WATER BILLING AND SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES.

Water Billing and Sustainable Practices



Water Billing and Sustainable Practices

The Bruntland Report popularized the term sustainability for human and environmental development when it was published in 1987. In the report, sustainable activities were defined as ones where the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the needs of future generations. What the Bruntland definition implies is an equitable distribution of the resource not only spatially between users in a given location, but temporally between users over time. The idea is to allocate the resource in such a way as for all, including the environment, to have an adequate share without making any one group worse off, both now and in the future.

All this is wonderful, but is it a realistic goal to achieve? Well, yes and no. There are inherent problems with introducing high-concept ideas into mainstream society. However, it is not impossible without some changes in the way we all think about the resources we use.

To achieve sustainability, there must be a rethinking of what we consider a basic need. It is common in our society to say that we need a given resource, but how much of it do we really need to use? Also, how do we decide what the basic needs of our ecosystem and the organism living within it are? Defining what constitutes a basic need is perhaps the greatest challenge to adopting sustainable practices in our daily lives, as interpretations of need vary widely from region to region, village to village and even from person to person.

There has been a shift in recent years from the traditional 'top-down' approach to a more open management system where all levels have a say in the allocation and use of the resource. If properly done, this system ensures that the needs and concerns of those most affected by the use of the resource are addressed, without loosing sight of the wider issues touching the society as a whole.

Information. Understanding the needs of the stakeholders, as well as the possibilities and limitations of the resource, is needed to manage it effectively. This requires sharing both indigenous and modern scientific knowledge, as well as establishing a dialogue between individuals and large institutions. With the right information, appropriate strategies can be formulated to deal with the realities of resource management, such as distribution, access, rights, etc.

Needless to say, effective communication is the key to ...