Ethics of Water Use
Everyone needs water to survive, a need which is recognized in the Human Right to Water, which includes water for sanitation as well as for drinking. But relatively little water is used to meet these basic human needs. Most of the water we use in our homes and gardens, or in our city parks and fountains, reflects more about cultural preferences and values than biological necessity. Distinguishing between water "needs" and water "desires" is an important step in finding opportunities for lowering the total human demand on scarce water supplies.
Water conservation has become an essential component of water supply strategies. It is usually cheaper for water utilities to meet the rising water demand of growing urban populations by offering incentives to reduce individual water use. What is the goal? Water conservation. in spite of its environmentally sounding name, is usually implemented to benefit people, rather than Nature. A pilot program in Arizona is trying to apply the savings from water conservation to the environment under the "Conserve to Enhance Program" (see reference below). One could also imagine a program of "Treat to Protect" which would apply urban effluent to enhance the amount of water allocated to thirsty riparian ecosystems.
Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) offers a conceptual framework for placing urban water use into a natural context, including the watersheds and aquifers that are provide the source of water, and the downstream water bodies that receive the effluent. The most important dimension of IUWM is neither the upper or lower end of the watershed, but rather the middle and the sides of the watershed. Land use is equally important as water use in forming a sustainable water cycle within the urban context. Non-porous surfaces (e.g., roofs and paved streets) function as water collectors which can provide a valuable resource if properly managed, or can contribute to flood damage and erosion, if improperly managed.
Ethics come into play at every decision point of urban water management as well as domestic water use within the home. The application of best practices such as low-water using appliances and water harvesting from roofs and street surfaces, constitute a first-line of ethical behavior that can have far-reaching benefits if supported by higher level policies. The "conserve to enhance" program in Arizona seeks to connect the level of individual household behavior with local government policies to ensure environmental benefits (and ultimately societal benefits as well). At a larger scale, the Dutch "room for rivers" initiative along the Rhine River seeks to find an accomodation between the flood protection concerns of individual towns and the collective interests of all the riparian communities.
Resources
SWITCH Program is an EU-funded initiative to bring about a paradigm shift in urban water management away from existing ad hoc solutions to urban water management and towards a more coherent and integrated approach. The vision of SWITCH is for sustainable urban water management in the 'City of the Future'
- SWITCH report on Integrated Urban Water Wanagement: Towards Sustainability, by Peter van der Steen, 2006.
"Conserve to Enhance" Approach. Projects to Enhance Arizona's Environment: Piloting a Voluntary Mechanism for Securing Water for Environmental Enhancement Projects, by Sharon Megdal and Joanna Nadeau. University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center, 2010
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Case Study of Ethics inside an Urban Water Utility: Conflict and Cooperation within an Organization: A Case Study of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, by David Zetland (2008) PhD Disseration.
UNESCO Water and Ethics Series (2004)
Human Health and Sanitation, by Monica Porto