Richer People Cause Serious Water Problems in Cities

~~ written by dmorista ~~

Richer People Cause Serious Water Problems in Cities

Prepared by Dmorista for The Class Struggle, September 5, 2023

Research using highly sophisticated sampling techniques and data handling, and good old-fashioned interviews has led some researchers in Europe to suggest that the massive over-consumption of urban water resources by the rich and upper middle classes is as big, or even a bigger, factor as population growth and climate change in causing urban water supply crises.

The research article is “Urban Water Crises Driven by Elites’ Unsustainable Consumption”, published in hard copy in Aug 2023, Elisa Savelli et. al., Nature Sustainability,  Vol 6, pp 929–940 (It appeared online on April 10, 2023).  The Dense specialist research article is available at                                                                                                     < file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/s41893-023-01100-0.pdf >

The Abstract is posted here below:

“Over the past two decades, more than 80 metropolitan cities across the

world have faced severe water shortages due to droughts and unsustainable

water use. Future projections are even more alarming, since urban water

crises are expected to escalate and most heavily affect those who are

socially, economically and politically disadvantaged. Here we show how

social inequalities across different groups or individuals play a major role in

the production and manifestation of such crises. Specifically, due to stark

socioeconomic inequalities, urban elites are able to overconsume water

while excluding less-privileged populations from basic access. Through an

interdisciplinary approach, we model the uneven domestic water use across

urban spaces and estimate water consumption trends for different social

groups. The highly unequal metropolitan area of Cape Town serves as a case

in point to illustrate how unsustainable water use by the elite can exacerbate

urban water crises at least as much as climate change or population growth.”

Many articles and other publications have noted that when water crises occur it is, unsurprisingly, the poor, who suffer and who are forced to pay more for water and to use less.  Although the poor generally use water only for necessary cooking, and hygiene purposes they are penalized for using water during difficult supply periods far more than the well-off.  In Cape Town the article notes that: “Despite representing only 1.4% and 12.3% of the total population, respectively, elite and upper-middle-income groups together use more than half (51%) of the water consumed by the entire city. …. (and the poor are much more vulnerable to) increased water tariffs, fines for overconsumption or illicit water uses, withdrawal of the free water allocation for households classified as non-indigent and other measures to enforce the compliance of such restrictions. The increasing block tariff, designed to charge incrementally higher rates to heavier consumers and cross-subsidize light users, was only partially successful in meeting the needs of the poorest population. Indeed, low-income users could not afford the revised tariff. Very often, these residents live in overcrowded units where more than eight people share the same tap and end up being charged unaffordable water bills and fines.”

 

Cape Town nearly ran out of water in 2018, and came within hours of shutting down its Municipal Water Supply System.  But while we might not be surprised that a Global South urban area, with extremely unequal wealth distribution, might be vulnerable to such dislocations, in fact many cities in the Global North are also subject to water supply deficiencies.

A map from the Nature Sustainability article shows the location of 19 major cities that had water supply problems over the past 20 years.  This list included major cities in the developed world including Tokyo, London, Rome, Sydney and Miami.  Actually 9 of the 19 are located in developed countries (if we include Beijing that is certainly an extremely wealthy and modern city located in a very well developed region).   The various urban water supply crises are documented in articles from notes 70 - 89 cited in the article. 

Water supply for cities generally uses about 10% - 15% of water used by society.  Around 80% is used for agriculture (that includes a large amount of non-food crops).  The use of water by people is beginning to push at the limits of what nature can provide.  Maps 2 & 3 demonstrate the level of usage globally by country.  The color coded classification refers to how much of available water resources are already being used by human society.  We can note that the U.S., while nowhere near as close to problems as some countries, is using between 20% & 40% of potential water sources and is ranked as being a Medium-High usage country.

The human population is now up to over 8 Billion, and is also now over 50% urban and that proportion is growing.  Water demand by human civilization has doubled since 1960, meanwhile human population has increased by 2.67 times.  Undoubtedly the improvements in water efficiency, in many  human endeavors, kept water demand from increasing by as much as the population did.  The Global Situation, by overall conditions in the various countries, is shown below in Map 2.

The most serious problems and the place where catastrophic water problems are the closest to causing serious societal dislocations stretches from North Africa to the Indian Subcontinent.  This is shown here below in Map 3.

As for the U.S., while overall the country is not facing serious water supply problems, certain areas and urban agglomerations are already facing difficulties in obtaining water.  Clearly the most widespread and acute problems are those in the desert Southwest region and the semi-arid Southern Plains areas.  This is shown here in Map 4, below.

The Desert Southwest is still a major destination for people moving from other parts of the U.S. or immigrating here from abroad.  The Southern Arizona region, that includes Phoenix and Tucson, currently has a population of 5.5 million, and that is expected to double to 11 million inhabitants by 2040; (See, “In Era of Drought, Phoenix Prepares for a Future Without Colorado River Water”, Feb 7, 2019, Jim Robbins, Yale Environment 360, at <https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-phoenix-is-preparing-for-a-future-without-colorado-river-water>).  Water planners in Phoenix intend to access huge aquifers, that include one of 90 million acre feet much of which is contaminated with a variety of toxic materials and a brackish aquifer of 600 million acre feet that underlies large areas of Arizona.  They are also considering building a desalination plant in Mexico to use water from the Sea of Cortez.  Currently much of the Phoenix area has quit issuing construction permits for new housing. 

Like many aspects of human civilization there are basic contradictions and ironies in issues surrounding water.  In the U.S. people are still migrating to hot water-short, or conversely flood and hurricane prone areas.  While reactionaries claim that people want to live in such fascistic places where the most personal aspects of their lives are now controlled by fanatical theocratic prosecutors and sheriffs (working for the ultra-right billionaires); the reality is somewhat different.  The average person either stays put or moves to where their job prospects are the best and living expenses are reasonable.  The far-right dominated, disaster prone, and often water-short areas, are generally better places for most people to find affordable employment and housing.  They don’t move to those areas so police detectives can root through their phone and internet records to see if they are contemplating or have already left to go to a blue-state for an abortion or to obtain help for a transgender child.  They generally are unaware of the intricacies of water supply issues or how long they will be able to obtain enough water to live or how much it will cost.  They are probably not aware, most of the time, that these regions face very serious basic issues.  The political climate in the Red States might change for the better, but the basic resource and climate issues will only get more serious as the years pass.

As for the impact of the rich and upper-middle class, in pushing water supply systems to the brink of disaster; that is still true for places like the Desert Southwest of the U.S.  It is not quite as stark and simple as in Global South locales like Cape Town, South Africa, but it is clearly part of the process.  In the U.S. there is more ruling class effort, be it political, engineering, and cultural exerted by the rich, to keep the irrational and disastrous move of people to disaster-prone regions in the U.S. Sunbelt in action.  Eventually regions like Southern Arizona will either fill up with people and become less appealing (like has already happened in California the original Sunbelt destination for in-country migrants); or the sorts of problems associated with expensive water might make moving to a place so hot that people regularly suffer third degree burns from inadvertently touching their seat belt buckle when getting in their cars.  Another possibility for stemming the flow would be a major blackout during the summer that, if it lasted for a few days, would cause hundreds or even thousands of people to perish in their poorly designed, hot, unairconditioned homes, apartments, and trailers.