By C. Moss

Earlier this year, The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) (one of 13 institutions comprising the United Nations University (UNU), the academic arm of the United Nations) released a report titled “Global Water Bankruptcy”. The Guardian discussed the report in “Era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ is here, UN report says”.

Anyone who follows the crisis in water resources should read this article, if not the 77 page report. Basically it confirms what we already know: We are drawing far more water out of the Earth than the Earth is able to return to the world’s ground water. “All life depends on water” the article says, “but the report found many societies had long been using water faster than it could be replenished annually in rivers and soils, as well as over-exploiting or destroying long-term stores of water in aquifers and wetlands. Now the climate crisis is exacerbating the problem by melting easter storing glaciers, and causing “ whiplashes between extremely dry and wet weather”

 This has led to water bankruptcy; a world in which 75% of people live in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure and 2 billion people live on ground that is sinking as groundwater aquifers collapse. Many human water systems are past the point at which they can be restored to former levels.

Previously in this column we have described how withdrawing water from underground aquifers in the central valley of California has caused the ground to sink, but it appears this is wide spread, with over-exploitation of groundwater causing cities around the world to subside “with Rafsanjan, in Iran, sinking by 30cm a year; Tulare, in the US, by about 28cm a year, and Mexico City by about 21cm a year. Jakarta, Manila, Lagos and Kabul were other major cities affected.”

Among the most visible signs of this water bankruptcy are the 700 sinkholes peppering the heavily farmed Konya plain in Turkey. Indonesia has decided to move their capital Jakarta inland because it has sunk so that keeping the ocean out is becoming impossible. 

Conflicts over water are rising rapidly from about 20 in 2010 to more than 400 in 2024. 

When you think of the “Fertile Crescent”  in the Middle East, you think of the Tigris river as forming the basis for early civilization, but now the Tigris river is starting to run dry before it gets to the ocean. Major cities — Cape Town, São Paulo, Chennai and Tehran — have all faced ‘day zero’ water crises when all available water is gone. Like Jakarta, Tehran is thinking of moving the city to another location in Iran to avoid another day zero.

We have talked about wetlands and their importance to the biosphere, but sadly, the report states that “Wetlands equal in size to the entire European Union” have been erased in the past five decades.”

Trying to plan for water resources is getting harder.  Do we keep reservoirs low to accommodate sudden downfalls of rain and to mitigate floods, or do we keep them full to mitigate drought and provide water in the summers?  The complete article includes pictures and graphs and resources. 

It is well worth the read if you believe as we do that water is life.