Climate change, destructive land use and mismanagement of reserves have put the global water cycle under “unprecedented pressure”, it warned in a report published on Thursday (17/10).
“Nearly three billion people and more than half of the world’s food production are now in areas where total water storage is expected to decline,” announced GCEW, a two-year research initiative founded by the Netherlands in 2022.
He pointed out that densely populated areas, including northwest India, northeast China, but also southern and eastern Europe, are particularly vulnerable to freshwater shortages.
Agriculture has been hit, and global grain production could fall by up to 23% if current trends continue.
Vicious circle
Rising temperatures have created a vicious cycle, leading to the loss of “green water,” the moisture in soil and plant life, as evaporation provides half of the world’s precipitation.
Warmer temperatures lead to drier soils, which increase droughts and fires, and cause degradation and loss of biodiversity, further reducing the amount of “green water” available in the soil.
Disruptions to the water cycle “have significant global economic implications,” the report says.
The water crisis could lead to a reduction in GDP by an average of 8% in high-income countries and up to 15% in low-income countries by 2050.
Economic declines will result from “combined effects of rainfall patterns and rising temperatures due to climate change, reductions in overall water storage and lack of access to clean water and sanitation.”
Global Water Cooperation
The report calls for the water cycle to be seen as a “global commons” that governments must work together to protect.
“We need to set common goals for water sustainability,” Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, co-chair of the GCEW, told a briefing ahead of the report’s release.
“Eventually, a global water agreement will be needed. It will take years to get there, but we will start that process.”
The report calls for “harmful subsidies to be eliminated in water-intensive sectors or redirected towards water-saving solutions,” noting that poor and vulnerable communities should receive special attention.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization and co-chair of GCEW, said about $600 billion in annual agricultural subsidies that encourage more water use should be redirected and there should be a shift away from planting irrigated crops. In inappropriate areas.
Europe’s waters are at risk
At the same time, the European Environment Agency warns that Europe needs to better manage its water resources in order to guarantee good quality water for its citizens, while pointing out that only 37% of surface water on the European continent is ecologically good or very good. Health.
“The health of Europe’s waters is far from good. Our water bodies are facing unprecedented problems that threaten Europe’s water security,” the agency’s director, Lena Ila-Mononen, said in a statement.
In terms of the chemical health of surface water, it is good only 29% of the time, compared to 77% for aquifers, which come from most of the drinking water Europeans consume.
Good chemical health means the absence of excessive pollution from organic matter and harmful chemicals such as perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) and microplastics.
The biggest threat to water
Surface water is threatened by air pollution (burning coal, car emissions, etc.) and agriculture that produces large amounts of waste that pollute the soil.
According to a report by the European Environment Agency, “European agriculture needs to increase the use of sustainable natural and agricultural practices with incentives and changes in our dietary habits”.
The European body surveyed 120,000 outdoor water surfaces and 3.8 million square kilometers of groundwater in 19 EU countries and Norway, and called for a 50% reduction in herbicide use by 2030.
“We must redouble our efforts to restore the health of our precious streams, lakes, coastal waters and other water bodies so that this vital resource is preserved for future generations,” he said.
Effects of climate change (droughts and floods) and overexploitation of water resources are putting pressure on water resources.
Reducing water consumption and restoring ecosystems should be a priority for governments, especially at a time when water resources are under pressure from climate change, increased precipitation, melting glaciers and droughts, according to the report.