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By: Dr. Alejandro Diaz-Bautista, economist and research professor.
- We need to make more efficient use of water in BC.
- Water as an economic, environmental and social good.
- Industry, commerce and homes must save water in BC and on the northern border during 2022.
California is preparing for the third year of drought after some winter storms. The state of California faces another year of dry conditions and there are pleas for conservation as winter draws to a close with little rain and snow.
In recent years, the drought has taken over California, its dams are not filled, which affects different economic sectors throughout the state and may also impact Baja California. One of the important sectors is agriculture, due to this the prices of vegetables have volatility in supermarkets and can be impacted again.
Water is an essential primary need, and the right to clean water is recognized by all. A right that goes through the fairest circulation of the distribution of this scarce resource, of the investments and its financing. Water is a basic social asset since the physical and chemical characteristics of water are what allow biological processes to take place, but, at the same time, it is the greater or lesser availability of water, as well as its management, that makes it possible to achieve a certain lifestyle or economic development.
Faced with the problem of water scarcity on the northern border of Mexico and in Baja California, we know that it results from the inadequate management of the resource that has been taking place not recently, but in the past, by not considering elements that directly affect in the use of water and the vision of this resource. Supply alternatives must be analyzed and society should be more involved in the issue of water management in Baja California and throughout the country during 2022.
We have to make more efficient use of water in Baja California because it is wasted in the state and throughout the country. Water is one of the most important renewable natural resources, directly linked to the quality of life and decisive for the functioning of the economic system. With current levels of consumption and inadequate forms of use, it would take a generation for water resources to become a problem of survival and state and national alarm.
California water regulators have recently adopted sweeping, unprecedented restrictions on how people, governments and businesses must use water amid ongoing drought in the state in recent years. The drought in California also affects the Baja California Peninsula.
The drought will affect agricultural production, domestic consumption, and the health of the residents of the Baja California peninsula. The seriousness of the water problem forces governments to adopt the view that their water policy must manage the supply in order to correctly resolve the demand for the resource, which includes measures that direct and guide users towards efficient use of water, not only with increases in tariffs and rights that must be paid for the resource but also with the development of new technologies, water-saving equipment, as well as measures to increase pumping capacity and reduce leaks in resource management.
In the same way, policies that affect the education and culture of the population regarding the risks that society runs due to inefficient use of water must be implemented. The lack of water in Baja California is a latent problem, so new projects must be worked on to guarantee supply in the coming years.
Although it is said that the Baja California coast has a guaranteed water supply for the next few years, new and better water supply alternatives must be offered. Dr. Alejandro Diaz-Bautista, International Economist and Research Professor at El Colef.
