From longer droughts to more frequent floods, water becomes a subject of major concern. The growing disturbances of the water cycle put to the test of current management methods, both technical and political, inherited from a period of lower tension.
The water resource, “ Blue gold Is a separate resource. Essential to any form of life, it is also necessary for almost all sectors of human activity, from agriculture to industry. Technical progress has made it available in large quantities in cities built at the heart of deserts, from Phoenix to Dubai, or for agriculture based on very intensive irrigation, from Spain to Israel. A situation which is far from being unprecedented in the history of humanity – since the techniques of water supply on a large scale have existed for several millennia – but which has largely accentuated and imposed on the surface of the globe since the beginning of XIXe century. At the same time, almost a quarter of humanity does not have access to tap water, and almost 10% (mostly women) is still experiencing a trip of more than 30 minutes round trip to supply their family with water.
However, the acceleration of climate change has already started to complicate the storage of water that falls more rarely and louder, quickly evaporates and penetrates less into the soil. These changes in different affect the regions of the globe, striking, for example, more intense drought the latitudes that extend from southern Europe to the north of the Sahara. But until the heart of Europe, long preserved by its climate and its infrastructure, the question of the recharge of water tables is now established as a legitimate media topical subject, throughout the year. Without ever having ceased to be a political subject, the water catalyzes today different discourses on possible adaptation pathways, which while taking up the fairly passout lexicon of the transition, can also oppose head of privileged future.
To the question of quantity is added that of the quality of the resource – an old problem since almost a third of the world’s population still does not have access to healthy water in sufficient quantity throughout the year, with deadly consequences in particular for the poorest, and especially for the youngest. In richer regions, where quality infrastructure tends to gradually dismiss the spectrum of unhealthy waters since the end of XIXe century, other conflicts are preparing to change scale. In particular as we become aware of the very differentiated reactivity of public authorities in the face of certain agricultural or industrial pollution, however demonstrated – from surface water to nitrates in many rural areas to the persistence of Pfas in aquifers in several industrial regions. All the interests present know that the sharing of water will have to go through arbitrations, because without schematically opposing the economy to society, it is a question of building standards which are viable in the long term.
Faced with these issues, solutions exist. The first will always remain the limitation of greenhouse gases, in a model where each half-degree account, to limit, among other things, the consequences on the water cycle. Technical solutions also gain ground, like the desalination of water, rapidly growing since 97% of the water present on Earth is salty, but costly in fossil energy and generating pollution which encourage the essential of the scientific community to be wary of this maladaptation. Reducing consumption is an objective that makes more broadly consensus. By improving adduction infrastructure, which can generate many losses, by more systematic treatment of wastewater, to which many regions in water stress were applied very early. But also by a lower use, both individual and agricultural and industrial. Indeed, where the “ Water wars There are a long -standing identified risk – which is often added to previous geopolitical tension situations – regional distributions between different actors are also a major issue of social justice.
However, it is sometimes difficult to represent all the parties present, including information such as organizational and access to institutions are very uneven. Especially since the current trend is the increase in privatizations, driven to the extreme in France where 60% of water and sanitation services are privatized, but which also progresses worldwide, in very different contexts. Which, then, has a voice, and how far to integrate the requests of the various users, but also the rights of future generations, as well as the emerging legal rights granted to the nature ?
Faced with these challenges, the texts gathered in this file aim to multiply the points of view on the current uses of water, as well as on the technical, economic and political organizations which underpin access to this resource. Since each company builds its relationship to water according to a series of constraints, and that climate change changes the situation quickly, the question of water is a crucial entry to measure our adaptability.