A new era has begun of \u201cglobal water bankruptcy,\u201d with humans depleting freshwater systems to the point they can\u2019t recover, according to\u00a0a new United Nations\u00a0report.<\/p>\n
Three-quarters of the world\u2019s population \u2013 about 6.1 billion people \u2013 now live in countries where freshwater supplies are insecure or critically insecure, according to the report, published Tuesday by UN University\u2019s Institute for Water, Environment and Health. Four billion people face severe water scarcity for at least one month a year.<\/p>\n
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Cities are experiencing more Day Zero events in which municipal water systems are near collapse. An acute water shortage in Tehran recently led Iran\u2019s president to warn it may become necessary to evacuate parts of the city or even relocate the capital. In Turkey, roughly 700 sinkholes \u2014 some up to 100 feet deep \u2014 have appeared where aquifers have collapsed after their groundwater was drained.<\/p>\n
Drought and water scarcity are likely to drive migrations in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America, says the report, which is based on\u00a0a peer-reviewed paper.<\/p>\n
Global warming is\u00a0increasing\u00a0water demands and makes the natural supply of water less predictable. But water management is also a key part of the equation, said Kaveh Madani, director of the UN institute and the lead author of the report.\u00a0\u201cWater bankruptcy is not about how much water you have;\u00a0it\u2019s about how you manage your water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chronic overuse of\u00a0groundwater, forest destruction, land degradation and pollution have caused\u00a0irreversible freshwater loss\u00a0in many parts of the world \u2014\u00a0problems that are compounded by climate change.<\/p>\n
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Climate change\u00a0is shifting fresh water on a planetary scale and, on a smaller scale, those effects can be\u00a0made worse by local actions.\u00a0A\u00a0hotter, drier planet experiences more water-evaporating droughts. That concentrates salts in the soil, as so do certain farming practices. Higher temperatures contribute to\u00a0more forest and peatland fires, while\u00a0human clear-cutting and\u00a0draining of wetlands worsen fire conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDroughts are no longer just natural but anthropogenic \u2014\u00a0meaning that we have climate change at the global level, and then also the land use changes from management decisions, infrastructure allocation decisions, make water less and less available,\u201d Madani said.<\/p>\n
Use of the word \u201cbankruptcy\u201d to describe the extent of water depletion is new for the UN. Previously, UN University scientists used\u00a0\u201cwater stress\u201d\u00a0or \u201cwater crisis\u201d\u00a0to describe systems that were\u00a0under either prolonged,\u00a0or sudden and acute, pressure. Both of those terms allow for the possibility of recovery.<\/p>\n
But that\u00a0isn\u2019t feasible\u00a0in many areas where humans have\u00a0overdrawn\u00a0the local supply of fresh water, squandering the annual influx from recharging sources like rivers and melting snow\u00a0while exhausting groundwater and other natural reservoirs.<\/p>\n
Half the world gets its domestic water from stored groundwater, which is being heavily depleted. But those reliant on water above the surface\u00a0are also vulnerable. A\u00a0quarter of the population depends on large lakes that have lost half their water since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
The amount of water available to communities is also often overstated because its quality may be too poor for use, the report says. Fertilisers, mining effluents, plastics and drug contaminants continue to find their way into rivers, lakes and coastal waters around the world, and wastewater treatment practices are often inadequate.<\/p>\n
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The report calls for the recognition of water bankruptcy in policy debates and for the creation of a global monitoring framework to track water resources. Governments should consider blocking projects that further degrade water supplies, it says.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in years that are wet, we are still struggling,\u201d Madani said. \u201cA lot of these systems have been damaged permanently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another paper\u00a0published\u00a0this month, in Nature<\/em>, predicted that crop droughts\u00a0will worsen in much of Europe, northern South America and western North America\u00a0even as big rain events increase. That\u2019s because rising temperatures more strongly affect evaporation and loss of soil moisture in those regions, which means more water will be required for irrigation.<\/p>\n In the tropics, semi-arid\u00a0areas are more affected by precipitation than by temperature-driven evaporation. On the other hand, they may also experience more extreme heat, which makes plants thirstier, or extreme rainfall that\u00a0erodes soil.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if, in agriculture, you\u2019re not being affected by more of these very dramatic seasonal droughts, you still are affected by increases in extreme weather,\u201d said Emily Black, a\u00a0professor of terrestrial processes and climate at the University of Reading and lead author of the Nature<\/em>\u00a0study. \u201cAgriculture is a big user of water, so if we are increasing the water demand from plants, then that of course strains water supply wherever you are.\u201d<\/p>\n The UN report\u2019s release comes ahead of meetings in Dakar, Senegal, later this month to lay groundwork for the 2026 UN Water Conference in December. On January 7 the US said it would withdraw from UN Water and UN Universities, along with dozens of other international organisations\u00a0that the Trump administration said are\u00a0\u201ccontrary to the interests\u201d of the country. The US decision has not impacted operations so far, Madani said, though he added that the country\u2019s absence will be felt in Dakar.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n