The world is running out of water, and time

For many years, scientists, policymakers, and the media have cautioned about a “global water crisis,” suggesting a temporary disruption followed by a return to normalcy.

- By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

More water meters, but is there enough water to fill them? With no water coming from faucets, rationing becomes the only option.

However, what is becoming evident in numerous areas is a lasting scarcity, where water systems can no longer feasibly revert to their historical norms.

“For much of the world, ‘normal’ is gone,” said Kaveh Madani, Director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. “This is not to kill hope but to encourage action and an honest admission of failure today to protect and enable tomorrow,” he told a press briefing in New York recently.

A new flagship report from the United Nations suggests that the world is entering a phase of global “water bankruptcy,” a situation in which water systems cannot recover from irreversible harm and depletion, typically resulting from overexploitation and environmental deterioration.

This situation, according to the UN, is marked by insolvency (withdrawing and polluting water beyond renewable inflows and safe depletion limits) and irreversibility (damage to key parts of water-related natural capital, such as wetlands and lakes, that makes restoration of the system to its initial conditions infeasible).

The world is swiftly exhausting its natural “water savings accounts,” the study indicated. Since the early 1990s, over half of the world’s large lakes have experienced a decline, while approximately 35 percent of natural wetlands have disappeared since 1970, according to Madani.

The impact on human life is already considerable, the UN study said. Almost 75 percent of the global population resides in nations categorized as water-insecure or critically water-insecure.

Approximately four billion individuals face extreme water scarcity for at least one month each year, and the financial repercussions of drought are estimated to reach $307 billion annually, the UN said.