From using swimming pools to washing cars, the unsustainable consumption of wealthy people around the world is seen as a key driver of urban growth. water crisisaccording to new research.

The study that published in the scientific journal Nature Sustainabilityfocuses on Cape TownSouth African city severe drought problem last years.

For the purposes of the study, scientists divided the population of Cape Town into five social groups and then simulated water consumption.

“Despite being only 1.4% and 12.3% of the total population, the elite and high-income groups combined used more than half (51%) of the entire city’s water,” the researchers report.

“Lower income households and informal residents, although they make up 61.5% of the population of Cape Town, consume only 27.3% city ​​water,” they add.

According to the analysis, the consequences of this imbalance are serious.

Taken together, these results confirm that water consumption in socially unequal areas such as Cape Town can become unsustainable as a result of overconsumption among privileged social groups,” they note.

“In particular, subsidized water consumption is not sustainable because in the short term it disproportionately uses the water available to the entire urban population, while in the long term it is projected to be environmental threat to the state of local water resources‘ concludes the study.

According to the study, Cape Town, “with its highly uneven agglomeration, served as a model for demonstrating how unsustainable elite water use can exacerbate urban water crises;at least as many as n changing of the climate or population growth.

Source: CNNBC.