Unless urgent action is taken to protect water resources and stop the destruction of the ecosystems on which our freshwater depends, more than half of the world’s food production will be cut short as a rapidly accelerating water crisis hits the planet. It will be at risk of bankruptcy within the next 25 years. experts warned in a landmark review.
Half of the world’s population already faces water scarcity, and that number will increase as the climate crisis worsens, according to a report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water released on Thursday.
Demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% by the end of this decade, the report says, as the world’s water systems are under “unprecedented stress”.
The commission found that governments and experts significantly underestimated the amount of water people need to live a decent life. While 50 to 100 liters per day is required for good health and hygiene per person, in reality we need around 4,000 liters per day for adequate nutrition and a dignified life. In most regions, it is impossible to achieve that amount locally, so people rely on trade in food, clothing, consumer goods, etc. to meet their needs.
Some countries benefit more than others from “green water,” which is soil moisture needed for food production rather than “blue water" from rivers and lakes. The report found that water travels around the world in “atmospheric rivers”, transporting moisture from one region to another.
About half of the world’s land precipitation comes from healthy vegetation in ecosystems that transpire water into the atmosphere, forming clouds and moving downwind. China and Russia are the main beneficiaries of these “atmospheric river” systems, and India and Brazil are major exporters because their landmass supports the flow of green water to other regions. Between 40% and 60% of freshwater rainfall sources originate from adjacent land uses.
“China’s economy depends on sustainable forest management in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltic states,” said Professor Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the commission’s co-chairs. . “The same is true of Brazil supplying fresh water to Argentina. This interconnectedness points to the need to position fresh water as a global common good in the global economy.”
Mr Thurman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore and co-chair of the commission, said countries must start working together to manage water resources before it is too late.
“We must fundamentally think about how we conserve our fresh water sources, how we use them more efficiently, and how we ensure that all communities have access to usable fresh water. It has to be about how to maintain equity between the weak, in other words, the rich and the poor,” Shanmugaratnam said.
The World Commission on Water Economics leverages the work of dozens of leading scientists and economists to form a comprehensive view of the state of global hydrological systems and how to manage them. It was founded by the Netherlands in 2022. The 194-page report is the largest global study to examine all aspects of the water crisis and recommend remedies to policymakers.
The findings were surprisingly harsh, Rockstrom said. “Water is the primary victim of the (climate crisis), and the convergence of the global environmental changes we are currently seeing are putting the stability of the entire Earth system at risk.” he told the Guardian. “[The climate crisis]manifests itself first and foremost as droughts and floods. When you think about heatwaves and fires, the really severe impacts are due to moisture. It will burn.”
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Every 1 degree rise in global temperature adds an additional 7% of moisture to the atmosphere, which has the effect of “strengthening” the water cycle far more than would occur under normal fluctuations. Destruction of nature is also exacerbating the crisis, as deforestation and draining of wetlands disrupts the water cycle, which relies on transpiration from trees and water storage in the soil.
Harmful subsidies are also distorting global water systems and need to be addressed as a priority, experts said. More than $700bn (£540bn) of subsidies are pumped into agriculture every year, but much of it is misdirected, forcing farmers to use more water than necessary for irrigation and wasteful practices. is encouraged.
There are also benefits for industry, with around 80% of the wastewater used in industry around the world not being recycled.
World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is also co-chair of the commission, said countries should re-allocate subsidies and avoid harmful subsidies while ensuring that the poor are not disadvantaged. He said it needed to be abolished. “Achieving the three Es of efficiency, equity, environmental sustainability and justice requires a combination of policy tools to work together. Water pricing therefore needs to be paired with appropriate subsidies.” she said.
Currently, subsidies primarily benefit the wealthy, Okonjo-Iweala added. “Industry is heavily subsidized and people are getting richer. So what we need are more targeted subsidies. We need this for the poor who really need it. need to be identified,” she said.
One of the commission’s co-chairs said the water crisis disproportionately affects women. Photo: Anjum Naveed/AP
Developing countries also need to be given access to the finance they need to upgrade their water systems, provide safe water and sanitation, and halt the destruction of their natural environments, the report says. .
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Mariana Mazzucato, professor of economics at University College London and co-chair of the committee, said lending by public sector banks to developing countries should be conditional on water reform. “These could be improvements in water conservation and water use efficiency, or direct investments in water-intensive industries,” she said. “We must ensure that profits are reinvested in productive activities such as research and development on water issues.”
Mazzucato added that water issues also had a huge impact on women and girls. “One of our committee members is Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, the mayor of Freetown in Sierra Leone. She says that most rapes and abuses against women actually happen when they go to fetch water.” Mazzucato said. “Child mortality, gender equality, the burden of water collection, the burden of food security, they are all connected.”
Five key takeaways from the report
The world is facing a water crisis
More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 3.6 billion people, or 44% of the population, lack access to safe sanitation. Every day, 1,000 children die because they don’t have access to safe water. Demand for freshwater is now expected to exceed supply by 40% by the end of the decade. The crisis is worsening, and without action, water issues will reduce global GDP by around 8% by 2050, with poorer countries facing losses of 15%. More than half of the world’s food production comes from regions where water availability tends to be unstable.
There is no coordinated global effort to address this crisis
Despite the interconnectedness of global water systems, there is no global governance structure for water. The United Nations has only held one water conference in the past 50 years, and only last month appointed a special envoy for water.
Water shortages are becoming more serious due to climate change
The effects of the climate crisis will be felt first in the world’s hydrological systems, which in some regions are facing severe disruption and collapse. Drought in the Amazon, flooding across Europe and Asia, and melting mountain glaciers causing both floods and droughts downstream are all examples of extreme weather impacts that are likely to worsen in the near future. Overuse of water by people is also exacerbating the climate crisis, for example by draining carbon-rich peatlands and wetlands and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Water is artificially cheap for some people and too expensive for others.
Subsidies to agriculture around the world often have unintended impacts on water, giving farmers perverse incentives to over-irrigate crops and waste water. In many countries, industry subsidizes water use or ignores pollution. Meanwhile, poor people in developing countries often pay high prices for water or have access to only dirty water sources. Eliminating harmful subsidies and realistic water pricing that protects the poor must be a top priority for governments.
water is a public good
All human life depends on water, yet water is not recognized as an essential resource. The report’s authors urge us to rethink how water is viewed as a global common good, rather than as an infinitely renewable resource. Global water agreements by governments ensure the protection of water sources and the creation of a ‘circular economy’ of water. There it is recycled and decontaminated. Developing countries must be given access to finance to stop the destruction of natural ecosystems that are a vital part of the water cycle.
