Water and waste: scarcity and abundance
Drops in the ocean
My personal encounters with water insecurity have increased since my partner and I decided to live as ‘digital nomads’, as we travel to places with warmer climates and less developed infrastructure than our home country.
Cue the anxiety upon arriving in a new town or city late at night, sweating in 30˚C humidity and not knowing where to go to stay hydrated. Weighing my eagerness to stock up against the bulk of adding a 10-litre bottle to our groceries. Hoping that the next place we stay will have an filter tap.
These experiences — though self-imposed and a sign of privilege — led me to reflect on the uncomfortable connections between drinking water and plastic waste.
Drying wells
Water stress is becoming more severe and commonplace all around the world. Supplies face “interconnected pressures”: pollution, over-extraction for industrial use, agriculture, and of course rising global temperatures.
Societies facing scarcity often source their water from elsewhere, with with knock-on effects. Mexico City, for instance, receives water pumped from neighbouring states, while cities in the country’s north suffer repeated droughts. (The capital’s insatiable thirst is a travesty of natural history. It sits in the basin where a vast network of lakes — two freshwater — once nourished the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.)
The south-western United States are in a similar crisis. Pat Mulroy, a former manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, paraphrases Benjamin Franklin in her clear warning: “you learn the value of water when the well runs dry, and human behaviour has replicated that time after time after time.”
A toxic relationship
Waste from material use, especially single-use plastic, is one of the interconnected pressures on water supplies. Ironically, bottled water can be vital for people in places where safe drinking water is otherwise hard to come by. Filters have an upfront investment cost, even if they save families money over time.
A country like Brazil — known for its water-abundant ecosystems which account for 12% of the planet’s freshwater reserves — still struggles to provide equal and consistent access to drinking water due to challenges with scale, sanitation, and drought. In our travels along the country’s coastline, we found few plastic-free options. Rental homes outside of major cities rarely had built-in filter taps.
On the other hand, attitudes and preferences play a part. For example, in European cities like Brussels or Barcelona, tap water is treated at scale and safe to drink. Yet some still prefer to use their own filters at home or drink bottled water, because of the taste or fear of residues in the public supply.
How much might similar ideas take form, and affect investment decisions, in middle or lower-income countries that already rely more on plastic?
Underdeveloped waste management creates severe issues. Burning solid waste in open and uncontrolled fires is commonplace and terrible for people’s health. In Nicaragua, for instance, smoking piles of rubbish, wood and leaves are a frequent sight outside people’s homes and at the side of the road.
During our time in that beautiful Central American country, I spent a few weeks staying in the town of San Juan de La Concepción and studying at La Mariposa, a unique language school and ecological and community project. Clearly, many locals don’t feel adequately served by the limited waste collection service: a truck that ran a single route every few days. Some of the Nicaraguans working at La Mariposa also pointed to a lack of public education about the environment.
As a result, waste clogs the country’s water system. The Laguna de Masaya is a crescent-shaped crater lake flanked on either side by the city and volcano of the same name. Its shores are strewn with rubbish washed down from Masaya’s streets by heavy rains. That doesn’t deter visitors, including myself and the two teenagers I spotted, stood taking selfies against the azure backdrop, their feet on soggy layers of discarded clothing, plastic bags, and empty bottles.
There are ways of cleaning and delivering water without resorting to chemical processes or storage in single-use plastic.
Entrepreneurs at Ecofiltro in Guatemala, responding to similar problems to those in Nicaragua, produce accessible and innovative ceramic pot filters. A hollow vessel of clay coated in a diluted silver formula filters the water that passes through it from above gradually, using only gravity. If cared for properly, the filter lasts for two years. The one we were lucky to find in our home in Nicaragua kept our minds unburdened by water insecurity throughout our stay.
A human right
The sight of congested waterways is not all that pains me about plastic bottles.
The modern economy is excellent at delivering goods, services, or experiences to those with the means to pay for them. Many people who do enjoy access to free-flowing, clean drinking water still prefer to spend their money, rather than their time or energy, by grabbing bottles on the go instead of carrying one to refill.
Increasing water scarcity will raise the cost of provision. Unless those costs are shouldered entirely by states, the first people to lose access will be the poorest. When viable supplies are closer, better managed, and available on a collective basis, communities and households will be more resilient.
Using filters and reducing total plastic waste, instead of supporting higher prices and societal power for bottled water brands, is an act of kindness and respect.
When so many people still go without safe drinking water, built-in filter taps are a blessing. Watching clean water flow when you turn the tap offers an important physical connection to this most precious resource and its cycle, which makes all life on Earth possible.
Where to go next
Here are 10 things you should know about the impact of climate change on local and global water crises, according to UNICEF.
More designers and entrepreneurs creating fascinating solutions for reducing plastic pollution — including by ‘cleaning up’, ‘giving up’, and ‘rebooting manufacturing’ of plastic products — are highlighted by the ocean campaign and research network Plastic Odyssey.
Feedback on my writing and suggestions for what to focus on are welcome and appreciated.
To regular readers of In the Balance, thank you for your patience and support. If you’re new, hello and welcome, and thank you too — it’s great to have you here.