New York, January 21 (QNA) - United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) revealed in a report that three-quarters of the world’s population lives in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure, and about 4 billion experience severe water scarcity for at least one month a year.
Lead author Kaveh Madani characterized the current crisis as a 'global water bankruptcy.' He attributed this state to a decades of water overuse, and the depletion of natural reservoirs, including wetlands and glaciers, which has left billions of people vulnerable.
Madani stressed that recognition of the water bankruptcy is crucial to finally make the difficult choices that will protect people, economies, and ecosystems, noting that "human–water systems are already in a post-crisis state of failure," due to aquifers, glaciers, soils, wetlands, and river ecosystems, alongside the impact of pollution.
Findings from the report indicate that more than 170 million hectares of irrigated agricultural land are under "high" or "very high" water stress, with land degradation, groundwater depletion, and climate change resulting in economic disasters costing around US$307 billion per year.
The crisis affects around 3 billion people and more than half of the world’s food production are located in areas where total water storage is already declining or unstable, and salinization has led to the degradation of over 100 million hectares of agricultural land, according to Madani.
The report concludes that current approaches to solving water issues are no longer adequate for the scale of the problem. It emphasizes that the priority must shift away from attempting to return to old baselines and toward the establishment of a "new water agenda" aimed at reducing further damage. (QNA)