The world should look to nature for better ways to maintain supplies of water, keep it clean, and protect people from droughts and floods, the United Nations said on Monday.
As the global population expands and the planet warms, demand for water is rising, while the quality and reliability of our water supply is declining, the 2018 edition of the UN World Water Development Report warned ahead of World Water Day today. One way to do so is to invest more in protecting ecosystems that recycle water and spend less on concrete flood barriers or wastewater treatment plants.
Audrey Azoulay, Director General, Unesco, which coordinates the report, called for “new solutions” to tackle “emerging challenges to water security caused by population growth and climate change”. “If we do nothing, some five billion people will be living in areas with poor access to water by 2050,” she said in a statement.
Demand for water is expected to increase by nearly one third by 2050, said Gilbert Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water. To help manage demands for freshwater, whether for drinking, crops or electricity, the report recommended “working with nature, rather than against it” to make water use more efficient, cost-effective and healthier for people and the environment. “For too long, the world has turned first to human-built, or grey, infrastructure to improve water management,” he wrote in the report’s forward. “In so doing, it has often brushed aside traditional and indigenous knowledge that embraces greener approaches.”
The report outlined the benefits of “nature-based solutions”, inspired by natural processes to increase water availability, improve its quality and reduce risks linked to water-related disasters and climate change. Among those solutions are changing farming practices so the soil retains more moisture and nutrients, harvesting rainwater, recharging aquifers, conserving wetlands that capture run-off and decontaminate water, restoring floodplains and creating rooftop gardens. Greener water management could raise agricultural production by 20 per cent worldwide.
Richard Connor, Editor-in-Chief of the report, said moving to “conservation agriculture” could bring high and rapid returns, but achieving it on a large scale would require political will at the national level. “Agriculture internationally remains dominated by industrial [farming], and it can be a little more difficult to influence the private-sector interests that are involved,” he said. But some companies were adopting more sustainable practices, while consumers increasingly prefer organic, locally grown food.
Inside cities, the challenge is to capture and filter more water using “green infrastructure” — from water retention ponds to wild spaces that double up for leisure activities. Outside towns, in the basins on which cities rely, water users like farmers need to cooperate with municipal authorities to ensure enough clean water for all.
New York, for example, has protected its three biggest watersheds since the late 1990s, resulting in an unfiltered water supply that brings savings of more than $300 million (Dh1,101 million) a year on water treatment and maintenance costs.
Grey infrastructure such as piped water to slums, dams to control water flow on rivers or concrete walls to keep out big storm surges and floods would still be needed. Yet while growing amounts are spent on green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions, evidence suggests they account for less than 1 per cent of total investment in infrastructure to manage water resources, the report said.
Connor pointed to the advantages of using natural ways to manage water, including the potential to boost biodiversity, jobs, health and carbon storage. “If you start to look at these co-benefits that often do not exist with grey infrastructure, it should tip the investment decisions towards more nature-based solutions.”
