Demand Management Key To Urban Water Security

Across the U.S., cities are at of risk water insecurity — the inability of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate supplies of good quality water — as a result of climate change, population growth, and the various impacts of urbanization.

As a consequence, the U.S. EPA predicts that many cities will face:

• Higher water prices to ensure continued access to a reliable and safe supply;
• Increased summer watering restrictions to manage scarce supplies;
• Seasonal loss of recreational spaces (e.g., lakes and rivers) from increased water abstraction; and
• Expensive water treatment projects that transport and store water when demand threatens to outstrip supply.

How Can Urban Water Security Be Achieved?

Urban water security can be achieved through demand management, which is the better use of existing water supplies before plans are made to further increase supply.

Demand management promo­tes water conservation, during times of both normal conditions and uncertainty, through changes in practices, cultures, and people’s attitudes towards water resour­ces.

In addition to the environmental benefits of preserving ecosystems and their habitats, demand management is cost-effective compared to supply-side management because it allows the better allocation of scarce financial resources, which would otherwise be required to build expensive dams, water transfer schemes from one watershed to another, and desalination plants.