A new United Nations report warns that we have entered “water bankruptcy”

The world is using so much fresh water, in a context marked by climate change, that it has fallen into water bankruptcy, and many regions can no longer recover from frequent water shortages. Around 4 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, live with severe water scarcity for at least one month a year, without access to enough water to meet all their needs. And many more are seeing the consequences of the water deficit: dry reservoirs, sinking cities, crop failures, water rationing, forest fires and dust storms. Signs of the water crisis are everywhere, from Tehran, where droughts and unsustainable water use have depleted the reservoirs on which the Iranian capital depends, stoking political tensions, to the United States, where demand for water has outstripped supplies from the Colorado River, a crucial source of drinking water and irrigation for seven states. Water bankruptcy is not just a metaphor for the water deficit. It’s a chronic condition that develops when a site uses more water than nature can reliably replace, and when damage to the natural assets that store and filter that water, such as aquifers and wetlands, becomes difficult to reverse. A new study led by the United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health finds that the world has now overcome temporary water crises. Many natural water systems can no longer return to their historical conditions. These systems are in a state of collapse: water bankruptcy.

Continue reading news in The Conversation