The 8th World Water Forum was held in Brasilia from 18 to 23 March, 40 000 people attended, including heads of state, the United Nations, 300 mayors from all around the world and many scientists and environmental activists, gathered to come up with solutions to the increasing water shortage in big cities. Under the heading « sharing water », exchanges, debates and expertise were the current orders to convince the heads of state to make this resource a priority.

Threats to water, source of life

Global warming, population increase, rivers and oceans pollution, overconsumption, intensive agriculture… Water is threatened by many factors.

During the World Water Forum, the U.N. unveiled a disturbing report predicting that 5.7 billion of human beings (that is to say half of the global population) may live in regions where water shortage hits at least one month a year by 2050. Thus the U.N. warning: the water demand is exploding while groundwater reserves are pumped for irrigation; at the same time the water quality is getting worse, polluted by sewage.

Nowadays, 80% of industrial and municipal wastewater is spilled into rivers and watersheds, without any prior treatment. The water quality deterioration is assumed to intensify in the next few decades, which would duplicate the threats to human health, the environment and to development.

According to Benedito Braga, president of the World Water Council, it is essential to properly manage the transboundary aquifers: “almost 97% of water resources available in the world lie in transboundary groundwater aquifers”, hence the necessity of an efficient shared water resources management.

Water is very unevenly distributed in the world and above all, unequally used. For instance, 250 liters per person per day are consumed in Canada, 130 to 160 liters in Denmark, Austria and France, against 10 to 20 in Sub-Saharan Africa. 4 600 billion m3 of water are currently withdrawn each year. The domestic use represents 10% of this total, against 60% for agriculture and 30% for the industry. This world consumption is increasing by 1% a year and will likely reach 6 000 billion m3 per year in 2050.

“Green solutions” …

In this worrying context where many big cities are facing a serious lack of water -and as the tipping point or ‘Day Zero’ has been narrowly avoided- the U.N. is promoting “green solutions”, inspired by natural processes, rather than build new dams and water treatment plants. “There will always be a need to build dykes, pipes and water treatment plants, Richard Connor – editor-in-chief of the U.N. report- states. But as an alternative to these “grey” infrastructures, a huge variety of “green” constructions exists, combining ecological engineering and the use of ecosystem services.”

For example, there is enough freshwater on the planet to water 10 billion people. Moreover, sustainable management techniques (reasonable irrigation, fair distribution, savings in the industrial sector…) can be rapidly deployed. It is precisely these new solutions that have been under study in Brasilia during the week.

Because of the emergency, the experts attending the Brazilian forum want to make water clean-up a key factor of development. Indeed, 2.4 billion people currently do not have access to clean water. Yet, urban sanitation is still expensive and necessitates substantial funding and facilities. That’s why it is often overlooked regarding other priorities.

Climate change, as well as population growth are two factors setting water up as a precious resource, imposing new management and sharing challenges. Therefore, everyone must pay attention to his water consumption and adopt best practices in order to limit crisis situations. “Water is meant to be a community and nationwide unifying element, not the cause for a third world war” underlines Ricardo Medeiros, director of the forum.