This is the conclusion of a recently published UN University report on the loss of the planet’s water capital.
The authors of the report note that such terms as “water stress” and “water crisis” no longer reflect what is happening in many regions of the world. We are talking about the post-crisis state characterized by irreversible loss of natural water capital.
“This report tells an inconvenient truth: many regions are living beyond their hydrological capacity, and many key water systems are already bankrupt,” said lead author Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
“Many countries have not only used up their water resources, including water from rivers and underground water reservoirs, but have also depleted long-term ‘frozen’ water reserves – particularly glaciers. This has led to a range of severe impacts, including land subsidence in river deltas and coastal cities, the disappearance of lakes and wetlands, and irreversible loss of biodiversity.
“Water bankruptcy in facts and figures
Drawing on global data and recent scientific research, the report paints a stark picture of trends, the vast majority of which are human-caused:
– 50% of the world’s major lakes have lost significant amounts of water since the early 1990s;
– 410 million hectares of natural wetlands lost over 50 years (an area comparable in size to the European Union);
– more than 30% of the global glacier mass has been lost since 1970; entire mountain systems in low and middle latitudes may be completely devoid of functional glaciers in the coming decades;
– dozens of major rivers no longer reach the sea at certain times of the year;
– 4 billion people experience severe water shortages for at least one month a year;
– 3 billion people live in areas where total water supplies are declining, and these same regions produce more than 50% of the world’s food;
– 1.8 billion people lived in drought conditions in 2022-2023.
“Agriculture consumes the vast majority of freshwater, and food systems are closely linked through trade and prices,” Madani explained. – When water scarcity undermines agriculture in one region, the consequences reverberate through global markets, political stability and food security in others.”
Unfortunately, the conclusion is not comforting, and remedial mechanisms are highly unreliable, given the realities of a geopolitical redistribution of the world.
“We cannot restore the glaciers that have disappeared, but we can prevent further loss of the remaining natural capital and rebuild institutions to live in the new conditions,” Madani believes.
The hottest spots in the planet’s water balance
The situation is most dire in the Middle East and North Africa: water scarcity, climate shocks, low agricultural productivity, sandstorms.
In some regions of South Asia, agricultural activities involving active use of groundwater and urbanization have led to chronic drops in groundwater levels and localized land subsidence.
In the southwestern United States, the Colorado River has become a symbol of the water crisis caused by overuse of water resources, climate change and resulting droughts.
And what about Moldova?
Skeptical experts believe that by the middle of the next decade, many of the country’s small rivers will turn into streams or disappear completely, while the major rivers – the Dniester and Prut – will be transformed into a chain of loosely connected lakes.
