"Zaragoza, the water-saving city"

Abstract

In the year before the project was initiated, 11 million Spaniards were undergoing daily water restrictions. There were serious inter-regional conflicts over this scarce commodity. There seemed to be only one solution: more reservoirs and more water trans-shipments, what means high costs and harm to the environment. In Zaragoza, a city of 700.000 inhabitants in the north -cast of Spain, as in other cities in Spain, a triple paradox was to emerge: rainfall was scarce and irregular. water was cheap, and it was being misused. February 1997 saw the beginning of the "Zaragoza, the water-saving city" project. This aimed to promote a new water-saving consciousness through a more efficient management of this resource. It emphasised, above all, the importance of simple technological change to achieve a sustainable reduction in water consumption. The project was to issue a challenge to the city: to save 1.000 million litres of domestic water consumption in one year The project has shown that it is possible to deal with the shortage of water incities, using a cheap, ecological, fast and contentious-free app roach, by increasing efficiency in consumption. The most important lesson to be learnt is that the shared responsibility between the main players (manufacturers, retailers, consumers, distributors. plumbers, etc.) has managed to create a new synergy which favours water-use efficiency. 1176 million litres of water have been saved. Spanish cities now have a successful model to follow for the most ecologically-so und method of facing up to the next drought.