Securing water resources : a global necessity

In 2022, 2.2 bil­lion people will still not have access to infra­struc­ture pro­vi­ding drin­king water. Yet the UN’s Sus­tai­nable Deve­lop­ment Goal 6 (SDG 6) aims to ensure uni­ver­sal and equi­table access to affor­dable drin­king water by 2030.

It is essen­tial to unders­tand the com­plexi­ty of the sub­ject of access to water, due to its com­plete trans­ver­sa­li­ty. We are now aware of the need for inte­gra­ted, concer­ted water mana­ge­ment. This resource is nee­ded for many pur­poses, almost all of which are in com­pe­ti­tion with each other : ener­gy pro­duc­tion, agri­cul­ture, indus­try, bio­di­ver­si­ty, recrea­tion, and vital needs. Even if we put all the neces­sa­ry tech­no­lo­gi­cal, social and regu­la­to­ry advances on the table, it will be impos­sible to pro­vide uni­ver­sal access to water without adap­ta­tion because of the changes we are going through.

Water resources are under a triple pres­sure : rising popu­la­tion growth, cli­mate change and increa­sing urba­ni­sa­tion. Today, we need to sup­ply water to 8 bil­lion people – 10 bil­lion by 2050 – for drin­king, washing, eating, heal­th­care, clo­thing, hou­sing, etc. Water consump­tion auto­ma­ti­cal­ly increases with the emer­gence of middle classes around the world. As for urba­ni­sa­tion, it is a veri­table time bomb if left unche­cked. In the coun­tries of the sou­thern hemis­phere, urban growth rates are stag­ge­ring and infra­struc­ture is inade­quate. Faced with such an increase, any coun­try would find it extre­me­ly dif­fi­cult to pro­vide func­tio­nal water and sani­ta­tion systems.

Action is nee­ded at various levels. We need to work on the social aspect. It can, for example, help to over­come reluc­tance to imple­ment cer­tain tech­ni­cal solu­tions, such as the reuse of was­te­wa­ter. In the wes­tern world, water has become a com­mon­place com­mo­di­ty. This is not the case in the coun­tries of the Sahel, for example, where the value of water is often cen­tral to the construc­tion of these socie­ties. Wes­tern socie­ties need to redis­co­ver this value. Final­ly, I think that pro­gres­sive water pri­cing (known as “eco-soli­da­ri­ty”) is an impor­tant lever : in Dun­kirk, it has redu­ced hou­se­hold consump­tion by 8 to 10%¹.

We have made enor­mous pro­gress in this area. By using digi­tal tech­no­lo­gy to opti­mise irri­ga­tion (using drones, sen­sors and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­tions), we are able to reuse trea­ted was­te­wa­ter, arti­fi­cial­ly recharge ground­wa­ter, slow down run-off, encou­rage infil­tra­tion, and so on. Science can pro­vide solu­tions for eve­ry situa­tion, but all too often it is ignored.

Gover­nance is one of the essen­tial levers for secu­ring resources. All over the world, we need to imple­ment solu­tions that take account of local constraints : the geo­lo­gi­cal context, the nature of acti­vi­ties, demo­gra­phics, and so on. For example, in the fast-gro­wing cities of the South, the lack of infra­struc­ture is lea­ding to pol­lu­tion of water resources. More strin­gent regu­la­tions on indus­trial waste would undoub­ted­ly make it pos­sible to limit these effects. To achieve this, howe­ver, we need clear poli­ti­cal will.

Poli­ti­cal deci­sion-making must take place within struc­tures where local players can consult each other, make trade-offs, decide on invest­ments, etc. Consul­ta­tion is abso­lu­te­ly essen­tial, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in a context where resources are beco­ming increa­sin­gly scarce. Trade-offs have to be made bet­ween the dif­ferent water uses. The Uni­ted Nations has iden­ti­fied 300 places in the world where sha­red resources could be a major source of conflict. This dia­logue must take place at both local and regio­nal level. The Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris, for example, are major sources of ten­sion in the regions they cross.

Yes, this is the case with the Niger basin. This river is an essen­tial resource for Benin, Bur­ki­na Faso, Came­roon, Côte d’I­voire, Gui­nea, Mali, Niger, Nige­ria and Chad. All these coun­tries are invol­ved in dis­cus­sions within an inter­go­vern­men­tal orga­ni­sa­tion, the Niger Basin Autho­ri­ty. Set up in the 1960s, it has hel­ped to avoid all water-rela­ted conflicts. Simi­lar struc­tures exist around the Sene­gal River, Lake Chad and the Vol­ta Basin. Within these regio­nal gover­nance struc­tures, deci­sions are taken on the basis of scien­ti­fic and tech­ni­cal data, with the aim of dis­tri­bu­ting water equi­ta­bly across bor­ders. The conti­nui­ty of hydro­lo­gi­cal mea­su­re­ments across bor­ders must be ensu­red, and this is an essen­tial prerequisite.

Inte­gra­ted water mana­ge­ment is also being imple­men­ted in France. Although the sys­tem is com­plex – the Court of Audi­tors has high­ligh­ted the pro­blems asso­cia­ted with the count­less consul­ta­tion struc­tures – it is cur­rent­ly wor­king rather well.

It’s also essen­tial : it’s the last level on which we need to work. Water affects the whole of huma­ni­ty, and it is essen­tial that the Uni­ted Nations – which is a form of glo­bal gover­nance – takes up this issue. In March 2023, the Uni­ted Nations Confe­rence on Water noted the dif­fi­cul­ty of mee­ting the tar­get of Sus­tai­nable Deve­lop­ment Goal 6. This unders­cores the urgen­cy of the situa­tion, and sets things in motion, such as the for­th­co­ming, and long-awai­ted, appoint­ment of a Spe­cial Envoy for Water.

The Uni­ted Nations Confe­rence on Water in 2023 was the first since… 1977 ! It’s quite incre­dible, but the examples of the COPs (cli­mate, bio­di­ver­si­ty) show that it is pos­sible to set up such struc­tures. But even these orga­ni­sa­tions can­not deal with the issue of water : the role of this resource (which has been par­ti­cu­lar­ly hard hit by cli­mate change) is ridiculous.

Water suf­fers from a lack of poli­ti­cal consi­de­ra­tion and invest­ment. One of the main pro­blems with access to water is the lack of infra­struc­ture. We see this even in France : 20% of drin­king water is lost through leaks in the French drin­king water sup­ply net­work. On the Afri­can conti­nent, the situa­tion is even worse. And the same applies to data : data acqui­si­tion net­works have col­lap­sed. Pro­found changes in poli­ti­cal will and invest­ment are essential.

Interview by Anaïs Marechal