The increase in population and its concentration of it in cities brings with it the constant demand for better services, especially those directly related to water supply and supply, which we regularly relate to its price, putting poor service first, the shortage, and its poor quality especially that used for human consumption, which has generated on the one hand the abuse and waste for some and for others the scarcity and its care, observing contrasts of abuse / shortage of water.
We will approach the subject starting from the analysis of the behavior of the human being, “in relatively recent times the main ethical currents held that moral conduct only competed with the exclusive sphere of human beings; moral conduct towards plants or animals was unthinkable ”, which can be observed from the individual point of view or as part of a social group, where in most cases it tries to benefit in a direct or indirect way from the vital liquid, without giving it the minimum value that it really deserves and without thinking that with its behavior it can harm not only others but at the same time it will be affecting the fragile balance that exists between man, nature and its water resources.
Concepts widely developed by Arne Naess since 1973, when addressing the issue of deep ecology, where he refers to the harmony that must exist between the human being and his environment, as part of a cultural diversity where biocentric equality is constituted by the natural things, ecosystems and life itself.
Abstract
Increasing population and its concentration in cities brings the constant demand for better services especially those related directly to the supply and delivery of water, which we relate it to their regular price, putting the same bad service, the shortage and poor quality especially that used for human consumption, which has generated one hand the abuse and misuse for some and for others and care shortage, showing a contract of abuse / water shortage.
Address the topic from the analysis of human conduct, «in relatively recent times the main ethical argued that moral behavior just competed at the exclusive domain of humans, the moral behavior toward plants or animals was unthinkable,» the which can be viewed from the standpoint of an individual or as part of a social group, where in most cases try to benefit from directly or indirectly the vital fluid, without giving the minimum value that really deserves and not be to believe that his conduct may harm not only to others but at the same time will affect the fragile balance between man and nature and water resources.
Concepts developed by Arne Naess widely since 1973, when addressing the topic of deep ecology, where he refers to the harmony that should exist between human beings with their environment, as part of cultural diversity where it biocentric equality established by the natural things, ecosystems and life itself.
Introduction
Previously, only a few countries on the African continent had a shortage of water for human consumption, but currently, there is no region in the world that has not experienced in some way its shortage, distribution, availability and quality.
This has forced the authorities to design programs, plans and advertising campaigns aimed at the care, conservation and preservation of "water" resources, as well as an entire ordered and functional structure that establishes the regulation, exploitation, use, exploitation, distribution, control, and so on. as its preservation in quantity and quality to achieve its sustainable integral development.
To this end, Mexico has a variety of regulatory provisions that allow it to integrate, administer, regulate, control and protect water, considering it to be of high strategic value and national security.
Within their normative and regulatory powers, some Municipalities, due to their low technical, economic and administrative capacity, do not follow up on administrative legal requirements, which hinders the applicability of government programs, such as; "That the urban suburbs are connected to distribution networks, that rural localities have potable water and that the operating agencies in charge of their administration function efficiently".
General objective
It is essential to address the issue of Hydroethics, starting from a philosophical perspective, analyzing ethics as part of the minimum "values" of the human being, which will allow us to reflect and delve further into the issue of care and management of water resources.
For which we will start from the definition of water concepts and then address the issue related to the different ethical currents and their direct link with man and his responsible and participatory behavior in the environmental deterioration of the planet.
Water
According to the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (2005), it is derived from the Greek hydor, hydatos.
Hydric, ca; Adjective of water or relative to it.
Hydro; Prefix that means "water".
Hydric balance; Adequate amount of water in the body. The water imbalance leads to disturbances in the body that can be fatal. It results in thirst.
Hydrology (from the Greek Yδωρ (hydro): water, and Λoγos (logos): study) to geographical science dedicated to the study of the distribution, spatial and temporal, and the properties of water present in the atmosphere and in the Earth's crust.
This includes rainfall, runoff, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and balance of glacial masses. On the other hand, the study of groundwater corresponds to hydrogeology, where water occupies 70% of the earth's surface.
Based on the above definitions, we can appreciate the importance of water for the survival of all living beings, as well as for the elaboration of major projects related to the supply, disposal, conservation, storage, distribution and quality of water. Which is considered by some experts as the science of nature that is dedicated to the study of water that is distributed on the planet.
Ethics
According to the Spanish Royal Academy (2009 twenty-third edition), the word ethics comes from the Latin ethĭca, and this from the Greek. ἠθική, which means:
1. f. Set of moral standards that govern the conduct of the person in any area of life. Professional, civic, sports ethics.
2. f. Part of the philosophy that deals with good and the foundation of its values.
So also the word ethics comes from the Greek ethos, which means custom, and the moral word comes from the Latin mos, moris, which also means custom. Where the two words refer to customs or better said, to human behavior established in an era or in a region. So the nominal definition of ethics would be the science of customs.
Consequently, Gutierrez Sáenz, when addressing the concept of ethics, describes it as "the science that studies the goodness or badness of human behavior." Therefore, from my point of view, the conduct is derived from the acts of man, which at all times must conform to the minimum values, established under the ethical principles that must prevail forever in the life of human beings, putting good over evil, since in most cases their acts are individual, conscious and free.
Ethical Currents
Below, I will only address some of the ethical currents as well as their main promoters according to the focus of this essay, without this implying that they are the only ones, these being the one; "Subjectivism, Spontaneism, Emotivism, Spontaneism, Desicionism, Pragmatism: Altruism, Utilitarianism, Positivism, Formal Ethics, Material of Values" as well as the Classical Current.
Simple Subjectivism or Emotivism: (Hume D.1711-1776) It is based on empiricism, morality is a matter of feeling and not reason, therefore we can say that there is no reference that transcends the individual himself. Each individual chooses according to what he feels, the reason can clarify to him about the consequences of an action but finally it will be the feelings that will give the fine answer and guide his actions.
Charles L. Stvenson: He solved this by proposing Emotivism, where disagreements refer to what we want, not what we believe to be true and whether or not we will convince the other to want and feel the same.
Spontaneism: (Nietzsche F. 1844-1900) Moral norms are nothing other than the expression of the will to power of men. There is no impersonal guide for man's action, each one decides who he wants to be. The main emphasis is based on psychological motivations, these are what move people to postulate moral values, so then the real bases of morality were for Nietzsche manufactured by the instinct of power that man has and his tendency to exercise dominance, everything that it does has that end, dominating, even proposes that rational postulates are really a facade behind which there is nothing but the will to power.
Ethics of harmonious social coexistence: They are also called, libertarian of social orientation, the currents that are presented have in common that emphasize the importance of ethical value as what increases mutually satisfactory social coexistence, which is the least conflictive or the that more social agreement generates.
Altruism: (Adam Smith1723 -1790) Sympathy for peers is the basis of morality. "The good you want for yourself, do it for others."
Within this group conservationist altruism arises, one of its authors is Spencer Herbert 1820-1903. (Social Darwinism), what favors the preservation of the species is considered good.
Utilitarianism: (Stuart Mill 1806-1873) They propose the greatest utility for the greatest number. Those things that produce well-being or happiness are ethically good and bad in the opposite case and in any circumstance the best fact is the one that produces the greatest benefit to more people.
Positivism: (Moore GE 1903) The good is what is mandated by laws instituted by legitimately established powers. What matters is that the validity of the laws is given by those who institute them, since for positivism it is not possible to access the truth about moral statements by an empirical path as I can in the case of other sciences. This current is also called legalism.
Formal ethics: (Kant 1724-1804) Kant raises the interest in forms, seeks to establish what form the norms must have in order to be recognized as moral. There are certain formal characteristics of human acts that make them right or wrong. We must do what human reason autonomously establishes (since we can approach values by reason) following that universally accepted norm.
Material of Values: (Scheler M.1875-1928) There is a capacity in man to grasp the content of values without the need for experience, just as we are right and sensitive we can intuitively discriminate good actions from bad ones in practice ethics. For Scheler the maximum value is the human person.
The "classic" trend: Ethics has as its object the acts that the human being carries out in a conscious and free way (that is, those acts over which he somehow exercises rational control). It is not limited only to seeing how these acts are carried out, but it seeks to pass judgment on them, which allows determining whether an act has been ethically good or ethically bad. This implies drawing a distinction between what is good and what is bad from the ethical point of view, and whether or not ethical good and evil coincide with what would be good and evil in itself.
Conduct
The behavior is part of the behavior that human beings assume day by day in each of our activities, functions and attributions, in this same sense biological species, animals, plants as well as any form of life also exhibit certain behaviors when interacting with the medium or with those of the same species, that is, conduct and behavior are synonyms and are accepted as the ways of behaving or behaving, which are not exclusive to human beings.
In this sense, behavior is "the set of observable behaviors in a person". This behavior will be accepted as long as the norms, customs and rules of a place are respected and within a framework of reasoning that allows the subject to act consistently, but also this can instinctively direct their behavior in the face of any unscheduled event. Therefore it is said that a person may have or observe good or bad behavior.
For psychological currents, behavior is the way an individual manifests himself at the moment he makes contact with his environment, the way in which he reacts translates into behavior.
Based on the above, we can qualify that within the social field, the subjects observe certain behaviors despite knowing the minimum standards established.
Problem Statement
Why in some regions of the country where up to now we have innumerable tributaries, mighty rivers, wide availability of ground and surface waters, as well as places where their availability is increasingly regulated, some questions arise from them:
Why do some communities have water and others do not?
Why are some areas or sectors or neighborhoods of the main cities benefited and others not?
Why are some sectors favored and others not?
Why does the authority sanction some and not others?
Why do those who consume more pay less?
Why are those who consume less regularly required?
Why don't those who pollute the most pay?
The answer to some of these questions from the point of view of this essay does not exactly lie with the standards, officials or people who use or benefit directly or indirectly from the vital liquid, or will there simply be an exclusionary responsibility or is that it is giving way to a new form of discrimination.
To which ethical values such conduct obeys that determines whether its care, preservation and conservation is of individual or circumstantial application, where our freedom to ethically decide what is good or bad is left or if it is being analyzed in perspective of what the human being He believes that it is the most correct or incorrect thing, where everything that arises around the water starts from the same information, or ignorance, will depend on an economic, political, social situation or simply because he enjoys very good (influential) friendships.
Conclusions
Given the importance of "water" resources in our country and the importance of their good management in terms of their preservation and conservation and the value it represents for "social well-being, economic development and the preservation of ecological wealth."
Therefore, it is not enough that water resources are framed in a series of regulations if this is not linked to the minimum of ethical behavior of human beings or the people in charge of supervising and evaluating these actions, which in turn allow them to conserve the heritage of future generations.
That is why it is essential to return to the issue of water from a Hydroethical perspective, which in this double way allows the combination of the knowledge that each of us has regarding the importance of its preservation and conservation, as well as technical knowledge -administrative-legal that individuals have from the internal part of their conscience and, on the other hand, put before their behavior the "minimum values", which the human being has, which is honesty, which in turn will allow him to act and reflect appropriately when facing a problem or when making a decision.
Currently, the correlation of a series of variables that allow the analysis of the different patterns of behavior is translated, which is translated into their behavior and their predisposition after knowledge and experience of the concept "hydro" and its application with the minimum concepts of "ethics". ”, Any of these two concepts seen separately may not mean anything, but at the moment when they are united there may be a risk that their application in daily practice will give results that may be aligned to the assurance of future generations within a framework brighter future.
This in order to align the consciousness-knowledge-behavior-behavior of the human being and its relationship with the environment in which it develops and, as the slightest carelessness can affect all living beings, as they can be seen from the perspective of the "explanatory models", can detonate, aggravate or improve the subject's behavior by applying hydroethics to sustainable development and / or to any form or manifestation of life. For which it is proposed:
• Hydroethics must be above any legal order and closest to the convictions of those who apply them.
• Hydroethics must be rational, which will allow the actions to guarantee supply and quality for future generations.
• Hydroethics is not just another option, it requires the management and application of the minimum concepts of ethics. Which do not have to depend on personal preferences, but rather are the reflection of a universal consensus.
• Hydroethics must be dynamic and with broad respect for the roots, customs and customs of the peoples of the world.
• Hydroethics must be a universal concept apart from any conventionalism and with full knowledge of the limitations of human reason.
• The problem of Hydroethics is a reflection of our cultural reality that limits us to identify what the minimum values are.
• The problem of Hydroethics does not depend on the poor adaptation of the environment (environment) but on the incapacity of its integration.
• Hydroethics must be able to influence human beings so that they recognize the smallest ethical and moral values when making decisions.
• Hydroethics must be coined from within the family as part of our identity and must be above any belief, religious, political, social, economic, of sex, race, language and origin.
