US EditionEra of ‘global water bankruptcy’ is here, UN report says
The UN report warns 75% of the global population face significant water insecurity from irreversible freshwater resource depletion and calls for new management approaches.
- On Jan 20, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health released a report declaring the world has entered an era of Global Water Bankruptcy, framing it as irreversible failure.
- Decades of unsustainable use have left many water systems permanently failing due to overextraction, pollution, land degradation, and climate stress, with groundwater treated as an unlimited safety net causing aquifer compaction and land subsidence.
- The report finds that four billion people face severe water scarcity, while 2.2 billion lack safely managed drinking water and 3.5 billion lack sanitation, with groundwater declining in over 70% of aquifers.
- UN officials caution that water bankruptcy risks fragility, displacement, and conflict, urging 'bankruptcy management' and using the UN Water Conferences in 2026 and 2028 for just transitions benefiting farmers, vulnerable communities and Indigenous peoples.
- Longer term, the report notes that glacier mass decline of more than 30% since 1970 threatens water storage in Asia and the Andes, while wetlands and ecosystem service valuation exceed US$5.1 trillion.
88 Articles
88 Articles
According to a UN report, the world is entering a "age of global water bankruptcy".
Humanity faces ‘era of water bankruptcy’, says UN report
ISLAMABAD: The world is experiencing the dawn of an “era of water bankruptcy”, according to a United Nations report. The report, released on Tuesday, invited leaders to facilitate “honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality” amid chronic depletion of groundwater, over-allocation of water, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution — all compounded by global warming. Titled “Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrologi…
By Laura Paddison, CNN. The world has entered “an era of global water bankruptcy” with irreversible consequences, according to a new United Nations report. Regions across the globe face severe water problems: Kabul could be on track to become the first modern city to run out of water. Mexico City is sinking at a rate of about 50 centimeters a year due to the overexploitation of the vast aquifer beneath its streets. In the southwestern United Sta…
The Independent
The Independent (US)The world is facing irreversible water ‘bankruptcy’. Billions of people are at risk
Nearly three-quarters of the global population reside in nations deemed "water insecure" or "critically water insecure", UN researchers said
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