‘Water shortages should be reclassified as unwise water use,’ expert says • FRANCE 24 English

‘Water shortages should be reclassified as unwise water use,’ expert says • FRANCE 24 English

now let’s move to today’s perspective
and large SES of Asia are sweltering
through a heat wave that has topped
temperature records all the way from
Myanmar to the Philippines forcing
millions of children to stay home from
school the authorities in a series of
countries from Cambodia Myanmar Vietnam
India Bangladesh for example forecasting
temperatures of above 40° celsus we’re
just hearing in fact in the last hour or
so Bangladesh saying that it’s been the
hottest April there ever on record well
it all comes as here in Paris a
conference has been taking place at
Singles po University it’s called facing
environmental crisis in South Asia one
of those attending and speaking with Isa
Ray she’s a professor of the energy and
Resources Group at the University of
Berkeley thanks very much for coming in
and talking to us today let’s start off
by talking about this current heat wave
as I just said Bangladesh saying it’s
been the hottest April ever on record
it’s a similar situation across a vast
area of Asia and it just seems to be
getting worse and worse first doesn’t it
yes it does I mean when there’s one heat
wve one can’t directly attribute it to
climate change naturally but I think
there’s no doubt that the trends are
such that these heat waves are becoming
more frequent more intense uh
exacerbating water problems exacerbating
problems of suffering today there are
reports of two or three people who died
in Southern India entirely because of uh
of the heat wave so it’s uh it’s very
it’s a very tragic situation ation it
really is what does it actually mean for
for people who live in countries like
this I mean some of us have experienced
I remember in Paris a few years ago it
was 44 degrees but it just lasted for a
day you have to you know realize that
this goes on sometimes for a week or
even week oh yeah mhm and how do people
react and and adapt to that so if you
have
resources and you have a home with even
if not an air conditioner at least a fan
and you don’t have water problems in
your home because you have 24/7 water
from your TAP you know which is
something so many of us take for granted
in the world then you suffer but you can
stay
inside but working people who are lwi
income in these very low resource
settings usually have the kind of work
which doesn’t permit you to stay inside
so they’re working on construction or
they’re selling vegetables on the
streets or they’re you know they have to
be sort of out and
you know they carry some water with them
but how long would a bottle of water
last through intense heat of this type
you know 39 41 degrees it’s just like
Beyond punishing actually there are
hardly any words for it and so it’s
terrible suffering and they have to work
it’s terrible suffering and I think City
governments and certainly rural
governments you know don’t don’t do
enough to just it it it shouldn’t be so
difficult to set up some drinking water
you know stalls that people can can help
themselves to or or you know something
so simple measures like that just just
to somewhat alleviate the the extreme
suffering and stress uh and as we know
uh extreme heat brings on premature
labor that’s another major danger for
for low resourced women and their to be
born children it brings on stress from
those who already have heart disease so
it’s a terrible thing it really is
terrible I know you spend a lot of time
don’t you working on water provision I
mean it obviously it depends where you
are in the world but how difficult is it
to get water to everybody without having
to resort to to
bottles what can be done to make it
easier and and and for people and
communities look I’m going to just speak
my own opinion right now right these
countries are poor and they have a lot
of UN n challenges so I don’t want to be
Cavalier when I say this but it is not
that we don’t have the technology to
deliver piped water to people even in
crowded and dense settlements many
countries and cities have done it even
low resource countries and cities have
actually made a lot of progress so I
think it’s not other
than making up one’s mind the political
will to spend that money and to put in
that infrastructure we’re not talking
about anything incredibly techn
technologically challenging my view I
think States and donors who support the
states are right now just not stepping
up enough even though I I know I know
they have a lot of competing interests
and it’s often women who are uh more
affected than men as well isn’t it yes
and that is for three reasons one if
there isn’t piped water on the premises
then someone has to go and fetch it and
this is almost always women because
water work is women’s work and sometimes
girls starting at the age of 11 or 12 so
that’s a
drudgery that’s bad for one’s physical
health that’s bad for one’s educational
and work
opportunities so it’s it’s really quite
a severe violation of Human Rights
really in my view the second reason it’s
difficult for women particularly is
because when there is a small amount of
water in the home that has been fetched
and stored so that’s limits to how much
you can have they are the ones who have
to ration it so they’re the ones who are
doing that triage right how can I make
this last right and the third reason
this is particularly gendered is because
if water is stored at home it’s subject
to
recontamination so it gets contaminated
and then it’s you know dirtier than than
it was 2 days ago then the children are
falling sick and the women become the
women and the older girls and the family
become the caregivers so it’s really
multipronged the sort of uh assault on
women’s quality of life that water
shortages lead to and we all know of
course that this is likely to get worse
and worse climate change of course uh
all sorts of other issues are coming
more and more to the for I mean how bad
could it
get this depends on what we do
there is nothing innately bad well there
is but there is no reason for us to
suspect that with climate change it is
inevitable that the water shortages will
get worse and worse right this depends
on how we act right we are making the
future we don’t have to be in the
business of predicting it right we can
make it right so if we are if we have
political will and the financing needed
to provide water if not you know 24/7 in
the tap if that’s too much then close
enough to the compound or the home then
I think we can battle the most severe
consequences that being said there will
be severe consequences well level water
will fall water ground water will get
more mined because of agricultural needs
that’s going to bring down the level of
drinking water wells for people so there
should there will be
exacerbated tragedies and suffering
but it doesn’t have to be as bad as it
looks like it might be because our
projections are based on the assumption
that we’re not going to do anything to
change the situation but I don’t see why
that should be the case and there are
things that individuals can do as
well like Rich individuals or poor
individuals both I mean yes but at the
end of the day that is not the way to
get Universal Water For All has never
been the way I mean what is yes I can
buy a bottle of water and they’re going
to put 5 cents into some place in Africa
you know which doesn’t have water okay
fine right but how can you actually
reach scale by millions of people buying
millions of bottles of water I mean this
seems like an absurd situation to me you
know you can do it’s a Band-Aid it’s a
Band-Aid you know you’ve got a
hemorrhage going on and you’ve got a
Band-Aid right and poor people yes they
can treat their water with chlorine they
can boil it if it isn’t a biomass
stove they can get water filters but all
of these are small expenditures that add
up when you are a really low resourced
family and of course when we think about
water shortages and extreme heat we
think of those traditional places like
Asia like Australia like African
countries like parts of the US but even
a lot of other places I mean I’m
thinking here in France there’s a severe
water shortage in the Southwest of
France Spain around Barcelona at the
moment it’s starting to encroach more
and more on other areas as well isn’t it
it
is but I want to make one thing clear
personally I don’t like the use of the
term water
shortage water shortages don’t arise
because of lack of physical Water
Resources there’s no country in the
world that doesn’t have enough internal
renewable water resources or very few
countries on the world that don’t have
enough internal renewable Water
Resources to provide their population
with enough for domestic purposes water
shortages arise when water that is
available is used really unwisely or
unproductively or overused for purposes
that uh then deprive others from meeting
their basic needs so water
shortages are
really should be reclassified as
unwise water use rather than shortages
which make us think that somehow the
physical commodity is lacking this is
usually not the case good to talk to you
on the program today thanks very much
for coming in iser R professor of the
energy and Resources Group at the
University of California thank you for
having me thanks very much

Large swathes of Asia continue to swelter though a dramatic heatwave that has topped temperature records all the way from India to the Philippines. Bangladesh has faced the hottest April on record, with temperatures forcing millions of children to stay home from school and making working in the scorching heat difficult for millions. The heatwave is also leading to water shortages. But that term is one that water supply expert Isha Ray from the University of California, Berkeley does not like. She has been speaking at a conference in Paris called “Facing Environmental Crisis in South Asia” and told us in Perspective why she thinks the term is misleading.

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