World enters the era of global ‘water bankruptcy,’ UN scientists warn

Dozens of the world’s great rivers are so exploited that they often dry up before reaching the sea. More than half of all large lakes are shrinking, and most of the world’s major underground springs are irreversibly diminishing as agricultural pumping drains water that took centuries, even thousands of years, to accumulate.

In a report released this week, UN scientists warn that the world has entered a new era of “global water bankruptcy” – a term that clearly underlines the urgency of efforts needed to protect what remains.

“For too long we have been living beyond our hydrological means,” said lead author Kaveh Madani, director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health at the United Nations University.

Based on extensive research, the report says that more and more parts of the world are indeed spending too much money on their water accounts and their reserves are dwindling. The term “water crisis” is often used locally and globally, but scientists believe it refers to a temporary emergency from which a region can recover, while many parts of the world are depleting their water resources beyond safe limits and are now bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy.

Many rivers, lakes, aquifers and wetlands have passed “tipping points” and cannot bounce back, the report says.

“Millions of farmers are trying to produce more food from water sources that are dwindling, polluted or disappearing,” Madani said.

It is estimated that 70% of the world’s water is used for agriculture. When water resources are depleted, it can lead to the collapse of economies, displacement and conflict. The report says that about 3 billion people, and more than half of the world’s food production, are concentrated in areas where water resources are declining.

Scientists say more than half of the world’s great lakes have shrunk since the 1990s. About 35% of the planet’s natural wetlands, almost the size of the European Union in total, have been destroyed since the 1970s.

Excessive groundwater pumping has led to a long-term decline of about 70% of the planet’s major aquifers, and in many areas this decline is leading to land subsidence. According to the report, land subsidence linked to excessive groundwater pumping occurs across more than 2.3 million square kilometers, or nearly 5% of the world’s land area. This permanently reduces the capacity of aquifers and also increases the risk of flooding.

Around 4 billion people suffer from severe water shortage for at least one month each year.

Water scarcity is not just a problem in arid regions of the world, Madani said. “As with financial bankruptcy, it’s not about whether you’re rich or poor. What matters is how you manage your budget.”

And in many areas, the water people use perpetually exceeds the supply, year after year, breaking the budget.

The report points to the Colorado River and its depleted reservoirs, on which California and other Western states depend, as symbols of over-promised water. Other hotspots of chronic overuse include parts of South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

“We must prioritize preventing further damage to our remaining economies,” Madani said. “By recognizing the reality of water failure, we can finally make tough choices that will protect people, economies and ecosystems. The longer we delay, the worse the deficit gets.”

Water scarcity is also caused by deforestation, wetland loss and pollution, the researchers said. These problems are made worse by climate change, which is disrupting the water cycle and leading to even more severe droughts and floods.

THE report was released before UN Water Conference in the United Arab Emirates in December.

Madani is also the author of a peer-reviewed work article which this week presents a definition of water failure, saying the term is a diagnosis intended to “communicate the severity of the problem and the urgency for a transformative new beginning.”

The banking analogy used throughout the report, he said, points to solutions similar to managing a financial bankruptcy: preserving remaining capital while reducing expenses.

Solutions to address depletion of water resources will vary by region, Madani said, and will need to take into account the reality that “simply taking away water from farmers can lead to unemployment, immediate tensions, chaotic situations,” and that farmers and others need help to use less water and adapt.

In a related context study published last year, scientists analyzed more than two decades of satellite data and found that large areas of the world were losing fresh water and becoming drier.

In a recent World Bank Reportthe researchers said that global water consumption “increased by 25% between 2000 and 2019, with about a third of this increase occurring in regions already drying up.”

Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and professor at Arizona State University, said adopting the term water bankruptcy “is a brilliant way of implying that water resources have been mismanaged, overused and are no longer available for current and future generations.”

He said water experts are struggling to find the right “hook” to convey the severity and urgency of the problem, and calling it a water bankruptcy promises to catch on.