Europe is experiencing the worst drought in the last 500 years and the hydrological cycle is becoming unbalanced due to climate change and human action, says the latest report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Furthermore, data collected by the UN, based on research carried out in the last two years, points to “an unprecedented emergency on a planetary scale, in which the massive impacts of human-induced droughts are only beginning to manifest.” It was written by the experts of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in the report “Global portrait of drought”, which they presented at the last United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28), held in Dubai. (United Arab Emirates) at the end of 2023.
The report, carried out in collaboration with the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), is not limited to putting devastating data on the table, but also points out some proposals to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, such as soil restoration , sustainable land and water management, and nature-friendly agricultural practices. “By adopting agricultural techniques such as drought-resistant crops, efficient irrigation methods, no-till and other soil conservation practices, farmers can reduce the impact of drought on their crops and income,” the document states. Disaster preparedness and early warning systems are also essential, as are international cooperation, knowledge sharing, and environmental and social justice. Precisely, the motto of this year's World Water Day is “Water for Peace”, which advocates cooperation between countries to face the major challenge we face.
If we focus on Spain, experts point out that there has been “inadequate management of water resources and overexploitation of aquifers. Climate change has aggravated the problem, but it has brought to light other problems such as structural imbalances between the demand for water and the resources we have available to meet that demand,” says Sofía Tirado Sarti, researcher in the Energy and Climate Program of the Elcano Royal Institute and professor in the area of Quantitative Economics at different university centers.
“We have to reduce consumption and be aware of the scarcity of water,” warns Tirado, who points out other possibilities for savings such as using alternative resources such as regenerated water or desalination plants. “But they have several problems, one of them is the cost,” recalls Tirado. “On average, a cubic meter of regenerated water can cost between 35 and 50 cents, the same amount of desalinated water costs around 90 cents, while pumping a cubic meter of fresh water on a small plot costs around 10 cents. ”.
For Tirado, we must go beyond talking about water for human consumption, for industry or for agriculture. Ecosystems are also affected by drought and, especially, aquifers. “In the world, approximately 25% of aquifers are seriously overexploited, and Spain is one of the countries in Europe with the greatest overexploitation. Added to this is the illegal consumption of water. According to WWF data, it is estimated that there are more than half a million illegal wells in Spain.”
The situation is more serious in Catalonia, which a few months ago declared an emergency due to drought. Annelies Broekman, a researcher in the Water and Global Change group at the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), states along the same lines as Tirado that “in Catalonia, and also in the rest of the world, we have overexploited water masses. And when we talk about water consumption, we not only talk about volumes and liters but also about pollution. Our watersheds are quite bad in terms of ecological and biophysical health. We have half of the aquifers contaminated and very few rivers have an acceptable environmental flow regime. We have already lost more than 50% of the biodiversity in Catalonia,” highlights the researcher, who recalls that “the natural environment is the water factory, the basis for everything to develop. This environment is on its knees and when drought hits you are more vulnerable.”
For this reason, “I very much regret the decision to reduce environmental flows at this time of emergency because hydrological systems precisely give us resilience,” adds Broekman. “Now we will see how we lose even more biodiversity, which is functional, purifies water. A living river is an incredible purifying machine. Reducing flow rates is harming oneself. Destroying systems that take geological time to recover is very expensive.”
For the CREAF expert, long-term policies are vital for the “restoration and recovery of the biophysical and ecosystem functionality of the basins.” Because she, she defends, there has been poor management of the territory. “Water can not only be managed by the ACA [Catalan Water Agency]. If you think that absolutely everything we do has an impact on the water cycle, it is obvious that there is a lack of interdepartmental coordination and awareness on the part of all sectors.” The researcher considers that a good future strategy should be to “manage resources better, learn to calculate the risks due to climate change and global dynamics, and transform the economic models that are behind the demand for water, so that we can find a balance between the territory and natural and social resources.”
And not only coordination and awareness, but also reduction of consumption. “With desalination, for example, more flows enter the supply distribution system, but it is a flight forward if we do not stop demand,” defends Broekman.
“The expansion of the Tordera desalination plant (in Blanes) has an impact on the delta, on the sea and on emissions, also on the territory. But the serious thing is that it has a cultural and political impact because citizens believe that there is an open bar and we will already manufacture the water that we will need. That is a dystopia. We cannot do without the water in the middle and think that we are fine because we open the tap and water comes out, even if it is desalinated. You cannot think of emancipating yourself from the rain as I have heard some people say. “It is a techno-optimistic dystopia that does not take into account real dynamics.”
Beyond desalination or treatment plants, “what I want to make clear is that all the tools we have are just that, tools that add up and complement each other, but we must be more careful in how we manage each basin with the aim of giving it long-term resilience.” ” explains Broekman. “It is important not to ignore the challenge we have, if we desalinate more and demand grows, we are cultivating the thirst for tomorrow.”
What if we continue like this? “The cost of doing nothing will be greater, we cannot continue like this, we must take advantage of the window of opportunity. The drought situation has to help us change, once and for all, the way we plan and manage water resources.”
Even if it is for economic reasons: “A study by the European Environment Agency states that drought causes economic damage of up to 9 billion euros each year in Europe. If we continue doing nothing, costs could skyrocket to 25 billion annually if the planet warms 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels,” concludes Sofía Tirado.
