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Waf. ScL Tech. Vol. 32, No. S-6, pp. I-S, 1995.Copyr.ghl@ 1995 IAWQ

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QUO VADIS - SUSTAINABILITY?

J. M. Tyson

North West Water, Dawson House, Great Sankey, Warrington WA53LW, UK

ABSTRACT

There is a developing concern that the world water resource will prove to be inadequate to meet the ever•mcreasmg demands by humankind. An integrated river basin management approach is essential for land andwater use planning due to the complexity of land/water interactions.

This paper provides a selective overview of some of the issues affecting sustainability in river basinmanagement. These include the need to: develop methodologies for integrated river basin managementwhich include land-use management and planning: improve the volume and accuracy of national and globalassessment of water resources: develop. promulgate and implement waste minimisation and recoverytechniques, preferably pollution prevention: develop low-tech, low cost treatment options; increaseapplication of use-related receiving water standards: develop and apply economic evaluation tools to bothenvironmental costs and benefits; and mform. educate and train professionals and the public.

Any solution arrived at must be acceplable to the local community; two-way communication is vital to thesuccess of a project, which may well require changes in the behaviour of the community served.

KEYWORDS

Land use; river basin management; sustainability; waste minimisation; water resources; water standards.

lNTRODUCTION

We live in a time when there is a real, and developing, concern that the world water resource will prove tobe inadequate to meet the ever-increasing demands made by humankind. The issues relating to theimpending world water crises lie at the heart of human use and enjoyment of the natural resources of theplanet and impact heavily on the various cultures by which our society lives and develops. Whilst theseproblems may be seen to be resolvable by ever-increasing use and development of technology. the reality isthat sustainable solutions have much more to do with societal acceptance.

To be successful they require wise application of environmental and economic guidance within institutionalarrangements that are adequately resourced to plan and implement new/improved infrastructure for watersupply and sanitation; much more than that they demand a deep understanding of traditional values ofcommunities and groups; in some cases they will require long-held territorial and political aspirations to beset aside. There is, therefore, a real risk that fully successful solutions will not be found. or implemented, oroperated with potentially catastrophic consequences on the local. regional or global scale.

2

RESOURCES

J.M.TYSON

The conclusions of the Fourth Stockholm Water Symposium (1994) recognise that an integrated approach isrequired to land and water use planning due to the complexity of the land/water interactions. We recognisethis as integrated river basin management Key to the management of a resource is the measurement of itsavailability and the monitoring of changes over time. Given the concerns over a potential world water crisisit seems of particular relevance that there should be adequate data on resource availability so that forecastsmight be made and appropriate action taken to prevent any crisis actually occurring. The reality is somewhatdifferent. Data published by Young et aI. (1994) on estimates of global water resources show that66.6 percent of the world's total fresh water - which itself consists of only 2.53 percent of the planetary totalwater resource - is contained in glaciers. pennanent snow and pennafrost; a further 30 percent ispredominantly fresh groundwater. thus leaving four percent in rivers. lakes and atmosphere.

The actual volumes corresponding to these percentages are very large. The total global volume of freshwater is estimated at 35.029.000 km3 with the (relatively) small amount of fresh surface water and water inthe atmosphere being 118.000 km3. Of course. these data apply to the global picture - they provide a starkpicture of the limited quantity of fresh water available on a planetary scale - they do not provide infonnationon the adequacy of that resource. Work carried out by Shiklomanov (1991) provides data on waterconsumption (irrigation. agriculture. industry and municipal supply) of 5.190 Ian3 by the year 2000 - anincrease of some 64 percent on the total for 1980. If fresh water were a truly finite resource. that wouldmean the planet would have 22 years supply left - assuming also that demand and distribution were evenlydistributed - and we would have a crisis indeed!

Rodda (in press) explains how. for many reasons. these data cannot generally be considered to be reliable.He points out that. in many areas. there is a lack of appropriate institutions and/or equipment for datacollection and also no operational worldwide system for collecting and exchanging these data for forecastingand other purposes. Small wonder then that the World Meteorological Organisation has proposed theestablishment of a World Hydrological Cycle Observing System (WHYCOS). to consist of about 1000stations worldwide. sited on the major rivers (Rodda et aI.. 1993). If such a network were to be established itwould also aim to build the capabilities of those countries where hydrological services are inadequate and/orin decline.

Global water quality data are collected through the GEMS (Global Environment Monitoring System)Collaborating Centre for Surface and Groundwater Quality at Burlington. Ontario. Phase two ofGEMSlWater was fonnally approved in 1990 (WHOIPEP. 1991) (Phase I covered the periods 1919-1990)and recognises in its objectives a need for capacity building in developing countries for water qualitymonitoring and assessment. As with quantity data the available data are incomplete. with inadequacies in thelength and completeness. It seems evident that. at the global level at least. we cannot be confident about theimminence or otherwise of a world water crisis. The data record is incomplete and prone to error. making itimpossible to generate forecasts with any confidence. We can say that at the extremes there may be a worldwater crisis in the first half of the next century or that there will never be a crisis;J:his must surely be seen asan unacceptable position given that water provides the essential life support for all living things on theplanet. What is perhaps even more surprising is that in some countries the capabilities for data collection areactually in decline. As Rodda (in press) remarks. it is something of a paradox that at a time when globaldemand for water is rising faster than ever before. the errors in assessing just how much water is availablefor use are generally increasing.

DEMANDS

If a world water crisis does develop then its roots are already established in the rapidly growing cities indeveloping countries. Rapid population growth in cities is not a new phenomenon. As an example. inNorthern England in the 19th century the population of Manchester and Salford increased by 600.000 to810.000 in 10 years as the rural population migrated to the city. attracted by the perceived benefit ofemployment. and the birth rate in the urban poor rose to high levels to increase the earning power of the

Sustainability 3

family. It was these communities that suffered most from the epidemics of typhoid and cholera whichaffected European cities in the 19th century due to water shortages, polluted drinking water and insanitaryconditions.

These conditions exist now in cities in developing countries and seem to be set to deteriorate with thedevelopment of megacities in the early pan of the 21st century. Do we have to wait until widespreadepidemics affect these major population centres before we make serious efforts to provide water andsanitation services for all? Of course these cities do have a water and wastewater infrastructure but it isusually inadequate and overloaded. Cities such as Mexico City and Jakarta for example, are abstractingwater from aquifers significantly in excess of the rate of recharge causing subsidence in one case and salineintrusion in the other. Water distribution networks in these cities also leak large quantities so that the amountof water actually delivered to households is perhaps only 50 percent of that abstracted.

Given the uncertain. but finite. capacity of our water resources; the rapidly increasing demands being madeon those resources; the vital role of water in sustaining all planetary life fDlms. there is a need to find newand innovative ways of managing our water resources.

OPTIONS

It is convenient. but not always sensible. to consider the options for the future water management for thedeveloped world to be different from that for the developing world. The developed world has existing largerwater and wastewater infrastructures which represent a massive investment and have achieved notablesuccess in the elimination of traditional water-borne diseases. But rivers. estuaries and coastal waters are stillpolluted. the legacy of the industrial revolution still remains in some areas, and significant furtherinvestment is required if ever-increasing public expectations on general water quality for recreational andamenity use are to be met.

It is becoming accepted that the pragmatic solutions to the water management problems in the western worlddeveloped in the 19th century are not appropriate to the megacities in the developing world at the dawn ofthe 21st century. The need for a new technical paradigm has been identified. which recognises the need formajor changes in the educational. cultural and organisational systems of society if new. and markedlydifferent, water-related technologies are to be successfully applied. Niemczynowicz (1994) has described apollution prevention strategy designed to minimise waste volumes and maximise recovery of materials andenergy. Such a strategy. to be applied to both industrial and domestic wastes. embodies the followingprinciples:

- design systems to minimise production of waste- re-use/recovery of materials and energy- treatment at small-scale. low-technology treatment plants

and then. if pre~ious steps have not been successful

- high technology end of pipe treatment.

It is important to appreciate that these strategic steps also constitute a priority ranking and that. within thestrategy. the last step is an admission of failure. Such a preventive strategy clearly has application in thedeveloped world. Application of waste-minimisation systems, for example. has been shown to confer bothenvironmental and economic benefits across a range of industries in the United Kingdom (Atkins et al.•1994) and United States (Lindstrom et al., 1994).

Application of a waste-minimisation - or preferably a waste non-production - approach is seen to beattractive as minimising waste minimises cost and environmental harm and thereby maximises profit Theconcept of "affordability" is one which is relevant across all solutions and in all situations. Affordability isnormally expressed in terms of economic impact; there is developing awareness of affordability in terms ofM! n·5/6••

4 1.M.TYSON

environmental impact also. In his address to the Budapest biennial in 1994, Petr Grau argued that effective,low-tech treatment methods and low cost treatment plants were essential if developing countries were to beable to afford to develop. maintain and renew within the constraints of the GNP.

Solutions must also adequately address the problem; they must be designed to meet appropriateenvironmental standards - after all, it is the need to protect or improve the receiving environment whichprovides the need for action in the first place. Standards should ideally be use-based - that is dischargequality should be such that the downstream use of the receiving water is not impaired.

Standards derived in this way are, however. more difficult to define and monitor than simple fixed emissionor technology-based standards. The difficulty with the latter approach is that there is either over- or under•investment for the environmental need and it can force treatment solutions which are inappropriate in termsof affordability and maintenance.

The use of cost-benefit analysis is now attracting interest as a means to express the environmental benefit ofprojects in economic terms. Use of this technique reinforces the need for use-based standards. since for aneconomic evaluation to be carried out some particular use of the receiving water needs to be achieved. Atpresent this kind of analysis is normally limited to the value of the environmental benefits achieved toprovide a comparison with the costs of construction. A fuller application of the technique would allow forthe environmental cost of providing the solution, including that of producing and transporting the materialsof construction and the environmental cost of operating the treatment plant. e.g. environmental impact of thegeneration of the energy.

The development of use-related standards and the economic evaluation of the benefits arising from theirachievement, as a guide to decision making. can be considered as further steps on the road towardssustainability in river basins. It is also clearly of the first imponance that any solution arrived at is acceptableto the local community. So that there can be informed debate there needs to be education of the communityto aid their awareness of the issues including the integration of land use and water impacts. Theestablishment of effective two-way communication is vital to the success of a project which may wellrequire a change in habits and behaviour of the community served.

CONCLUSIONS

This brief and necessarily selective overview has drawn out some. hopefully including the most significant.of the issues affecting sustainability in river basin management To summarise these issues. there is a needto:

develop methodologies for integrated river basin management which include land-use management andwater planning;improve the volume and accuracy of national and global assessment of water resources;develop. promulgate and implement new, innovative approaches to water supply and sewage treatment;develop, promulgate and implement waste minimisation and recovery techniques;develop low-tech. low cost treatment options;increase application of use-related receiving water standards;develop and apply economic evaluation tools to both environmental costs and benefits; andinform, educate, train professionals and public.

The membership of the International Association for Water Quality (IAWQ) is uniquely qualified to tacklethese issues - indeed much work is already underway. But there is little choice in the matter - unless theseissues are tackled. solutions found and implemented with some urgency then the planet may well suffer acata.~trophic water crisis that will cause enormous loss of life and affect the quality of life of those survivingfor long into the future.

DISCLAIMER

Susrainability s

The views put forward in this paper are the author's and should not be taken as representing the view ofNorth West WIlter.

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