As the world continues to face severe water shortages, particularly in arid regions, a new study reveals that affluent people’s swimming pools are worsening the water crisis. The research suggests that swimming pools consume an enormous amount of water, leading to intense pressure on water resources, which are already scarce in some areas. This trend highlights the stark contrast between the water usage of the rich and the many who struggle to access water for their basic needs. In this article, we’ll discuss the findings of the study, analyze the implications of swimming pools on water crises, and explore possible solutions to address this issue.
Wealthy elites are among the contributors to global water crises, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability. The study claims that the non-essential activities of wealthy residents in urban areas – including filling private pools, watering lawns and washing cars – may be at least as responsible for causing water shortages as climate change or population growth. The report cites Cape Town, South Africa, as an example of the phenomenon, but claims that the findings are relevant to any city where high inequality is present. In Cape Town, the report found that the city’s two wealthiest groups consumed over half the available water despite comprising less than 15% of the population.
During droughts, the affluent groups further hurt water resources by digging boreholes to create their own private sources of groundwater. Such actions endanger the long-term water resources of the city as a whole, thereby exacerbating inequality still further. When Cape Town attempted to reduce water consumption across the board, the wealthiest groups cut their usage the most, but their consumption remained far higher than that of the city’s poorest residents, who were obliged to reduce their usage of water for necessities such as washing and cooking.
Lead author of the study, Elisa Savelli, insisted that issues of socio-economic inequality were driving the crisis, and called on governments to target “the injustices, imbalances of consumption.” Until then, cities across the world will continue to face the consequences of overconsumption and limited water resources.
