Pedro Arrojo, UN rapporteur: Water must be a "common good accessible to all"
Lourdes Uquillas
Madrid, May 20 (EFEverde).- "Maintaining democratic management of water, understood as a common good accessible to all, not appropriated by anyone or treated as a commodity," is one of the three challenges posed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo.
Arrojo also urges us to "make peace with the rivers and aquifers on which our lives depend, and particularly the daily lives of billions of people, ensuring their health and sustainability."
Likewise, "to make water an argument for peace and cooperation among the peoples of the world, particularly those who share transboundary basins, and not, as is currently being done, a weapon of war."
The doctor in physics and professor emeritus at the University of Zaragoza points out that since taking office as United Nations Special Rapporteur, he has insisted that "we are facing a global water crisis, among others, and that the global water crisis on planet water, the blue planet, is particularly paradoxical, with more than 2 billion people without guaranteed access to drinking water."
These "are extremely impoverished people who live next to contaminated rivers or aquifers, often with toxic products, or whose water is monopolized by powerful actors for their economic activities," Arrojo emphasized in an interview with EFE, prior to her participation in a roundtable discussion on "Water, a common good to be preserved" organized by the French Institute in Madrid.
Climate adaptation and resilienceRemember that the scientific community has been warning for several decades about rising average temperatures on the planet, which will lead to more intense evaporation of water in seas and oceans, and "what goes up eventually comes down, so the amount of rain that falls on average will be greater."
The problem, he warns, is "the increase in climate and rainfall variability," as in countries in the Mediterranean area, with dry periods and periods where there may be more storms, droughts, and heavy rains, such as hurricanes and hurricanes, are increasing in intensity and frequency.
Faced with this reality, "we must develop climate change adaptation plans that strengthen environmental and social resilience, with hydrological, territorial, and urban planning measures and strategies, with the goal of minimizing the impacts of these risks."
Regarding the situation in Europe, Arrojo points out that the European Union has a legal framework, the Water Framework Directive, that "defines global leadership in water management from an ecosystem perspective, understanding water not simply as a resource to be fought over or competed for, but from an ecosystem perspective, where river basins must be managed for the benefit of all and in a sustainable manner."
This, he says, "forces us toward a dynamic of shared management, shared responsibility, and cooperation rather than competition. Because what the Framework Directive does, for example, is establish the obligation for each river basin to implement sustainable and equitable management. The ecosystem must be in good condition, regardless of whether it is on one side or the other of a border."
In his opinion, "this should lead us to understand that water is not infinite anywhere in the world and that it is not possible to disrupt the sustainability of one ecosystem to transport water to another ecosystem where sustainable management has not been known or desired."
Desalination plantsHe recalls that Europe proposed funding desalination plants and ending the water transfer approach. "They end up being cheaper than that large-scale water transfer infrastructure," he asserts, adding that in areas with the fewest water resources during the longest drought in recent decades, "there hasn't been a single water cut in Murcia or Almería," in Spain.
"That is to say, there are solutions based on this new approach proposed by the Water Framework Directive, with the priority of ensuring the good ecological status of aquatic ecosystems in all basins," he concludes. EFE
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