NGO says international tourism compromises water rights of poor communities

London-based NGO Tourism Concern has launched a campaign to “Demand an end to Water Injustice in Goa”, India

Visitors to Bali, the Gambia and Goa use 16 times as much water as local residents. Such disproportionate use of fresh water by tourists in developing world destinations is causing local conflict, exacerbating poverty and helping to spread disease, says NGO Tourism Concern in a new report [1].

The report examined five coastal destinations popular with international tourists – the Gambia, Bali in Indonesia, the islands of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania, and Goa and Kerala in India.

“While hotels may have the money and resources to ensure their guests enjoy several showers a day, swimming pools, a round of golf, and lush landscaped gardens, neighbouring households, small businesses and agricultural producers can regularly endure severe water scarcity,” says the report.

Some hotels in Zanzibar hotels employ security guards to prevent sabotage of water pipes by angry locals who claim they are facing extreme water shortages. A deadly cholera outbreak in 2010 was partly blamed on groundwater contaminated by sewage from hotels.

Tourism Concern is calling on the international tourism industry, destination governments and tourists to urgently address this problem of “massive inequality”. Their report offers nine Principles of Water Equity in Tourism for governments, the tourism sector and civil society, as well as detailed recommendations for each set of stakeholders.

[1]] Noble, R., Smith, P. and Pattullo, P. (eds), 2012. Water equity in tourism : a human right, a global responsibility. London, UK, Tourism Concern. 31 p. Available at: <www.tourismconcern.org.uk/uploads/Campaigns/WET%20Report.pdf>

Related web site: Tourism Concern – Water Equity in Tourism

Source:

• Leo Hickman, Charity condemns tourists’ use of fresh water in developing countries, Guardian, 08 Jul 2012
•  New report reveals massive water inequity between tourism and locals, Tourism Concern, 09 Jul 2012

HSBC launches US$ 100 million water partnership with WaterAid, WWF and Earthwatch

British multinational bank HSBC has launched a new US$ 100 million, five year partnership with WaterAid, WWF and the Earthwatch Institute. The HSBC Water Programme will bring safe water and improved sanitation to over a million people; tackle water risks in river basins; and raise awareness about the global water challenge.

The programme is backed-up by report [1] commissioned by HSBC, which warns that the predicted high-growth rate in several of the world’s most populous river basins may not materialise because of  their unsustainable water consumption . The report also highlights “the powerful economic rationale for improving access to freshwater and sanitation, at a time when total aid for water access and sanitation has actually declined”.

Sci-fi thriller on the world’s water crisis

In 2079, worldwide drought and nuclear plant meltdowns have diminished the earth’s water supply by 88 per cent. The only hope for survival is to send war criminal Grant Clarke to Jupiter’s distant moon, Europa. Clarke must obtain a sulphur-based bacteria and get it back to earth in time to decontaminate the nuclear waste and save the world’s water supply.

That’s the plot of Europa, a 17 minute thesis film directed by David Gidali and produced by Avi Quijada for the American Film Institute (AFI). Post production of the AFI student film was completed in December 2011 and we can’t wait for its release.

We are also still eagerly awaiting the release of another sci-fi water film, Shekhar Kapur’s Paani. Elizabeth director Kapur announced the plans for his big budget film (the cost has apparently increased from US$ 30 million to US$ 50 million) at Cannes in 2010, but so far there is no confirmation that filming has actually started.

Related news: Global water crisis gets Bollywood Sci-Fi treatment, WASH News International, 18 May 2010

Related web sites: Europa – The Movie: Facebook | www.europamovie.com/

Source: PR.com, 21 Dec 2011

Corporate water accounting: Deloitte supporting development of CEO Water Mandate Water Action Hub

Accountancy firm Deloitte is providing pro bono services to help develop a public online tool for corporate water accounting. The tool allows companies to more easily identify and collaborate with businesses, relevant governments, NGO and communities to advance sustainable water management, a Deloitte press release said.

Deloitte is collaborating with the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), the Pacific Institute and the German International Development Agency (GIZ) in developing the CEO Water Mandate (which is part of the United Nations Global Compact) Water Action Hub.

Deloitte’s contribution to IBLF, valued at up to $ 500,000, will allow organizations to access a publicly available online water-focused capacity building platform that can serve as a clearinghouse for emerging corporate water accounting methods, tools, and stewardship practices.

The Water Action Hub will have a mapping function that visually places each facility and/or organization with their activities within watershed maps.

US Poll: more would give clean water to world than accept US$ 1 million for themselves

A poll of 1,013 adults found that more Americans would choose providing clean water for the world than accepting US$ 1 million for themselves. More Americans, however, would take the US$ 1 million rather than single-handedly stopping global warming, rescuing the world’s rainforests or saving the world’s endangered species.

The main intention of the poll was to test the effectiveness of a national water conservation campaign called “Wasting Water is Weird” run by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) WaterSense® program. The main conclusion of the poll, conducted by the Shelton Group, was that most Americans were aware of the need to conserve water but the few actually implemented water conservation measures.

The poll, which surveyed 1,013 adults, found only 26 percent had replaced toilets or showerheads with low-flow alternatives, and only 6 percent had planted low-water landscaping. As for Americans’ daily habits: Only 61 percent turn off the water when brushing their teeth, and just 53 percent run their dishwasher only when it’s completely full.

Related web sites:

• Wasting Water is Weird
• EPA – WaterSense
• Shelton Group – Wasting Water is Weird

Source: Business Wire, 12 Sep 2011

New book offers lessons for improving water management in tomorrow’s cities

As sustainability concerns regarding water management in cities continue to increase, the challenge facing cities is for them to do more with less. SWITCH, an EU-funded programme, was a five year experiment focused on some of the key sustainability challenges in urban water management. In a number of cities around the globe, it set out to test what was needed to transition into more sustainable urban water management through a combination of demand-led research, demonstration activities, multistakeholder learning and associated training and capacity building.

The book- SWITCH in the City: putting urban water management to the test brings together experiences from 12 cities involved in the SWITCH project from four continents (Accra, Alexandria, Beijing, Belo Horizonte, Birmingham, Bogotá, Cali, Hamburg, Lima, Lodz, Tel Aviv and Zaragoza) with a set of guidelines focused on promoting stakeholder engagement in such processes.

If you are interested in undertaking demand-led research, promoting multi-stakeholder engagement, and scaling up research impacts, not only in urban water management but also in other areas where we find such complex problems, then download or order your copy now through IRC- International Water and Sanitation Centre.

WWF proposes water solutions for megacities

A new WWF study says water shortages in megacities can be tackled by: protecting important freshwater ecosystems, managing and using water supplies better, and planning for the impacts of climate change.

Presented in Stockholm during the World Water Week, the new WWF report ‘Big Cities, Big Water, Big Challenges’ warns of severe water shortages worldwide by the middle of this century, when 70% of the world’s people will be living in urban areas – often in ‘megacities’. In many of the world’s biggest cities, water management is already poor, WWF says.

The report looks in detail at the water situation in five megacities: Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Nairobi, Kenya; Karachi, Pakistan; Kolkata, India; and Shanghai, China.

Groundwater depletion Is detected from space

Scientists from the University of California have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater, one of the planet’s main sources of fresh water.

They found problems in places as disparate as North Africa, northern India, northeastern China and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley in California.

University of California’s Center for Hydrologic Modeling has developed Grace, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, that uses twin satellites to produce precise data on gravitational variations. The results are “redefining the field of hydrology”. Grace detects changes in ice, snow and water storage, surface water, soil moisture and groundwater.

Making such data available may increase sensitivities

in arid regions where groundwater basins are often shared by unfriendly neighbors — India and Pakistan, Tunisia and Libya or Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories — that are prone to suspecting one another of excessive use of this shared resource.

Grace can only supply reliable data for very large aquifers.

In northern India, the use of data from Grace in a study on aquifer depletion has led to some resistance.

“When in a place like India you say, ‘We’re doing something that is unsustainable and needs to change,’ well, people resist change. Change is expensive.”

Source: Felicity Barringer, New York Times, 30 May 2011

Former heads of government: world needs water leadership

Former heads of government have agreed to establish a new panel to help fill a “serious void in leadership related to global water issues”. Saying that “international water leadership is virtually nonexistent,” the retired leaders apparently have little faith in existing international organisations and forums such as UN-Water, the World Water Council (WWC) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP). The panel will work to elevate the issue’s political prominence in an effort to avert a looming “water crisis.”

The formation of the new water panel was announced at the 29th meeting of the InterAction Council held from 29-31 May 2011 in Québec City, Canada. Participants included former US President Bill Clinton, former Mexican President Vicente Fox and former prime ministers Yasuo Fukuda (Japan) and Gro Brundtland (Norway). Co-chairing the meeting were former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.

Former leaders Dr. Gro Brundtland, Bill Clinton, Fernando De La Rua, Vincente Fox and Chok Tong Goh at the opening of the InterAction Council meeting Quebec City, 29 May 2011. Photo: Reuters/Jacques Boissinot/Pool

In the final communiqué of the meeting, the group urged a new international water ethic and offered policy makers some 17 recommendations to move world water management forward.

Recommendations include “placing water at the forefront of the global political agenda,” linking climate change research and adaptation programs to water issues, making the right to water legally enforceable, raising the price of water to reflect its economic value while making provisions for people in poverty, preferring the growth of food over biofuel crops in places where water supplies are threatened, and encouraging the UN Security Council to take up water as a security concern.

They also welcomed a high level of dialogue and cooperation on water-allocation in the Mekong River delta between China and Indochina states and the work done by the Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund, which aims to rebuild housing in Haiti with adequate sanitation to avoid public health disasters through water contamination.

One billion city dwellers may face water shortages by 2050, study says

By 2050, more than 1 billion city dwellers may face water shortages if no new infrastructure is built or no new water conservation efforts are undertaken, according to a new study [1]. More than 3 billion may suffer similar water shortages at least one month of every year, says the study. The shortages are projected to hit megacities ranging from Beijing to Delhi, Mexico City, Lagos and Tehran.

The study looks only at water availability within a metropolitan region. Many more people lack access to clean water if problems of inadequate water quality or delivery within cities are taken into account.

To define “water shortage,” the study used a standard of 100 litres per person per day, which the World Health Organization says is the minimum a person needs for “optimum” long-term health and sanitation.

The researchers found that urban population growth will account for most of the big projected increases in water shortage. Climate change may add an additional 100 million more people to live without adequate supplies unless cities take measures on time.

Common infrastructural solutions to address water shortages such as transporting water longer distances, building dams and desalination are all expensive. Better ways to address shortages, says one of the study’s authors Rob McDonaldOne solution, are more efficient water use by agriculture and industry, payments to farmers to reduce areas of irrigated agriculture, and removal of non-native water-hungry vegetation such as eucalyptus.

“The thing I’m really worried about,” says McDonald, “is how the poorest cities are going to be able to afford to get water to their residents. Right now, many poor cities have trouble delivering clean water to their residents, and unless new capital is available for investment the situation will get worse.

“There’s a real shortfall in investment right now in solving this problem, and the developed countries in my opinion need to play a larger role in helping close that shortfall.”

[1] McDonald, R.I. … [et al.] (2011). Urban growth, climate change, and freshwater availability. PNAS, Published online before print 28 March 2011. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1011615108 [open access]

Source: Robert Lalasz, Cool Green Science, 28 Mar 2011