Amaya Quincoces Riesco |
Madrid (EFE) below 130 liters per day, although the supply is not in danger.
According to preliminary data, everything indicates that the next annual balance of average daily water consumption per citizen in Spain will once again reflect levels “possibly even below 128 litres” despite the slight increase in water consumption in homes in the time of the coronavirus due to changes in habits during confinement.
This has been assured to Efe by Pascual Fernández, president of the Spanish Association of Water Supply and Sanitation (AEAS), which integrates the vast majority of companies that supply the resource in Spain, specifically more than 35 million inhabitants of the about 47 million residing in the country.
He added that “more than twenty years ago the average daily consumption per inhabitant exceeded 150 liters”; The data includes all the water that comes out of the tap in homes: from that used for drinking to washing dishes, clothes, showering or watering plants.
General downward trend in water consumption
According to experts, the clear downward trend in household water consumption for thirty years has been widespread, except for slight occasional interruptions such as the pandemic or excessively hot years.
A paradigmatic case due to its dimensions and extension of the data comparison over time is the Community of Madrid. In 1991, urban water consumption was 610 hm3 with a population of 4.5 million; Now, with more than 6.5 million inhabitants, joint consumption is about 500 cubic hectometres, the engineer Santiago Martín Barajas, the engineer Santiago Martín Barajas, explained to Efe.
“Less is consumed now, there being many more people”, a trend that is greatly influenced, of course beyond the specific expenditure of each citizen, by the global reduction in water losses in the distribution networks of the resource to homes.
This factor, on the other hand, makes it difficult to know if some inhabitants spend more water than others in real terms depending on the territory and the geographical and climatic conditions, since the data does not consider only the habits in the homes but especially also the state of the infrastructures of supply.
According to Martín Barajas, it is much more sustainable to live in apartments than in single-family homes with a garden, no matter how small it may be; water consumption is more than triple in the latter than in the former; In any case, it is the agriculture sector that accounts for the bulk, without a doubt, of global water spending, he added.
Fundamental awareness campaigns
Awareness campaigns are being fundamental to make the population aware of not wasting the resource because it is scarce.
Closing the faucet while brushing your teeth, as well as the stopper in the sink to shave are some of the common tips for saving water; one minute with the tap running means up to ten liters lost, while a shower instead of a bath saves between 60 and 150 liters, according to experts.
In Madrid, when Canal de Isabel II reports that there is a drought, consumption automatically drops by approximately 10 percent; the trend is similar in any other territory, according to Martín Barajas.
“During the pandemic, the downward consumption trend clearly consolidated in recent years slowed slightly; the bars and restaurants were closed and people only drank at home, so water consumption from outside the home was transferred there”, explained the president of AEAS.
According to the national study on the supply of Drinking Water and Sanitation 2022 (AEAS-AGA), of a biannual nature, in its last edition with data from 2020, coinciding with the pandemic, water consumption among Spaniards was 131 liters per inhabitant per day; a figure higher than that of the previous edition, which had been 128 liters per capita in 2018 and 132 in 2016.
The figures are similar, on the other hand, to the latest ones published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) in 2022, which also refer to 2020 and estimate domestic water consumption at 133 liters per day per inhabitant, without variations with 2018; in 2016 it had been 136 liters.
Guaranteed domestic supply, despite the drought
At this time, despite the drought, the domestic supply is guaranteed except in small towns in the mountains without connection to general supply networks, says the president of AEAS.
He explained that when those small isolated towns that usually have abundant water suffer the scourge of prolonged droughts and their natural sources dry up, that is when problems arise.
However, supply problems due to prolonged episodes of rain shortages do not occur in large or medium-sized cities, “not even in small ones”, because they are integrated into general water distribution networks.
At this time, the areas of the country that suffer the most hydric stress due to water scarcity could generally endure without supply problems, at least until beyond winter, even if the reservoirs continue to drop, taking into account that summer has only just begun.