The world has entered a perilous era of “global water bankruptcy,” according to a sobering new UN report. Overstretched and polluted water resources are harming billions of people, with no one certain when the entire system could collapse, with grave implications for peace and social cohesion.
The report, led by Professor Kaveh Madani of the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, found that many societies have long been using water faster than it can be naturally replenished. This has pushed numerous human water systems past the point of no return, with rivers, aquifers and wetlands being over-exploited or destroyed.
The climate crisis is exacerbating the problem, with melting glaciers and increasingly erratic weather patterns disrupting water cycles. As a result, 75% of the global population now live in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure, while 2 billion people inhabit land that is rapidly sinking as groundwater aquifers collapse.
Conflicts over dwindling water supplies have risen sharply since 2010, the report states, with major river systems like the Colorado in the US and the Murray-Darling in Australia failing to reach the sea. “Day zero” emergencies, where cities run out of water, are also escalating, as seen in Chennai, India.
Even traditionally damp nations like the UK are at risk, the report warns, due to their reliance on imports of water-intensive foods and other products. Agriculture accounts for around 70% of global freshwater withdrawals, with millions of farmers struggling to grow crops from shrinking, polluted or vanishing water sources.
“This report tells an uncomfortable truth: many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” said Professor Madani. “It’s extremely urgent because no one knows exactly when the whole system would collapse.”
The report calls for a fundamental reset in how water is protected and used worldwide. This would involve cutting water rights and withdrawals to match degraded supplies, and transforming water-intensive sectors like agriculture and industry through changes in crops, irrigation and urban systems.
“Water bankruptcy management requires honesty, courage and political will,” said Madani. “We cannot rebuild vanished glaciers or reinflate acutely compacted aquifers. But we can prevent further losses, and redesign institutions to live within new hydrological limits.”
The UN’s Thilidzi Marwala warned that water bankruptcy is becoming a driver of fragility, displacement and conflict, making sustainable water management central to maintaining peace and social cohesion.
Experts say addressing the role of massive and unequal population growth in driving the water crisis would be more useful than tinkering with outdated water management frameworks. Time is running out to avert a global water catastrophe.
