Apr
10
Week 7: It’s a myth that Europe is safe from the global water shortages
April 10, 2008 | | 1 Comment
By Elmy Lung
It has made headlines in England that the Severn Trent- one of the biggest water companies in the United Kingdom, is to pay a ￡35million fine after being found out for delivering false information to regulator and poor customer services.
Millions of customers ended up having higher water bills as a result of unreported leakages back in 2001 and 2002. The court will make sure that the heavy fine will not be diverted back to customers. But the court can only do so much in providing protection for the many in the U.K. who suffer from water problems.
The prevalent image of England as a rainy and damp country helps disguise its drought problems very well to foreigners. To the locals though, it’s becoming an evermore concern over the past decade. In April 1997, England faced the longest dry spells since it began to keep records in 1769. Alan Gustard, Head of risks and resources at the Institute of Hydrology in Wallingford, England is quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribue articlethat “There would appear to be an increased frequency of droughts in the U.K. and in other areas of Europe,”. And he seems to be right.
Although the an average decreased rainfall does not instantly put the island country into jeopardy, with the driest years still having average rainfalls 77% of normal ones. The problem is definitely worsening. While floods still occur from time to time, the water use in the South East of England is to be restrained in order to preserve the vital resource. Just two years ago, drought conditions meant that reservoirs level have dropped by half in Sussex and Kent. The Environment Agency’s regional planning manager Peter Midgley has admitted that they are “in a major drought”. Actions were taken, including a hosepipe ban for the rest of the year for parts of the two counties. It’s hard to imagine that really. I’ve visited Kent before- and the place does live up to its title of “the garden of England” with its blooming flowers. And to keep up the water supplies so that residents can enjoy the luxury of using an average of 160-170 liters of water a day there, would require the construction of five new reservoirs in the coming 25 years. Otherwise, the leafy gardens may soon become a distant memory.
Increasing frequencies of drought is not contained in the U.K. Just over the channel on continental Europe, in France and Portugal, rainfall is unstable. And with the effects of global warming becoming stronger, severe heat waves that swept across Europe a few times in the last couple of years (the most serious being in the summer of 2003), Europeans are starting to realize that water shortage is not an isolated topic found only in the developing world. In Spain, particularly in Marcia and Alicante, as detailed in an article from The Independent residents were faced with having just a few weeks of water left when they were struck by drought in August 2006. Their situation is not helped by rusty and leaky pipes. Together with the Severn Trent case, it seems that while the developed countries have the facilities for delivering water, mismanagement and neglect have actually created more problems than solved.
It’s not just the farmers that are affected- tourism too. Spain’s tourism industry- the association with hotel resorts with large pools under the sun- is under heavy strain. Government authorities are keen to protect tourists and their business interest by not sharing their water problems. This includes special permission at some locations, such as golf courses- to not have limited water use to keep the pitches green. Of course, tourists may never see the fiasco when they are enjoying their fiesta- some Spanish farmers have to resort to using waste water for their crops.
Last year, Greece also faced a similar problem. Amidst over consumption of water during a heat wave, it struggled to have enough water to support its tourism industry. The Aegean islands, among others had to rely on ships to carry water from the mainland. Infact the situation got so bad that “The government reacted this week by declaring a state of emergency to ensure that taps did not run dry during a year in which a record 16.5 million tourists were expected“. Plans were quickly introduced to build reservoirs and desalination plants to convert sea water to drinking water. But before that happens, the falling water supplies have already cut the hydroelectricity production by half. To rely on people to make a difference may not be the most effective way as that may still take some time so some governments take it upon them.
Already realizing the poor maintainence could lead to water leakages and the need to reserve the resource, the Russian government has all pipe networks (which are centrally managed) cleaned during the summer. That means hot water supplies are stopped for a month every year, even in major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Of course, the lingering sense of Communism control is not preferred but then again- it doesn’t seem like any part of Europe is spared from the water shortage problems. And why are more water stories on their soil not reported in the local press? Why is the media being so protective as to shield Europeans thinking that they are managing alright, when they clearly face problems of their own. Perhaps the danger does not lie in how serious the problems actually are- but that it has fostered passiveness and further neglect for people who don’t know the truth.
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The Financial Times today ( April 10) has a story on how Barcelona is running short of water.