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UN report warns of a looming global water crisis

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New research has uncovered that the number of people lacking access to safe drinking water in cities around the world will double by 2050 due to overconsumption and climate change.

Billions of people will face water shortages in the coming decades as climate change, population growth, and shifting agricultural practices strain supplies like never before.

This is according to the UN World Water Development Report, which was published in collaboration with UNESCO on Tuesday ahead of a vital United Nations summit.

As it states, nearly 1 billion people in cities around the world face water scarcity today and the number is likely to reach between 1.7bn and 2.4bn by 2050, when urban water demand is predicted to increase by 80%.

The report also found that lack of access to safe drinking water in rural areas is becoming a more frequent occurrence, that scarcity is becoming ‘endemic’ due to pollution, and that global warming will boost seasonal shortages in both regions with abundant water and those already struggling.

This, it warns, is ‘blindly’ sending us down a ‘dangerous path’ of ‘vampiric overconsumption and overdevelopment’ that will amount in a water crisis entirely out of our control.

‘There is an urgent need to establish strong international mechanisms to prevent the global water crisis from spiralling out of control,’ says Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCO.

‘Water is our common future, and it is essential to act together to share it equitably and manage it sustainably.’

The report’s release was timed to coincide with World Water Day and the start of a high-level conference at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

It will be the first ever since 1977, co-hosted by the governments of the Netherlands and Tajikistan, and is set to see global water issues discussed by ministers and a small number of international heads of state.

They will hear warnings of a looming water crisis, which has been largely neglected by those in power.

‘About 10% of the population currently lives in areas that are high or critical water stress,’ says Richard Connor, the report’s lead author.

‘With uncertainties on the up, there will definitely be a global crisis if we don’t address it.’

As he mentions, between 2bn and 3bn people currently experience water shortages for at least a month a year.

Given water use has been growing globally by about 1% a year for the last 40 years, these figures will only continue to rise unless governments begin to take the problem more seriously.

To avert an even graver emergency – one that would have huge implications for the global economy, for nature, for urban living, and for the climate – UN Under Secretary General Usha Rao Monari believes that resources will need to be managed far more carefully in the future.

Alongside Connor, she is calling for the creation of new funds and finance schemes that bring together users of water in cities with businesses and utilities to invest in water resources, such as habitats and river systems managed by farmers, to protect their water sources.

‘There is enough water on the planet if we manage it more effectively than we have managed it over the last few decades,’ she says.

‘I think we will have to find new governance models, new finance models, new models of using water and reusing water than ever before. I think that technology and innovation will play a very large role in looking at how to manage the water sector and the use of water.’

Feature Media Manager & Senior Writer London, UK

Sofia (She/Her) – I’m the Feature Media Manager and a Senior Writer at Thred, specialising in exclusive articles and live interviews, fashion and beauty with a focus on sustainability, women’s rights, psychedelics, and Latin America. I studied Spanish at the University of Exeter and International Journalism at City, London. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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