimum amount for water that is sufficient for basic needs,
should be provided at low rates. Discretionary water use, which is anything
beyond the necessary amount, should be charged more," Otto said.
On a national level, she said, governments should encourage
conversation about conservation issues. That is, saving water will always be
cheaper than building or drilling for new sources, Otto added.
The good news, experts said, is there will be time for governments to
start preparing for a Day Zero scenario.
"It's not going to be a surprise. The city is not going to run
out of water suddenly," Keller said.
Source: cnbc