Water: Towards a Culture of Responsibility

1: New Resources

I. NEW RESOURCES WATER SAVING, A RESOURCE AVAILABLE NOW Avoiding leaks and putting an end to our consumerist relationship with nature are imperative when water and energy resources are both diminishing. In many cities in America, Asia or Africa, more than 40 % of water is lost through pipe leakages. In the distribution network in Colombo, Delhi, New Orleans or even Riyadh, leaks account for 50 %. In other words, for every two cubic metres of water taken from the natural environment and treated, one cubic metre disappears while it is being transported to the final consumer. In France, the average rate is around 20 %1 . There is a threshold, of course, beyond which the cost of increasing the proportion of water delivered by the system becomes unreasonable , but we cannot continue to allow leaks equivalent to half the volume of water entering the distribution system. The reduction of leaks will clearly allow a reduced rate of abstraction from resources, or enable greater needs to be satisfied with the same rate of abstraction. This measure should precede all research into new sources. In fact, saving water in the public system is often the most substantial water resource immediately available. Indeed, conserving water first of all implies efficient delivery. A good public service operator must conserve the scarce resources in his care, and then create new ones. It is possible to recover enormous volumes of water by preventing loss from urban networks. For example, the reduction in losses over five years in Tangiers, Tetuan and Rabat, is equivalent to the amount consumed by nearly 800,000 inhabitants. Already in November 2004, Ali Fassi-Fihri, director general of the Moroccan Office nationale de l’eau potable (ONEP), jokingly reminded people that the battle against leaks in the water systems of Moroccan cities had, in one year, allowed a saving of 5 % of treated water. This was bad news for the finances of ONEP (which sells treated water to the distributors), but excellent news for an arid country like Morocco. In Paris, over the last 30 years, the yield from the distribution system has risen from 75 % to 90 %, says Odile de Korner, acting director general 127 1.Source: Les dossiers de l’IFEN – Dossier no.7: “Les services d’eau en 2004”, Oct. 2007. of Eau de Paris, a semi-public company retained by the Ville de Paris2 . This period corresponds more or less to that of the management of water distribution by private operators. On the right bank of the city, where Veolia Water manages distribution to 1.4 million Parisians, the network yield has increased spectacularly since 1985 (the beginning of the leasing contract) and reached 96.2 % in 2007. This improvement has allowed a reduction of nearly 400 million m³ in the volume of water pumped from rivers and water courses since the transition to delegated management, which is nearly four times the annual consumption figure for the right bank area. This has produced marked savings in investment , whether in the sourcing, pumping, treatment or transport; savings which benefit both the city and its inhabitants. • Moving from a culture of supply management to demand management Managing demand saves water. Until now, supply management has predominated over demand management, but it is now crucial to involve consumers more so that they can take control of their consumption and protect their environment. But this “civic responsibility towards water”, that is, the adoption of behaviour which promotes the general interest, will not increase unless inhabitants are given the means by which to control their consumption. This can be dome by the widespread installation of household water meters and remote meter-reading or text-message information systems. In Shenzhen, in China, 70,000 text messages are sent every month to consumers, including some that alert them when their consumption is greater than usual. In Paris, Metz, and other areas covered by the Syndicat des eaux d’Ile de France, remote meter-reading systems are gradually being installed. Thanks to these, consumers can monitor their water consumption in real time and thus take greater control over it. Nor does industry wish to be outdone. Between 2000 and 2007, Danone reduced its water consumption by 30 %, and in the last ten years, L’Oreal has lowered its consumption by 23.5 %3 . By a combination of giving more responsibility to employees, recycling waste water and systematic research into water saving, they have put in place, or caused to be put in place, methods that are more economical...