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The Guardian has just called out the rich of Cape Town and beyond for their lush swimming pools, well-watered gardens, and clean cars.

The newspaper notes that wealthy people use so much water to keep these luxury amenities going that they are, pretty much, pushing water crises in their cities “at least as much as the climate emergency or population growth”.

While this is true for the rich all over the world, Cape Town was used as the main case study, with researchers finding that the richest people here used 50 times more water than the poorest.

The scientists recalled how when the Day Zero water crisis struck in 2018, the poorest were left without enough water for their basic needs while the rich mostly managed.

You don’t have to put your hand up if you still took a sneaky bath or didn’t empty your pool out.

Just in case you’re feeling personally attacked, the researchers noted more than 80 big cities experiencing extreme drought and water shortages since 2000, including Miami, Melbourne, London, Barcelona, São Paulo, Beijing, Bengaluru, and Harare.

The point of the study – published in the journal Nature Sustainability – is that this vast gap between the water usage of the rich and poor has obfuscated proper working solutions to water shortages. The researchers said that the focus has always just been on attempts to increase supply and higher prices for water, while the more effective way to manage a water crisis and protect water supplies is to redistribute water resources more equally.

The study used data to develop a model of city water use that took into account different income levels:

In Cape Town, it found the richest group – 14% of the city’s population – used 51% of the water consumed in the city. In contrast, the poorest group – 62% of the population – used just 27% of the water. Most of the water used the richest group was for non-basic needs.

The researchers also said increased use of private boreholes in times of shortage by the richest citizens substantially depleted groundwater resources.

Basically, the study’s model revealed that changes in water use by the rich had a bigger impact on overall water availability than changes in population or droughts related to the climate crisis.

The scary thing is that urban water crises are expected to become more frequent, “with more than 1 billion city dwellers expected to experience water shortages in the near future”, according to the researchers. Demand is expected to outstrip supply by 40% in 2030, as the world faces an imminent water crisis according to a report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

There is already talk of Cape Town being under threat of another day zero, while much of Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, and KZN struggles against shoddily managed water systems – call it water shedding, if you will.

Prof Hannah Cloke, at the University of Reading, UK, and co-author of the new study, said:

“Climate change and population growth mean that water is becoming a more precious resource in big cities, but we have shown that social inequality is the biggest problem for poorer people getting access to water for their everyday needs.

“Our projections show this crisis could get worse as the gap between the rich and the poor widens in many parts of the world. Ultimately, everyone will suffer the consequences unless we develop fairer ways to share water in cities.”

The problem is not just financial or technological and requires that justice and equality are put at the centre of any working solution, according to Prof Mariana Mazzucato, at University College London, UK, and a lead author of the report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

Indeed, it is high time we all share life’s most precious resource. The era of plentiful, cheap and convenient water usage is over.

[source:guardian]