TRADITIONALLY, URBAN WATER managers, faced with increasing demand for water alongside varying levels of supplies, have relied on largescale, supply-side infrastructural projects, such as dams and reservoirs, to meet increased demands for water. This supply-side approach, however, is under increasing pressure from climate change, rapid population and economic growth and even land-use changes impacting the availability of good quality water of sufficient quantities. To enhance urban water security, water managers are turning towards demand-side management.

2. EXPRESS WATERMay, 201866
COLUMN URBAN WATER
PolicyToolstoAchieveUrbanWaterSecurity
TRADITIONALLY, URBAN
WATER managers, faced with
increasing demand for water
alongside varying levels of
supplies, have relied on large-
scale, supply-side infrastruc-
tural projects, such as dams
and reservoirs, to meet
increased demands for water.
This supply-side approach,
however, is under increasing
pressure from climate change,
rapid population and econom-
ic growth and even land-use
changes impacting the avail-
ability of good quality water of
sufficient quantities.
To enhance urban water
security, water managers are
turning towards demand-side
management which aims to
improve the provisions of
existing water supplies before
new supplies are developed.
There are two types of policy
tools available to achieve
urban water security: fiscal
tools and non-fiscal tools.
FiscalTools toAchieve Ur-
banWater Security
Fiscal tools include water
pricing and the use of subsi-
dies and rebates to modify
water users’ behavior in a pre-
dictable, cost-effective way.
Urban water managers typi-
cally price water using
increasing block tariff rates,
which contain different prices
for two or more pre-specified
quantities (blocks) of water
with the price increasing with
each successive block, or two-
part tariff systems which con-
tain a fixed charge and vari-
able charge. Subsidies and
rebates meanwhile are used to
encourage water users to
make sustainable consump-
tion choices, for instance, sub-
sidies are commonly used to
encourage the uptake of
water-saving devices and
water-efficient appliances or
technologies while rebates are
commonly used to accelerate
the replacement of old water-
using fixtures and appliances.
Overall, positive incentives
are found to be more effective
than disincentives in promot-
ing water conservation.
Cape Town Hiking Its Water
Tariffs
The City of Cape Town has
a block rate tariff structure
for water consumption. Due to
the drought, the city has
announced it is increasing its
water prices in a bid to reduce
water consumption. The price
for water will increase by 27%
from July 1, 2018, and increase
by another 30.45% in 2019 fol-
lowed by a 22% rise in
2020/2021. This will result in
the price of water more than
doubling between July 1, 2018,
and July 1, 2020. In the first
round of tariff increases, the
new tariffs on a monthly bill
for non-indigent persons will
range from R179.58 for the
first 6 kilolitres of water con-
sumed (with indigent people
receiving the first 6 kilolitres
free per month) to R20,365.56
for consumption over 50 kilo-
litres.
New York City’s On-Site
Water Reuse Grant Pilot
Program
New York City’s
Department of Environmental
Protection has launched its
On-Site Water Reuse Grant
Pilot Program to provide com-
mercial, mixed-use, and multi-
family residential property
owners with incentives to
install water reuse systems.
Grants are available for water
reuse systems at the individ-
ual building and district level,
with district-scale projects
involving two or more parcels
of land such as a housing
development, where the proj-
ect reduces demand in the
shared distribution system.
Individual building-scale proj-
ects can receive up to
$250,000 in reimbursement
for a system designed to save
at least 32,000 gallons per day
(GPD), and district-scale proj-
ects are eligible to receive up
to $500,000 in reimbursement
for a system designed to save
at least 94,000 GPD. The NYC
Construction Code regulates
two types of on-site water
reuse systems that can be
installed: wastewater reuse
systems (black water, grey
water, rainwater) for non-
potable uses including flush-
ing of toilets and urinals, laun-
dry, and subsurface drip irri-
gation systems and rainwater
reuse systems for non-potable
uses including subsurface drip
irrigation.
Non-FiscalTools to
Achieve UrbanWater Secu-
rity
Urban water managers
often rely on a range of non-
fiscal tools to achieve urban
water security including regu-
lations as well as education
and public awareness.
Regulations often used
include permanent and tem-
porary ordinances that
restrict certain types of water
use during specified times
and/or restrict the level of
water use to a specific
amount. Temporary and per-
manent ordinances are often
used for a variety of purposes
including restricting water
levels during droughts as well
as for ensuring new develop-
ments and renovations imple-
ment water-efficient fixtures
and appliances. Meanwhile,
education and public aware-
ness are important to gener-
ate an understanding of water
scarcity and create the
acceptance of the need to
implement water conserva-
tion programmes.
City of Lancaster’s
Ordinances to Combat
Water Wastage
The City of Lancaster in
Canada has adopted two ordi-
nances to conserve local
water resources and protect
the city from future shortages.
The first ordinance is the
‘Prohibition of Wasting Water’
which cautions residents
against misusing water that is
supplied by a public water
system. The code identifies a
range of acts that wastewater
including allowing a faucet to
leak after having been told to
fix the problem by a public
official and allowing water to
leak for an unreasonable
length of time. The second
ordinance, called ‘Water
Efficient Landscape’ restricts
the planting of trees and other
plants that use large amounts
of water and requires the use
of ‘smart’ irrigation con-
trollers on new development
contracts. This ensures land-
scape designs are appropriate
to the city’s climate and
resources.
Scottish Water’s Water and
Wastewater-Related Games
Scottish Water has devel-
oped three fun water and
wastewater-related games as
part of its “Making It Clear”
programme. The “Pipeline
Challenge” lets the players lay
water supply and sewer pipes
to complete a water and
wastewater network as fast as
they can. This fun and educa-
tional game takes users on a
journey building the water
supply and wastewater net-
works from the source to tap
and then the wastewater back
to the natural environment.
The “Clean It Up” game lets
users discover the treatment
stages at a wastewater treat-
ment plant with players taken
through two key stages in a
plant: the screening stage and
the activated sludge stage.
Finally, the “Pumping Station”
game involves users control-
ling the water supply to all the
people living in a block of flats
with users experiencing the
effort and energy required to
supply clean tap water. As
more people use the water, the
more water needs supplying,
but users will have to make
sure they are not using too
much energy in the process.
To achieve water security,
urban water utilities can use a
variety of fiscal and non-fiscal
demand management tools to
balance rising demand with
limited and at times variable
supplies.
Cities, for instance, can
develop water pricing struc-
tures to encourage water con-
servation and offer financial
incentives to install water-sav-
ing technologies such as water
reuse systems.
They can also use a variety
of non-fiscal tools to encour-
age water conservation and
efficiency such as ordinances
to ensure water is not wasted
as well as educational pro-
grammes to encourage young
people to understand the
water cycle and use water
wisely.
Robert Brears is the author
of Urban Water Security,
Founder of Mitidaption, and
Our Future Water."
@Mitidaption
By Robert C Brears