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Water saving an important but ignored weapon in solving climate crisis, says UN Poor water infrastructure is greater risk than coronavirus, says UN
(about 4 hours later)
On World Water Day, the UN says conservation is a ‘virtuous circle’ in the fight against global heating On World Water Day, warning that more than half the global population lacking access to safely managed sanitation
Using water more efficiently in everything from daily life to agriculture and industry would help reduce planet-warming emissions and curb climate change – a potential benefit that has yet to be widely recognised. Decades of chronic underfunding of water infrastructure is putting many countries at worse risk in the coronavirus crisis, with more than half the global population lacking access to safely managed sanitation, experts said as the UN marked World Water Day on Sunday.
In a report issued on World Water Day on Sunday, UN agencies said global warming would “affect the availability, quality and quantity of water for basic human needs”, threatening the right to water and sanitation for “potentially billions of people”. Good hygiene – soap and water – are the first line of defence against coronavirus and a vast range of other diseases, yet three quarters of households in developing countries do not have access to somewhere to wash with soap and water, according to Tim Wainwright, chief executive of the charity WaterAid. A third of healthcare facilities in developing countries also lack access to clean water on site.
But as well as using limited supplies more wisely and fairly, policymakers and businesses should also seek to manage water resources better to economise on the electricity and fuel needed to pump, clean and deliver water, the report said. “It’s really obvious that in Africa and parts of Asia we should be very fearful of what is to come,” he said. “The coronavirus crisis highlights how vulnerable the world is.”
“If you save water, you’re saving energy and reducing the greenhouse gases to produce that energy to bring the water,” said Richard Connor, the report’s editor. The UN World Water Development report, published on Sunday, pointed to the underfunding of water infrastructure around the world, despite its importance.
Using less energy cuts down further on the water needed to produce electricity, creating a virtuous circle, he said. Richard Connor, editor-in-chief of the report, told the Observer that water was often overlooked for spending and investment because the economic benefits of better water and sanitation were not emphasised. The coronavirus crisis sheds new light on those mistakes.
Even more water can be saved by switching to less-thirsty clean power sources like wind instead of fossil fuels, he added. “One of the reasons underlying the investment gap in water and sanitation is that these services are perceived mainly as a social - and in some cases environmental - issue, rather than an economic one, like energy,” he said. “Yet the economic costs of an outbreak [such as Covid-19] are enormous, both in terms of national economies and stock markets, as well as in terms of household revenue - when people cannot work because of sickness or lockdowns. Realising the economic importance of water and sanitation should provide an additional catalyst for greater investment.”
Water use has increased six-fold over the past century and is rising by about 1% a year, said the United Nations World Water Development Report 2020. Another reason for the neglect of water and sanitation is that people are generally willing to pay for the water coming into their homes, but not for transporting and treating afterwards. “Once it is flushed down the toilet, it disappears and becomes someone else’s problem,” said Connor. “Treating wastewater is several times more expensive than treating the source water in the first place. So without a willingness to pay on the part of users, it falls on governments to foot the bill, and since they do not recognise the economic value of wastewater treatment – which is perceived as more of an environmental issue - the political will behind such spending is low.”
It outlined ways water could be used and recycled more effectively to limit emissions, alongside looking after nature. Yet improving access to water and sanitation has clear benefits – in the coronavirus crisis, and beyond. Connor quotes evidence that suggests that the return on investment in water and sanitation can be high, with a global average benefit–cost ratio of 5.5 for improved sanitation and 2.0 for improved drinking water, when broader macroeconomic benefits are taken into account.
Restoring and protecting wetlands, for example, is of “critical importance” because they store twice as much carbon as forests, while also preventing floods, purifying water and providing a habitat for animals and birds, the report said. Water use has increased sixfold in the past century and is rising by about 1% a year owing to rising populations and increasing demand, while climate breakdown means that more areas of the world will see stress on their water supplies, including regions where supplies were previously abundant, such as many parts of Europe, Asia and north America.
Conservation agriculture – a green farming approach that causes minimal disturbance to the soil – also helps reduce carbon emissions and the huge amounts of water needed for crop irrigation in intensive farming systems. One possible source for renewed investment in water is through a better understanding of the links between water issues and water infrastructure and the climate crisis, the UN report suggests.
Treating more wastewater would also make a big difference, said the report, noting 80-90% of wastewater is discharged to the environment without any form of treatment. While trillions in investment have been poured into reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world in the last decade, through clean energy and low-carbon technology, few resources have been devoted to the water supply. This year’s UN water report has found that opportunities are being missed to use water projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions while improving access to clean water.
Untreated wastewater is a major source of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, while wastewater treatment accounts for an estimated 3-7% of all emissions, due to the energy and biochemicals required for the process. Sewage treatment is a clear example: wastewater gives rise to between 3% and 7% of all greenhouse gas emissions globally, more than flying. Processing sewage can turn wastewater from a source of carbon to a source of clean energy, if the methane is captured and used in place of natural gas. Currently, between 80% and 90% of wastewater around the world is discharged to the environment with no treatment.
The best solution, the report said, is to invest in modern techniques that extract methane from organic matter in wastewater and use this biogas to generate the energy needed to treat the water – a method already used in some water-scarce countries like Jordan, Mexico, Peru and Thailand. Farming methods can also be adapted to use water more efficiently and cut carbon at the same time, because when soils are better managed they hold more organic matter, more carbon and more water – rendering them more fertile as well as sequestering greenhouse gases.
As a result, public utilities there have reduced carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes, while making financial savings and providing a higher-quality service, it added. That makes investing in water a “win-win-win”, in terms of improving people’s lives, generating economic growth and helping to cut carbon, the report found.
One of the main barriers to these types of approaches is a lack of cooperation between government officials working on climate change and those tasked with managing water. Yet of the hundreds of billions in climate finance devoted to developing countries in recent years, projects involving water made up less than 1% in 2016, the latest year for which full figures were available, according to the report.
“The disconnect remains abundantly clear at the policy level,” said Connor. “Water does not need to be a problem – it can be part of the solution [to the climate crisis],” said Audrey Azoulay, director-general of Unesco. “Water can support efforts to both [reduce greenhouse gases] and adapt to climate change.”
For example, the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change does not mention water, the UN report noted. Wainwright said the key ingredient for success in fixing the world’s water problems, alongside funding, was improving governance and how water supplies are managed.
The national climate action plans submitted by countries under that pact generally acknowledge the importance of water, but few have so far presented and costed specific projects, it added. “Water needs good governance,” he said. “That is usually what is missing. The world is not running out of water, but there is water stress. There is competition for water resources, but making sure that the people who need water get it is a good investment.”
“When it comes time to move from talk to action – be it finance or otherwise – the talk falls on deaf ears and water gets put aside and ... left behind,” said Connor.
More concrete efforts to adapt to rising water stress and cut emissions from water use will require joint planning between climate change and water specialists, as well as greater investment to put them into practice, the report said.
Water management, water supply and sanitation services are under-funded, it added, but by tackling global warming as well as water challenges, projects could aim to capture a larger share of climate finance.
In 2016, only 2.6% of $455 billion invested in climate change measures was allocated to water management, it noted.
That may be starting to change. In the past four years, the Green Climate Fund, for example, has approved two projects in Sri Lanka to upgrade village irrigation systems, protect water catchments, and promote climate-smart farming practices.
“Water does not need to be a problem – it can be part of the solution,” said Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.