💧 The water crisis is not just technical; it’s about governance.
Access to water is a fundamental human right. However, this resource—traditionally known as ‘liquid gold’—is now more than ever taking on that significance, as it lies at the heart of major climate and social challenges. Increasing water stress, the intensification of extreme weather events and growing urban, agricultural and industrial demand underscore its strategic importance and its growing scarcity.
“The main problem is not so much water scarcity, but rather its management and governance, as well as a significant investment gap,” argued César Ossorio, Sustainability Manager for Acciona’s Water business, during the Observatory: Access, reuse and desalination: the keys to a more resilient water cycle, organised by elEconomista.es.
The panel discussion also featured Jon Beristain, Vice-President of AEDYR; Pedro Arrojo, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water at Fundación Nueva; Saskia De Longvilliers, Civil & Water Service Leader at Arup in Spain; and Emma Orejudo, Head of the Water and Sanitation Fund at AECID.
Pedro Arrojo underscores the need for committed, transparent management focused on the common good:
Water is a human right; however, “we are in the midst of a global crisis, with problems of physical water scarcity that will lead to mass displacement,” explained Pedro Arrojo, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water at the New Water Culture Foundation. He argued that “the problem also lies in the fact that there are people who, even though they live near rivers or aquifers, are extremely poor and do not have access to basic infrastructure, such as pipes to bring water to their homes”.
Recent studies warn that more than 4 billion people worldwide do not have access to drinking water. “One of the major obstacles is toxic pollution. We are not paying attention to it, nor are we doing anything to stop it,” said Arrojo. He cited the example of Peru, where thousands of children and adults had been poisoned by heavy metals in the water. ‘This is a crime against humanity. Hundreds of millions of people are being poisoned without knowing it, and the problem is that no one looks at who is polluting; they just ask for money to treat the water.’
Arrojo was firm and called on governments to act like the women who go to the springs for water: even though they face risks or have other things to do, their priority is water. ‘This is what governments must do: prioritise water, adopt a human rights-based approach and include it in their budgets, although greater social commitment is also needed to tackle the problem,’ he declared. In line with this, he also proposed ‘the creation of a financial platform with clear priorities in the budgets, where the State leads the negotiations’.
Read the full text in El Economista (Spanish) and see the video:
