OECD: strengthen urban water management to ensure sustainable utilization of urban water resources
climate change
In April 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a report entitled "Water and cities: ensuring a sustainable future" (Water and cities: Ensuring Sustainable Futures), which aims to promote urban development and coordinated use of water resources and sustainable development in its member countries. OECD member countries are basically at a high level in terms of urban water management measures, and most residents have access to safe and reliable water supply services. The main risks faced by its member countries are to withstand floods, droughts, deterioration of water quality caused by urban growth, competition for water resources, water pollution caused by agriculture and climate change. There are also problems caused by aging infrastructure. Most OECD member cities need to solve their problems from the current situation of existing infrastructure and environment.
The report analyses the specific measures and work of OECD in water resources management, including financing in water management and water services, technological innovation and diffusion in water management, drought management, flood prevention, groundwater protection and allocation of freshwater resources, urban and multi-level governance mechanisms, stakeholder participation and water governance regulatory bodies. Focus on the challenges faced by OECD member countries in water resources management and the implementation and response of central and local governments to policies. Pay attention to the four interdependent and interactive factors that affect water resources management: finance, innovation, urban-rural water resources cooperation and water resources governance.
(1) financing of urban water management
OECD member countries need a sustainable level of financing to upgrade and upgrade their now aging water infrastructure, and the current financing capacity of individual member states is still limited. In several large urban centers, per capita water consumption shows a downward trend, resulting in a decline in water price income; a reduction in infrastructure investment in the public budgets of governments at all levels; factors such as imperfect coordination mechanisms in each country will affect the financing of water management in each member country. The formulation of financing strategy requires the coordination and cooperation of various member states. First of all, it is necessary to reduce operating costs and investment needs, or use low-cost water resources, integrate corresponding technical institutions and optimize the scale of water management, and supervise and control the quality of reclaimed water. Secondly, it is necessary to explore the corresponding tariff structure and coordinate the sustainable support of water resources management and water finance with the tariff structure. Third, urban water management should consider the use of new financial tools (such as land tax) to make the management as diversified as possible. New financing channels should be used in many ways; for example, the private sector, including the financial sector, the real estate industry and small and medium-sized enterprises, are seeking private funding for projects such as desalination and sewage treatment plants. In the area of public utilities, national and local governments need to explore new ways and means to use funds generated by some existing infrastructure for the development of new projects and, if necessary, private investment.
(2) Innovation of urban water management
Strengthen urban innovation in water resources management technologies (such as the combination of water conservancy infrastructure and information and communication technologies). Combine the technical elements of water resources management with business models and innovation governance to involve all stakeholders. Technological innovation and infrastructure innovation still face some difficulties, and there should be consistency in policy formulation and implementation, for example, water prices should reflect the opportunity cost of resource use, land use and urban development should predict and assess the impact of floods. It is necessary to establish a corresponding evaluation database of water resources utilization to lay the foundation for improving innovation. In the practice of urban water resources management, it is necessary to establish a multi-scale responsibility system and circulation system (from a building to a city).
(3) Cooperation in urban and rural water resources
An efficient urban water resources management system needs to consider the interrelationship and impact of urban and rural water resources use. Many OECD member cities share water resources with surrounding rural areas, which requires the establishment of coordination mechanisms for urban and rural water resources, especially in the areas of water shortage, flood management and freshwater conservation, coordination of upstream and downstream water allocation, unified planning of water pollution, etc. Water resources connect urban and rural areas, forming an urban and rural ecological service system, including agricultural products, people and information. The government needs to coordinate and coordinate the system to deal with the challenges of water resources management. Cities can benefit from the improvement of upstream water storage and water quality, thus forming relevant incentives to encourage farmers to make full use of water resources.
(4) Water resources governance
The water resources governance of OECD member countries should combine from small-scale water supply facilities to large-scale governance of urban-rural cooperation, and establish water resources flow system and integrated management system. The central government should encourage the private sector to explore more coordinated ways of managing water resources. The establishment of a special supervision and management body, the establishment of policy coherence, improve the transparency of information, the preparation of water resources management planning should be predictable and continuous implementation, and establish an accountability system for users.
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