Swimming pools for the rich ‘fuel urban water crisis’

[NAIROBI] Rich elites with large swimming pools and well-maintained lawns are leaving poorer communities without basic access to water in cities across the world, according to a study.

In the last two decades, more than 80 cities have faced severe water shortages caused by droughts and unsustainable water use, according to a paper published this month in Nature Sustainability.

Drought and water security specialist Elisa Savelli, a research fellow at Sweden’s Uppsala University and lead author of the study, says socio-economic inequalities can drive water shortages and crises “as much as, if not more than, population growth or climate change”.

“In the long term, the unjust and unsustainable behaviour of these elite will deplete common water sources, making drought more severe and water crises more frequent.”

Elisa Savelli, research fellow, Uppsala University

The number of city dwellers lacking safely managed drinking water has increased by more than 50 per cent since 2000, according to UN-Water.

With the world’s urban population projected to reach almost seven billion by 2050, sustainable management of urban water supply is one of the key challenges of our time.

The research team, which also included scientists from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Manchester University in the UK, analysed domestic urban water consumption across different social groups.

Pools and gardens

They found that most of the water consumed by privileged social groups was used for non-basic needs such as filling swimming pools and irrigating residential gardens.

Such households often have their own private water sources, such as boreholes and wells, for times of crisis, with the rest of the population excluded from accessing them, according to the study.

“The challenge is that the unjust and unsustainable water practices by the elite are the product of a socio-economic system that needs to change if we are to move closer to, or even reach sustainability,” Savelli told SciDev.Net.

Cape Town was chosen as the model for the study due to its stark socio-economic inequalities and experience of water shortages. The city suffered a major drought between 2015 and 2017, which led to an unprecedented water crisis.

The researchers applied interdisciplinary research combining socio-hydrological modelling of human-water interactions and social sciences analysis of power dynamics and inequalities across cities to arrive at the findings.

While constituting only 14 per cent of the urban population, elite and upper-middle-income groups consume more than half of Cape Town’s water, according to the study. Most of this is for non-essential amenities, it says.

In contrast, informal dwellers and lower-income households, which account for more than 60 per cent of the city’s population, consume just 27 per of its water—mostly for basic needs such as drinking and hygiene, the researchers found. Many of these lack access to a tap inside their homes.

“All too often the wealthiest social groups feel entitled to consume unsustainable amounts of water for non-basic needs such as gardening or swimming pools,” said Savelli.

She argues that these behaviours exclusively benefit the rich at the expense of the environment and disadvantaged populations.

“In the long term, the unjust and unsustainable behaviour of these elites will deplete common water sources, making drought more severe and water crises more frequent,” she added.

While past studies have considered average water consumption, they have often dismissed the politics and inequalities involved, overlooking some of the sources of water crises, according to the researchers.

The study says these water injustices are not unique to Cape Town, but are found in every city.

It suggests that water and drought policies should recognise and address the socio-economic injustices that lead to unsustainable consumption and trigger water crises like the one in South Africa.

Kenneth K’oreje, an environmentalist and water quality and pollution expert at Kenya’s Water Resources Authority, says Kenya is familiar with the problems highlighted by the study.

“Like in Cape Town, boreholes in Nairobi are more distributed in the affluent areas where the interests of the elite are served,” he told SciDev.Net.

“Indeed, the privileged are either the policymakers or have the power to influence policy, which ultimately determines the water infrastructure development that often serves their interests first.”

He agrees that while other factors such as climate change and population growth remain key drivers of water shortages, unsustainable water consumption by the elite contributes significantly.

“[Solutions] may include graduated water use charges where large-scale consumers for domestic water pay higher rates compared to low consumers, irrespective of the source of water,” he suggested.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.