Concerned about the resilience of cities for future generations and shocked by water losses, I co-founded the Shayp company four years ago. We have implemented a technological solution for monitoring water in buildings to make them more resilient. I am speaking to you as a European citizen concerned about the future of our cities. In addition, I was particularly struck by the absence of strong measures on water resilience in the new Green Deal being drawn up by Europe. It is in this context that I am addressing you.
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Reducing CO2 emissions is fundamental to limiting the scale of the climate crisis we are already experiencing. However, decarbonization initiatives in the building sector alone are not enough to make our cities more sustainable and resilient to the impacts of climate change. With in particular an increasing population density and a significant aging of European real estate (almost 35% of buildings in the EU having been built more than 50 years ago [1]), we need to go further in adapting our cities to the climate of tomorrow. It is not only necessary to establish a vision but also to draw up action plans and concrete regulations to better protect and use resources in the building sector. This is particularly the case for water, a resource whose value is inestimable because it is necessary for life but whose risk of scarcity increases.
At first glance, European regions seem to have abundant water resources because they are generally characterized by a temperate climate. Thus, water availability is not commonly seen as a problem, as are CO2 emissions. However, heat waves and droughts across Europe during the summer show an increasing trend in recent years, both in terms of frequency and impact, as reported by the European Commission. [2] and highlighted by several studies as recently in the journal NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science [3]. The summers of 2018 and 2019 are recent and striking examples. [4]. Several projections [5]
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point out that this problem will only intensify in the future as a result, among other things, of climate change, the constant increase in water demand and the concreteization of soils.
Estimated occurrence of droughts in Europe (2014-2017)
Source : WWF Water Risk Filter, 2019.
Despite this, there are only a few initiatives taken to make the transition of our cities and buildings towards greater resilience and environmental harmony, in particular regarding the protection and sustainable use of water resources. Solutions are being tested in certain regions to meet the need for water and fight against shortages. This is the case, for example, with the desalination of seawater, initially mainly carried out in southern countries but which is now emerging in certain northern European countries. [8]. Rainwater harvesting systems are other solutions for reducing freshwater consumption [9].
Although promising, the majority of these solutions are still very expensive and difficult to implement. [10], either with very minor impact or only in the long term, or sometimes both. Worse, at the same time, mains water is largely wasted. In the construction sector, water consumption is neither managed nor regulated and thus millions of liters are wasted every day due to leaks. As an expert in water flow analysis, Shayp collects water consumption data from all types of buildings (public institutions, schools, hospitals, private infrastructures, etc.). After studying the behavior of thousands of buildings over several years, we were able to establish that the water lost represents on average 21% of the water distributed in the buildings. Thus, we observe a little more every day the urgency of regulation and action for a sustainable use of water resources and to avoid waste.
Despite the passing of time, I protest that water remains the poor relation of building improvement measures in Europe. The fight against water leaks is however an easy and quick solution to implement. The technologies for monitoring and controlling water consumption already exist, as the development of Shayp illustrates. The results generated by these are immediate and significant, not only in terms of resource protection but also of the transition and adaptation of cities and buildings to the climatic and environmental context of tomorrow. Having observed that one in three buildings leaks every year, and that 95% of these are neither seen nor reported, the potential for reducing water consumption is therefore enormous. To make our cities resilient, it is therefore urgent to integrate these issues into projects such as the Green Deal and to decide on ambitious objectives in terms of standardization and regulation of the European building stock.
Faced with this concern, my expectations and my request to European leaders are as follows: establish strong recommendations, or even regulations, to guarantee better use of water in buildings. For example, by integrating the management of water leaks or the humidity rate in the energy standards of buildings.
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