UN report warns that looming water 'bankruptcy’ puts billions of dollars at risk

U.N. researchers said on Tuesday that the world faces irreversible "water bankruptcy", with billions struggling to cope with consequences of decades of overuse, as well as shrinking supply from lakes, rivers and wetlands. Researchers said Tuesday. Researchers said on Tuesday.

Kaveh Madani is the director and lead author of?the Institute. He said that many regions were living beyond their means and that critical water systems had already gone bankrupt.

He said: "By recognizing the reality of the water crisis, we can make the difficult choices that will protect people and economies, as well as ecosystems."

According to the report, water supplies have "already reached a state of failure after a crisis"? after decades of unsustainable extraction that has drained "savings"??found in aquifers and glaciers?, soils?, wetlands?and river ecologies?, as well as being degraded by pollutants.

The report stated that more than 170 millions hectares (an area bigger than Iran) of irrigated crops are experiencing "high" or very high water stress. Economic damage caused by land degradation, groundwater depletion, and climate change is estimated to be $300 billion per year.

It said that more than 100 millions hectares have been degraded by salinisation, which has affected more than three billion people. Researchers wrote that current approaches to solving water issues were no longer effective and the priority was not to "return to normal", but to create a "global agenda" to minimize damage.

Jonathan Paul, a geoscience professor from Royal Holloway University of London said that the report failed to address a major factor in the crisis.

He said, "The elephant in room is that massive and uneven growth of population is driving many manifestations of water bankruptcies." (Reporting and editing by David Stanway)

(source: Reuters)