Water is at the center of sustainable development. It is essential for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and human survival.
Water is one of the main axes infight against Climate Change, serving as a link between the climate system, society and the environment. Making it possible for all inhabitants of the planet to have access to drinking water in a universal and equitable way by the year 2030 is the sixthSustainable Development Goalestablished by the United Nations.
This is the complicated challenge we must face, but for which we may already have a solution. Link the policies, management and planning of heritage and water resources to thesustainabilityand desirable socio-economic and territorial scenarios in the medium and long term. With the vision set on this formula, ideas have emerged that will favor more effective and controlled management of this precious resource:
- Stop using water for vehicles and get rid of urban and industrial waste.
- Carry out dry urban sanitation, with thermal and other in situ mineralization treatments.
- Separate drinking or drinking water from other waters of lower quality in the supply networks.
- Separate urban and industrial wastewater and rainwater in sanitation networks.
- Tend to the so-called self-sufficiency (which is already viable for electricity).
- Use more green water and less blue water in agriculture.
- Control of the water footprint.
The role of cities
National and local governments must be the catalysts for real change in these management and consumption habits. The role of recycling and reusing water to avoid its uncontrolled use has an opportunity in this scenario. An opportunity to demonstrate that by acting in an innovative way there can be water for everyone by reducing water stress rates.
It is the cities that must promote sustainable developmentwith the integration and implementation of these initiatives. And when we talk about cities, we talk about both governments, companies and citizens. One of the most direct solutions that will allow the introduction of measurement systems and improved efficiency in water use is throughcalculation of the water footprint, which allows us to know in which productive activities and business sectors we consume the most water and where we can reduce its consumption, generating awareness about our water consumption, making known the daily consumption of water and the problems of contamination and distribution of water throughout the entire value chain of goods and services. Its widespread use constitutes an essential element for the efficiency of this precious resource and the achievement of sustainable development.