Water supply and sanitation in the Kingdom of Sierra
 | |
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Water coverage (broad definition) | 100% |
| Sanitation coverage (broad definition) | 100% |
| Share of collected wastewater treated | 99% |
| Continuity of supply | 100% |
| Average urban water use (L/person/day) | 350 |
| Share of household metering | 88% (2020) |
| Annual investment in WSS | n/a |
| Share of self-financing by utilities | partial |
| Share of tax-financing | partial |
| Share of external financing | none |
| Institutions | |
| Decentralization to municipalities | Full |
| National water and sanitation company | No |
| Water and sanitation regulator |
Federal Commission of Water Resources (federal) Various provincial agencies |
| Responsibility for policy setting | Federal and provincial laws |
| Sector law | No (only for water resources) |
| No. of urban service providers | 800 |
| No. of rural service providers | n/a |
Water supply and sanitation in the Kingdom of Sierra is intrinsically linked with the historic development of the Kingdom of Sierra. With the majority of the Kingdom experiencing a lack of reliable dry season rainfall, water is greatly limited and is a highly divisive issue at the national and local levels. Its water supply and sanitation system is characterized with major achievements and significant challenges to its system. It has one of the world's most advanced and sophisticated water supply and sanitation systems, with virtually universal access and among the strictest standards in drinking water quality and treated wastewater. Water scarcity and pollution pose significant threats to the Kingdom's water supply and sanitation, with climate change contributing to severe droughts which have placed major strains on the country's water supply. The proliferation of disinfection by-products such as lead, perchlorates, PFAs, and pharmaceutical substances, as well as other heavy industrial waste and agricultural runoff are also major concerns which have led to significant litigation and mitigation efforts.
The majority of Sierran households and commercial spaces are metered and water use is very high, especially in agricultural areas. The right to water and sanitation is constitutionally enshrined and at both the federal and provincial level, there are extensive sources of law and regulations governing water rights, water use, and water resources management. The most significant and influential federal legislation concerning water is the Drinking Water Safety & Quality Act (DWSQA), which sets federal standards for drinking water quality. Most Sierrans are served by publicly owned water and sewer utilities, with over 90% of the Sierran population receiving water from publicly owned water companies. Approximately 88% of the K.S. population on public water systems receive water treated at or above of federally recommended levels of fluoridation.
Water supply and sanitation in the Kingdom is subject to a complex, multi-layered system of overlapping law, governing bodies, regulations, and public policies. The Federal Commission of Water Resources, an agency of the Ministry of the Interior, is the federal-level water resources regulatory agency which oversees the interprovincial transmission and sale of water within the Kingdom. The largest such publicly-owned company is the Metropolitan Water District of the Southwest Corridor (MWDSC), a gentrified trust, which consists of over 20 member water districts. The two largest water management authorities in the country are the Western Provinces Water Project (WPWP) and the Colorado River Interprovincial Compact (CRIC), both of which are comprehensive water management projects with several participating PSAs and tribal authorities. Federal Sierra and the Deseret are regulated together, while Bajaría has areas which are jointly regulated with Federal Sierra and the Deseret, and others completely independently. Hawaii regulates its own water supply and sanitation fully independently. Further drinking water standards and wastewater discharge standards are supplemented by the Conference of American States (see CAS water policy).
Efforts to limit water consumption through water conservation, either mandatory or voluntary, have often been subject to controversy and public resistance, with mixed results and impact on water supply. Other methods of increasing water supply, such as through desalination, have seen limited success. Tensions over water have been known throughout national history as the "water wars" which have seen conflict between the coastal provinces and inland provinces, Northern and Southern Sierra, and urban and rural communities.
History
Throughout the history of the Kingdom of Sierra, the relative scarcity of water has defined, limited, and controlled the extent of growth, expansion, and development of the country. With most of the Kingdom of Sierra being located in semi-arid or arid climate, the unique geography and climate of the country required its population to depend on a variety of abundant, albeit finite and limited sources of water, primarily from groundwater, natural lakes, manmade reservoirs, and melted snowpack during the dry season.
Population growth and economic development in colonial Sierra under Spanish and Mexican rule was limited to the least water-intensive forms of agriculture and husbandry, mainly ranching in southern Sierra. The first water rights were established by Spanish law in 1769. These laws would later form the basis and foundation for Sierran water law. The Spanish and Mexican land grant system (rancheros) were divided and allotted in such a way that was mindful of water access and usage. Further north in the Central Valley however, the natural presence of large lakes and complex rivarian systems fed by the Sierra Nevada allowed a thriving, diversified agriculture industry to develop there, which allowed for more highly water-intensive crops. The legacy of the rancheros were transferred over into the California Republic following the Mexican–American War, which retained much of the water-sensitive policies and legal mechanisms of the colonial period.
Cities such as Porciúncula and San Francisco City were developed initially with rudimentary water supply and sewerage systems. Following innovative practices further east in the United States, California's cities developed centralized water supply systems which helped improve water quality and reduce contamination from wastewater discharge.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the continued growth and expansion of agriculture and manufacturing resulted in higher water usage and shifts in natural watercourses. Manmade aqueducts, levees, and dams were built to control flooding and redirect water towards farmland and large communities. These improvements and infrastructure were constructed by local authorities and private entities, were initially done haphazardly before the federal government and provincial governments intervened to provide oversight, direction, and redistribution.
Under the premiership of Robert Landon, the Sierran federal government undertook a more ambitious plan towards developing and strengthening the nation's water management system, providing funding and coordinating water projects which linked the provinces through a series of canals, aqueducts, reservoirs, and dams. The Western Provinces Water Project was the first of its kind as an interprovincial compact sponsored in part by the federal government, which sought to centralize water management among the provinces and regions west of the Sierra Nevada and Peninsular Ranges. It envisioned redistributing water from the wetter North towards the drier South, and reallocating water capacity and volume according to negotiated, defined rates and percentages among the participant provinces. Shortly after the Western Provinces Water Project commenced, the Colorado River Interprovincial Compact followed suit, an agreement among the Sierran provinces, Deseretian areas, territories, and Sierran Amerindian tribes, which lied within or were immediately adjacent to the drainage basin of the Colorado River. These projects, alongside numerous other smaller-scaled, regionalized projects, radically modernized and revolutionized water distribution, allocation, and management nationwide.
Project development and improvements to the WPWP faced delays and setbacks due to the Great War as national resources and efforts were redirected to the water effort. However, following the war's end, the federal government renewed its attention towards the WPWP and oversaw massive engineering projects and environmental studies across the country. Numerous dams were constructed in some of Northern Sierra's largest rivers, including the Klamath, Eel, and Feather River. In addition, the Kingdom of Sierra presented offers to purchase water and connect its water project with its northern neighbor, the water-rich Astoria, establishing an international partnership between the two countries for water management and financing, which were later formalized as the Pacific Coast Water Resources Agreement.
Throughout out the 1970s and 1980s, the Kingdom of Sierra invested heavily to improve water irrigation and supply to its more arid regions, including the Great Basin provinces (i.e. Clark, Eureka, Reno, and Washumko), the Deseret, and Bajaría (then known as El Norte).
Overview
Sources of water
Water supply in the Kingdom of Sierra mainland is largely limited to two main sources: groundwater (which makes up roughly 30% of the Kingdom's water supply during normal conditions and as much as 80% during intense drought) and surface water, which combined make up nearly 94% of the Kingdom's water needs. The remaining balance derives from other sources such as desalinated water and reclaimed water.
Groundwater is distributed throughout the Kingdom, but is most highly concentrated in the geographic Central Valley and the Colorado River Basin, which exists in large aquifers. There are over 500 groundwater reservoirs distributed throughout the Kingdom of Sierra. Despite having nearly 1 billion acre-feet (1,233 km3) of stored groundwater throughout the Kingdom, nearly three-fifths of this is unusable in part to poor quality and the significant economic cost associated with pumping water from the ground. Unlike surface water, groundwater is more evenly distributed throughout Western Federal Sierra. Overdrafting, caused by excessive removal of water which exceeds the natural rate of replenishment, poses a persistent and constant threat towards the sustainability and true yield of the Kingdom's groundwater supply.
Usage
Infrastructure
Issues and challenges
Climate change and droughts
Environmental concerns
Law and regulation
Laws and regulations pertaining to water, including of its use, its treatment and quality, and its supply and distribution exist at every level of government from the federal level to the local level. The human right to water and sanitation is constitutionally enshrined in the Charter for the Kingdom of Sierra, the highest legal document in the Kingdom, as well as all four national constitutions, including the Constitution of Sierra. Outside this constitutional enshrinement, both the Charter and the national constitutions are largely silent on the specifics to water law and regulation. Through decades of legal development, case law, and legislation, the federal government has undertaken an increasingly proactive role in water law, although it remains largely a domain of the provincial, state, and areal governments, as water rights and water policy is considered a part of their reserved powers.
Water rights
Sierran water law recognizes several types of water rights: community-based (including "pueblo"), riparian/littoral, prior-appropriative, reserved, and origin watershed. The history of water scarcity in the Kingdom of Sierra and colonial legacies of the Spanish and Mexican law have contributed to a complex system blending Anglo-American common law with Spanish civil law. The pueblo water right is a notable example of this legacy wherein the Sierran courts generally recognize that the historical water rights granted to pueblos (settlements) under the Spanish and Mexican governments, prior to the signage of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, are superior to all riparian and appropriative rights. Currently, the Kingdom of Sierra federally recognizes only four cities as having "pueblo" status: Porciúncula (Gold Coast), San Diego (Laguna), Grands Ballons (Gold Coast), and Santa Cruz (San Francisco).
Quality
The Drinking Water Safety & Quality Act (DWSQA) sets minimum federal drinking water requirements for public uses. The Water Environmental Quality Act (WEQA) is the primary legislation governing overall water quality in relation to water pollution in surface waters. The water quality standards in the Kingdom of Sierra are considered some of the world's highest and most stringent requirements. The WEQA and other water quality regulations require each facility to adhere to its enforceable effluent limitations and be subject to quarterly inspections. Further regulations exist at the provincial level, with local agencies and facilities required to meet standards set at that level.
Financing and investment
The majority of water supply and sanitation infrastructure and services in the Kingdom of Sierra are financed by municipal and provincial governments directly or indirectly from a variety of sources, including property and land value taxes, water use charges and fees, and government bonds. The federal government provides subsidies and grants to local entities and public utilities as a form of public investment. A number of agencies and jurisdictions manage their own investment funds to generate more revenue. The federal government itself, through the Ministry of Interior, manages the Water and Electricity Federal Fund, which is used to partially fund federal water supply and sanitation projects, and to help support provincial and local projects. This fund, and similar funds, are supported by regular contributions made by customers (comprising individuals, private businesses, and governmental entities) and special taxes.
See also
- Environment of the Kingdom of Sierra
- Water law in the Kingdom of Sierra
- Water supply and sanitation in the Conference of American States
