Wednesday March 22 was World Water Day and the date chosen by the UN to start an exceptional 3-day summit on the global water crisis. From Jaden Smith’s filtering “Water Box” to the number of washes of his jeans and his burger consumption, the “1 planet, solutions” column produced by NOWU in partnership with France Info, tells you about the different solutions to the “imminent” water crisis facing the world.
A world water summit inaugurated by activist Mina Guli
Water activist Mina Guli kicked off the international conference by finishing her 200th marathon of the year outside the UN headquarters in New York. The Australian has spent her year traveling the world to raise awareness of the water crisis and “carry the voice” of affected populations. She hopes that international leaders will take action commensurate with the problem.
An ambitious “Water Action Program” awaited.
The summit should lead to an “ambitious Action Program for Water” according to the UN, and its conclusions will be released on March 24.
Measures that the world seems to need. On Earth, water is becoming increasingly scarce., we use it more and more, we pollute it a lot and droughts are increasing. We have seen it again in France this winter, water restrictions do not only concern the other side of the world.
According to the UN, the distribution of water resources could become a major issue in the years to come and cause international tensions.
Solutions to the global water crisis?
On a very large scale, this would apparently be very simple: according to AFP, a group of experts has calculated that securing water globally by 2030 would cost just over 1% of global GDP. And that in addition, “the return on these investments would be immense”.
So great, but until the funds are released, many projects are emerging around the world.
Essential initiatives according to Tajikistan’s special envoy for water, Sulton Rimzoda, who believes that “every commitment is important” and that “drop by drop, it will become an ocean”.
Drop by drop, it will become an ocean (…) Any commitment is important.
Sulton Rahimzoda, Tajikistan’s special envoy for water
In South Africa, for example, an engineer has developed an innovative system to make acidic water drawn from mining operations drinkable.
On a slightly more glam note, a celebrity made headlines a few years ago by installing a water filtration system in the city of Flint in the United States. This is the actor and rapper Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith). He developed the “Water Box” with engineers in response to the Flint health crisis and today it is installed in several American cities.
What to put in place at our level?
A good start would be to simply reduce your water consumption. Today, the average water consumption of a French person is around 150 liters of water per day! That’s over 40 liters more than in 1980.
200 liters for a bath, 80 liters for a shower, 42 liters for doing the dishes by hand… The figures for water consumption for daily activities in France are rising rapidly!
Especially when you have to put your clothes in the washing machine: 90 liters of water used. so at NOWU we wondered how to reduce its washes. Thanks to information provided to us by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), we realized that we were washing our clothes far too much and that we could save a lot of machines!
Jeans for example, if we don’t roll in the mud with them obviously, we don’t have to wash them before at least fifteen times worn. Purists will even say that it should never be washed, but that is another debate.
In total, domestic uses represent about a quarter of water consumption in France (24%). But the biggest consumer is agriculture (48%)!
At the individual level, avoid waste food and greening one’s diet therefore remains the most effective way to save water. Because for example, throwing 1 kg of red meat in the trash means wasting the 550 to 700 L of water that were needed to produce it.
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