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Global Water Crisis Reaches “Bankruptcy” Levels, Warns UN Report
New York, NY – The world is hurtling towards an irreversible “water bankruptcy,” with billions already grappling with the fallout of decades of overuse and dwindling natural supplies. That’s the stark warning from United Nations researchers, who on Tuesday detailed a grim picture of global water insecurity.
According to a report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, a staggering three-quarters of the global population resides in countries deemed “water insecure” or “critically water insecure.” Furthermore, 4 billion individuals experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year.
“Many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” stated Kaveh Madani, the institute’s director and lead author of the report. He emphasized that acknowledging this “water bankruptcy” is crucial for making the difficult decisions needed to safeguard people, economies, and ecosystems.
The report paints a picture of water supplies in a “post-crisis state of failure,” attributing this to decades of unsustainable extraction. This has depleted “water savings” stored in aquifers, glaciers, soils, wetlands, and river ecosystems, with pollution further compounding the problem.
The scope of the crisis is immense: more than 170 million hectares of irrigated cropland – an area larger than Iran – are under “high” or “very high” water stress. The economic toll from land degradation, groundwater depletion, and climate change is estimated to exceed $300 billion annually worldwide.
Alarmingly, three billion people and over half of the planet’s food production are concentrated in areas already contending with unstable or declining water storage levels. Salinization, too, has degraded more than 100 million hectares of cropland, further exacerbating food security concerns.
Researchers argue that current approaches to water management are no longer adequate. They stress that the priority is not a return to “normal,” but rather a new “global water agenda” focused on minimizing damage.
However, Jonathan Paul, a geoscience professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, pointed out a significant omission in the report. “The elephant in the room, which is mentioned explicitly only once, is the role of massive and uneven population growth in driving so many of the manifestations of water bankruptcy,” he commented, suggesting a deeper consideration of demographic factors is needed in addressing this critical global challenge.