Sustainability is the possibility of all people living rewarding lives within the means of nature. Despite ample recognition of the importance of achieving sustainable development, exemplified by the Rio Declaration of 1992 and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the global economy fails to meet the most fundamental minimum condition for sustainability-that human demand for ecosystem goods and services remains within the biosphere's total capacity. In 2002, humanity operated in a state of overshoot, demanding over 20% more biological capacity than the Earth's ecosystems could regenerate in that year. Using the Ecological Footprint as an accounting tool, we propose and discuss three possible global scenarios for the future of human demand and ecosystem supply. Bringing humanity out of overshoot and onto a potentially sustainable path will require managing the consumption of food, fibre and energy, and maintaining or increasing the productivity of natural and agricultural ecosystems.
In the Los Angeles metropolitan region, nearly 100 public and private entities are formally involved in the management and distribution of potable water-a legacy rooted in fragmented urban growth in the area and late 19th century convictions about local control of services. Yet, while policy debates focus on new forms of infrastructure, restructured pricing mechanisms, and other technical fixes, the complex institutional architecture of the present system has received little attention. In this paper, we trace the development of this system, describe its interconnections and disjunctures, and demonstrate the invisibility of water infrastructure in LA in multiple ways-through mapping, statistical analysis, and historical texts. Perverse blessings of past water abundance led to a complex, but less than resilient, system with users accustomed to cheap, easily accessible water. We describe the lack of transparency and accountability in the current system, as well as its shortcomings in building needed new infrastructure and instituting new water rate structures. Adapting to increasing water scarcity and likely droughts must include addressing the architecture of water management.
The oft-purported goals of good urban water governance include universal coverage and low levels of water loss. However, such goals can be particularly challenging in large, metropolitan areas where infrastructure may be ageing or unknown. This paper clarifies the mechanisms through which urban infrastructure is made visible -and thus more governable -by examining the politics of non-payment in Manila and the techniques that the two private concessionaires use to reclaim lost revenues. While some customers from all income levels may evade payment, the mechanisms for payment recovery targeted at low-income consumers focus on increased policing and a transfer of responsibility towards communities and individuals and away from the concessionaires. In contrast, payment recovery targeted at high volume customers typically involves technical improvements and settlement of arrears. The differentiated treatment of the poor and non-poor thus has four failures: first, while visibility is directed at payment recovery, those that are unserved or underserved remain invisible through the propagation of aggregate statistics characterizing greater coverage and reductions in system losses; second, there is an asymmetry of treatment for non-payment in poor and non-poor areas, which can result in higher costs in poorer areas; third, the same processes that lead to greater coverage and reduced losses also reconfigure inequalities; and fourth, small water providers are increasingly becoming the policing arm of the utilities rather than competitive alternatives. Recognizing remaining inequalities in cities like Manila helps to highlight the situation for the underserved and allows us to re-imagine ways of achieving universal access.KEYWORDS inequality / Manila / urban governance / urban inequality / urban poverty / water "The need for [non-revenue water (NRW)] management in general, and in Asia in particular, is so obvious that it is hard to understand why efforts to improve the situation have been so limited… The level of NRW is one of the best indicators of water utility efficiency. A utility with a high level of NRW either has a management who is not aware of the benefits of NRW reduction or is simply not capable of introducing and managing these complex and interrelated activities. A utility with a low level of NRW obviously must be well managed, as NRW management is one of the most complex and difficult tasks of a water operator." (1)
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