Rich people's swimming pools are leaving cities thirsty

Wealthy elites with huge swimming pools and wellkept lawns are leaving underprivileged people in cities throughout the world without basic access to waterAccording to new study societal inequalities drive urban water issues more than environmental factors like climate change or urban population increaseThe study published in the journal Nature Sustainability found that urban elites overconsume water for their own personal leisure such as filling their swimming pools watering their gardens or washing their carsThe research team focused on Cape Town South Africa where an urban water crisis means many underprivileged people live without taps or toilets and use their limited water for drinking and hygieneThey also highlighted similar issues in 80 cities worldwide including London Miami Barcelona Beijing Tokyo Melbourne Istanbul Cairo Moscow Bangalore Chennai Jakarta Sydney Maputo Harare Sao Paulo Mexico City and RomeProfessor Hannah Cloke a hydrologist at the University of Reading who coauthored the study said Climate change and population growth mean that water is becoming a more precious resource in big cities but we have shown that social inequality is the biggest problem for poorer people getting access to water for their everyday needsMore than 80 big cities worldwide have suffered from water shortages due to droughts and unsustainable water use over the past 20 years but our projections show this crisis could get worse still as the gap between the rich and the poor widens in many parts of the world she addedThis shows the close links between social economic and environmental inequality Ultimately everyone will suffer the consequences unless we develop fairer ways to share water in cities she saidInsufficient water managementThe research led by Dr Elisa Savelli at Uppsala University Sweden alongside coauthors from the University of Reading UK Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands and the University of Manchester UK used a model to analyse the domestic water use of urban residents in Cape Town to understand how different social classes consume waterThey identified five social groups ranging from elite people who live in spacious homes with large gardens and swimming pools to informal dwellers people who tend to live in shacks at the edge of the cityElite and uppermiddleincome households make up less than 1437 of Cape Towns population but use more than half 5137 of the water consumed by the entire city Informal households and lowerincome households account for 6237 of the citys population but consume just 2737 of Cape Towns waterCurrently the researchers highlight that efforts to manage water supplies in waterscarce cities mostly focus on technical solutions such as developing more efficient water infrastructure These reactive strategies which focus on maintaining and increasing the water supply are insufficient and counterproductive the research team suggests Instead a more proactive approach aimed at reducing unsustainable water consumption among elites would be more effective they suggestAlso Read NMMC announces 24hr water supply shut downThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever