Standards Applied to Water Use : An Attempt to Build up Dynamic Indicators

Climate change, demographic concentration, new needs, sustainable development etc. are many examples of uncontrolled mutations in space and time, which impact on the degree of satisfaction of water needs in the world, and which call for a new analysis of the water issue. This new perspective, in this context of increased uncertainties, means that this has to be put into question. It involves, first, to have understood and assimilated the crucial role played by water in its natural, social, economic, cultural and political environment, by having identified the links which define Men-Water relations. Second, analysing the current water standards implies that we adopt the representation of reality they provide as a reading grid. Furthermore, it is also a way to wonder whether this grid corresponds to the future reality of human societies. Considering so would mean repeating the present development schemes. Not considering so would bring about a new approach, looking for new dynamic decision-making tools adapted to the realities of each field, in order to take into account present needs, as well as future ones. This process is in keeping with the premises of development strategies in a perspective of sustainable development.