World Water Day: what will its relationship be with the future of cities?

22 March 2023

22 March is World Water Day, an observance established by the United Nations in 1992 under the directives of Agenda 21, the outcome of the Rio de Janeiro conference. “Accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis” is this year’s slogan, and the theme is the link between water and climate change. In this article we wanted to highlight the relationship between water and cities.

Cities and water: why is this pairing so important?

Let’s start with cities. Currently, 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) lives in urban areas. Over the next ten years, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities.

Water covers 71% of the Earth, but fresh water accounts for only 3% of the volume, of which just over 1% is above the Earth’s surface.

It comes naturally to think that the sustainable management of water in urban settings represents a shared challenge in which people and cities are the protagonists. Will Media opened the second season of the podcast (which we love so much) “Città”, dedicating the first episode to the relationship between cities and water.

The water emergency

Climate change and global warming are causing glaciers and snowfields, important reserves of fresh water, to melt, as well as a greater frequency of extreme events and a lack of rain and snow. A dramatic water crisis that inevitably hits cities.

2022 was declared by the Italian Meteorological Society as the year “among the most extreme ever recorded in terms of heat and rainfall deficit”, with a severe rainfall deficit compared to the last decade. The Arpa of the Veneto Region estimates that the total amounts recorded in spring 2022 were on average about 50% below normal, making it the second driest spring since 1997. The rainfall deficit in Piedmont, meanwhile, stands at 41%, confirming the calendar year 2022 as the second driest since 2001.

Over 60% of European territory faces water stress. In Italy, about 60% of fresh water is used for agriculture: the third-highest country in Europe for percentage use in this sector. For more than twenty years now, Italy has ranked first in Europe for withdrawals of fresh water for drinking purposes from surface or groundwater bodies. In per capita terms, we rank second, behind only Greece. (Istat, 2023).

Cities and citizens: what can we do?

Politics, administrations and citizens’ habits must work in synergy. Administrations must issue measures aimed at raising citizens’ awareness.

Although we are great supporters of changing individual habits, we know that this is not enough and that it must be supported by urban policies. Cities must rethink urban spaces and pay greater attention to greenery in urban planning. Planting in cities is a first solution: plants and trees combat pollution, the effects of climate change and extreme weather events, acting as a natural filter against pollutants and fine particulate matter. Ahead of International Water Day, Legambiente highlights the potential for recovering rainwater in cities and for reusing wastewater in agriculture.

From the Legambiente report “Accelerare il cambiamento: la sfida dell’acqua passa dalle città”

“In Italy, annual rainfall amounts on average to about 300 billion cubic metres of water, of which only 58 billion are actually usable, due to the uneven distribution of rainfall and evaporation. In this context, rainfall data for 109 provincial capital cities in 2020, a year in which rainfall was also below historical reference averages, amount to about 13 billion cubic metres of rainwater. An enormous waste of resources.”

“The reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture has enormous potential (9 billion cubic metres per year, the water that comes out of treatment plants), but in Italy only 5% of it is exploited (475 million cubic metres)20, due to regulatory limits, farmers’ prejudices and governance that is not yet well defined.”

Getting back to individual habits, in our own small way we can follow some best practices for household water consumption:

• Run household appliances with a full load;
• Take a shower instead of a bath;
• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth;
• Use the water from washing fresh food to water your plants.

Water and cities: apocalyptic scenarios?

Prolonged and widespread drought conditions make us imagine apocalyptic scenarios such as the one in the film “Siccità”. Paolo Virzì’s extremely topical work, released in 2022, depicts a dystopian Rome in which a water crisis has reached apocalyptic levels. The scenario: no rain for three years, limited access to household water and rationing of supplies, bans on supermarket purchases of more than one pack of water per person, and bans on irrigation, watering and car washing.

2020 was the year we reorganised our habits and spaces and rethought our daily activities. So, just as we use MUV to reduce our carbon footprint, we can think about reducing our water footprint.