UN blames bottling companies for leaving millions without water
- March 16, 2023
- 0
When representatives from around the world gather next week in New York for the UN’s first water conference in more than 40 years, they will have to answer
When representatives from around the world gather next week in New York for the UN’s first water conference in more than 40 years, they will have to answer an uncomfortable question:Why 2 billion people still do not have access to drinking water?
The UN itself has some ideas. A study published this Thursday by the Institute for Water, Environment and Health at the United Nations University (Inveh), based in the Canadian city of Hamilton, accuses bottled water industry “slowing down progress” on the way to universal supply.
The report states that “less than half of what the world pays each year for bottled water – about $270 billion – would be enough to provide years of access to potable piped water for the hundreds of millions of people who need it.”
Photo: Reuters
Researchers estimate that each year 350,000 million liters of water sold spills all over the world. Are a million bottles a minute. The industry is expected to nearly double its turnover to $500 billion by 2030.
But an increase in its consumption masks lack of public drinking wateras well as the diversion of resources that should be used in supply chains.
“Given that there are 2 billion people in the world without access to drinking water, this represents a huge disparity that makes no sense,” Vladimir Smakhtin, one of the authors of the report and former director of the Water Institute, told EFE. .
A luxury item or a necessity?
The key is need. While in rich countries bottled water is considered more or less a luxury item that tastes better than tap water, in many poor countries in Asia or sub-Saharan Africa it is the only safe way to consume water and creates fertile markets. for bottling. companies.
Photo: Reuters
This situation “distracts developers’ efforts and redirects attention to an option that is less accessible and safer for many, but provides many advantages for manufacturers,” they explain in the report.
According to Zeyneb Bulel, another of the authors, the opportunities that this sector needs to expand rapidly are related to “lack of policies and rules adequate”.
“They are constantly creating new products, new market strategies. And countries and governments do not have the regulatory tools to adjust to this growth,” the expert adds.
bad public administration
In addition to the effects of the bottling industry, the World Bank, one of the most resourceful organizations dedicated to expanding access to drinking water, highlights another problem that still holds back the most vulnerable populations: poor management of utilities. .
Photo: Reuters
Gustavo Saltiel, global leader of the water and sanitation organization, explains in an interview EFE that the tendency to view water resources management as an inferior sector hinders service expansion to ensure better coverage of the most marginalized groups.
“Many service providers in different regions of the world are not recovering their operating expenses,” Saltiel says, leading to poor maintenance and deteriorating infrastructure.
The situation is exacerbated by the actions of some governments that interfere with the management of these companies and do not allow them “to be autonomous in terms of cost recovery.”
These measures, Saltiel explains, such as general subsidies that drive the price of drinking water below the cost of producing it, eventually benefiting the wealthiestwho spend the most, since the poor usually do not have washing machines or other systems that consume a lot of water in their homes.
On the other hand, the expert advocates a progressive tariff structure that subsidizes the most vulnerable with little consumption and forces those who consume the most to pay the real cost of water, especially in times of climate crisis and drought.
systems change
The World Bank intends to improve this situation through what it calls “systems change(changing systems) by giving incentives to the companies that operate these services, both public and private, to develop performance-oriented vision of the futureto include the most vulnerable and resilient.
He will do it through the program,Utilities of the future(Services of the Future), which currently involves 80 water companies around the world and is already included in many of the loans that the organization offers to countries as part of its development programs.
Photo: Reuters
These ideas will message focus that the organization hopes to take over next week’s UN conference, and that Saltiel sees an excellent opportunity to bring the world’s attention back to an often-forgotten crisis.
(EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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