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Get the knowledge: How products impact the availability of water
“The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives,” according to a Native American proverb. However, we are currently using and polluting water at such a rate that the world faces a water deficit of 40% by 2030, according to the Water Resources Group. Policy makers and business leaders currently rank water shortages as a global risk of highest concern. Around a quarter of the world’s population live in countries where water is scarce, and this number is predicted to double by 2030.
Water is essential for life on Earth. There is a lot of water on Earth, but less than 1% is usable and accessible. Most water is salty seawater, frozen as ice, or inaccessible groundwater. As populations and industrial demands have grown, more pressure has been placed on accessible surface water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
The pressure has been compounded by increased pollution from human activities, combined with frequency of droughts caused by the climate crisis. Recent estimates suggest that a 1.4-3C increase in global warming over the next 50 years will see rainfall drop 16-23%, leaving rivers with 10-40% less water.
Definitions and the SDGs‘Drought’ refers to a temporary decrease in water availability, for example, when it doesn’t rain over a long period of time.
‘Water scarcity’ occurs when demand for water exceeds the available sustainable resources. It can be either a water deficiency or a lack of safe water supplies.
When a territory withdraws 25% or more of its renewable freshwater resources, it is said to be ’water-stressed’.
Access to clean water and sanitation is a sustainable development goal in its own right (SDG6), but water itself is a cross-cutting issue which affects many of the sustainable development goals. |
Although water is renewable and continually circulates in the water cycle, it is a finite resource which is often undervalued by industries that rely on it heavily, like energy and agriculture. In fact, water, food and energy systems are deeply intertwined, in what is known as the water-food-energy nexus.
This means if you impact one there are ramifications for the others. For example, if a drinking water source is contaminated, then energy is needed to treat it to make it drinkable. If based on fossil fuels, this energy will contribute more to the climate crisis. And, if water sources are depleted, there will be less water available for growing food.
What are governments doing?
Various governments have initiatives to tackle water security. But generally more action needs to be seen in infrastructure investment and enforcement of regulations to ensure long-term solutions to the current threat.
The situation in Spain, one of the most water-stressed countries in Europe, illustrates the complexity of the problem, which needs coordination and cooperation between national and regional authorities, critical industries such as agriculture and tourism, and the general public. We Are Water notes: “In Spain: governance seems not to have learned from the recurrent droughts and continues to drag endemic water problems that have yet to be solved.”
Cherrapunjee: the ‘wettest desert’ on earthAibor Khonglah is a quarryman. He lives in an old rain-battered tin roof house at Laitryngew village, in Cherrapunjee, India, with his wife Manosha Khongsit, their four children, and their two grandchildren.
He remembers when he was a child, during the monsoon, dancing in the rain, the drops falling hard on his head and shoulders, drenching his clothes. Then the wells were full of clean water.
Now, fifty years later, the wells have dried up, any water that does collect is too acidic to drink.
The cause of the pollution is ’rat-hole’ mining, where individual miners dig small holes vertically to find coal seams. With a high sulphur content, once these seams are opened up, the groundwater quickly becomes acidified. Aibor read in the local paper that even the nearby dam was damaged because of the acid.
Adding to the problem is the clearing of forests to grow agricultural crops. In recent years, about 80% of the total forest cover has been cleared. Without the forest, the rainwater runs off the land and away to the plains of Bangladesh. As a result, Aibor’s grandchildren, along with other kids and womenfolk from the village have to walk 5km to gather water from streams and water tankers.
In fact, climate change is having an even more fundamental impact. When Manosha was young, the rainfall was welcomed with names such as "slap lie sngi" or "slap khyndai sngi" ("three" or "nine” day rain). In those days, Cherrapunjee was known as the wettest place on earth, with a rainfall of 24,555mm in 1974. Since then, the average rainfall has halved, the old way of life is a distant memory. Reporting by Raju Das |
The UK government announced a new framework to preserve water resources in 2020, by reducing average use to 110 litres/person/day by 2050, improving water efficiency across all sectors and working with water companies to halve leakage rates by 2050, while also developing new supplies such as reservoirs, water reuse schemes and desalination plants. There is a huge task ahead; the Environment Agency’s 2021 assessment of England’s nine water and sewerage companies was the worst seen for years.
The European Union’s overarching Water Framework Directive was established to protect inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. It aims to prevent and reduce pollution, promote sustainable water use, protect and improve the aquatic environment. EU member states are required to draw up River Basin Management Plans based on natural geographical river basins, as well as specific programmes to support the Directive’s objectives. At the last reporting date in 2021, only three member states had completed all measures planned to that date, while the majority (20 member states) had completed only ’some’ despite the initial 2021 deadline.
In the US, the government has announced several initiatives, including the Addressing the drought portal, which coordinates activities between the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, individual states, tribes, agriculture, power customers, municipalities and conservation organisations. The Biden Administration acknowledges that there is an urgent need to minimise the impacts of drought and develop a long-term plan to facilitate conservation and economic growth, “because drought doesn’t impact just one community — it affects all of us, from farmers and ranchers to city dwellers and Tribes”.
For more detail on the US situation read Adaptation to Future Water Shortages in the United States Caused by Population Growth and Climate Change, by Thomas C. Brown published in Advancing Earth and Space Science in February 2019.
- Drought and water supply are also covered in Ocki articles on East, Southern and West and Central Africa, as well as the Middle East and the foundation article on utilities.
People have concernsVarious surveys show that people are concerned about water use. For example, a 2017 Ipsos Mori survey of 18,070 people across 24 countries showed that:
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In a 2019 Ipsos mori survey of British consumers, focusing on textiles and ‘fast fashion’, 55% of respondents said they would be put off buying clothes from a company that polluted the environment in its manufacturing processes.
However, people also are not clear about how much water they use personally. A water.org.uk survey showed that nearly 80% of people thought they used less than 60 litres/day (nearly 50% thought less than 20 litres/day). However, actual average water use in the UK is more than 140litres/day.
Indirect and direct use of water
Pretty much all the products we use, wear and eat require water during their manufacture. This is called indirect or virtual water use. Some products also require water consumption during their use, for example, washing clothes, which is called direct water use. Indirect water use is usually much larger than direct water use.
Typically, the largest demand for freshwater comes from agriculture, which consumes about 70% of freshwater globally. Industry uses 20%, and domestic consumption, including drinking water, represents 10%. However, national data varies significantly around the world.
Steps for reducing water useReduce your direct water use in everyday life. For example:
Reduce indirect water use associated with the products you buy. In general:
In specific sectors:
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How businesses are reducing water use
Some companies have policies on water, so another way to get involved is to support those that are taking action. Policies can usually be found on company websites, under sustainability or corporate sections. Where it is not clear, ask for information about water stewardship.
Some best practices for reducing water use during manufacturing include:
- Reducing water use, for example by using dry machining.
- Installing wastewater recovery and reuse, such as used by ‘dry factories’.
- Minimising use of chemicals and reducing water pollution.
- Implementing sustainable abstraction methods to ensure water usage is not damaging.
- Encouraging stakeholder engagement, including for workers and local communities.
For example, in the automotive industry, Ford Motor Company claims to have reduced its water use by 71% in the US and by 62% globally between 2000 and 2012, by using a combination of dry machining (using a lubrication mist of small amounts of oil and water sprayed directly onto the tips of cutting tools), cutting out a stage of painting, and wastewater recovery and reuse.
Personal care products manufacturer L’Oréal has three dry factories in Burgos in Spain, Vorsino in Russia, and Settimo Torinese in Italy. L’Oréal defines a dry factory as a plant where the only water used is as a constituent of products (for example, water as an ingredient in shampoo) or during the product’s use (such as when water is added to coffee). In other words, 100% of the water used for industrial processes, for example tank cleaning, is purified and reused for other processes on-site, such as cooling or washing other types of equipment.
An example in the coffee sector comes from Olam international. The Aviv Coffee Plantation in Southern Tanzania, working with Water Witness International, has achieved the Alliance for Water Standard (AWS) for its water management in a challenging river catchment and has achieved benefits in four key areas:
- Good water governance.
- Sustainable water balance.
- Good water quality status.
- Healthy important water related areas.
Both the business and stakeholders including the local community have benefited from improved water security. The AWS standard verifies that a company is applying best practices to progress towards good water governance, a sustainable water balance, good water quality status, considering other water-related impacts, safe water, sanitation and hygiene for all.
In the textiles sector, UK retailer, Marks & Spencer claims to have used 100% sustainable cotton since March 2019. By partnering with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), the company aims to empower farmers to be more efficient with water, care for soil health and respect biodiversity, as well as improve social conditions for farmers.
This article was originally published on 28/08/2022 but has been updated to reflect the latest research and developments in this area.
Check it out
For more information on these issues:
- The 2030 Water Resources Group is a public, private, civil society fund hosted by the World Bank set up to promote strong socio-economic development across all sectors connected to water. It publishes annual reports, including the 2021 Annual Report: From Dialogue to Action, the Road to 2030.
- We Are Water is a non-profit organisation aiming to help resolve problems related to the lack of water and sanitation around the world. It publishes Insights, such as its recent analysis of Spain.
- UK government’s new framework to preserve water resources.
- The Environment Agency’s 2021 assessment of England’s nine water and sewerage companies.
- The European Commission’ Water webpage, providing details of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which aims to protect inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater.
- WFD implementation status among EU member states reported.
- The US government’s Addressing the drought portal coordinates activities between the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, individual states, tribes, agriculture, power customers, municipalities and conservation organisations.
- For more detail on the US situation read Adaptation to Future Water Shortages in the United States Caused by Population Growth and Climate Change, by Thomas C. Brown published in Advancing Earth and Space Science in February 2019.
- Tips for reducing direct water consumption from the Rivers Trust, an umbrella organisation for 65 local trusts in the UK and Ireland. It includes river and catchment conservation experts.
- The Global Organic Textiles standard requires manufacturers to demonstrate environmental management, including wastewater treatment, and social standards.
- The Swedish Textile Water Initiative focuses on resource efficiency in the fashion textile industry, to reduce the negative impacts of emissions from energy, chemicals, greenhouse gases and water.
- Alliance for Water Stewardship is a collaboration of organisations including businesses, NGOs and the public sector working on the sustainability of local water-resources through the adoption and promotion of a framework called the International Water Stewardship Standard, or AWS Standard.
- Ford Motor Company’s policy on water use.
- L’Oréal’s description of a ‘dry factory’.
- Olam International case study on water management at the Aviv Coffee Plantation in Southern Tanzania.
- UK retailer, Marks & Spencer partners with the Better Cotton Initiative to help farmers to be more efficient with water, care for soil health, respect biodiversity, and improve social conditions for farmers.
- The Water Footprint Network’s Water Footprint Assessment Manual provides definitions and methods for water footprint accounting. It shows how water footprints are calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses. The manual also includes methods for water footprint sustainability assessment and a library of water footprint response options.
- UN Water coordinates work on water and sanitation by over 30 UN entities and international organisations.
- Sanitation and Water for All is a global partnership of governments, donors, civil society organisations and other development partners working together to coordinate high-level action, improve accountability and use scarce resources more effectively.
- Global Water Partnership is a network with over 3,000 water resource organisations, in nearly 180 countries, including government institutions, UN agencies, banks, professional associations, research institutions, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector.
- Water.org is a global nonprofit organisation working to bring safe, accessible, and cost-effective water and sanitation to the world.
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