Alarming UN report The "age of global water bankruptcy" begins
3 billion people live in areas where water supplies are declining or unstable.
Image: dpa
The report does not classify Europe as water bankrupt across the board, but emphasizes global interdependencies.
Image: dpa
Many societies are exceeding their quota of renewable water and their long-term reserves.
Image: dpa
Researchers recommend, for example, stricter protection of wetlands, limiting groundwater extraction and restructuring water-intensive economic sectors.
Image: dpa
Even where water volumes appear stable, the proportion that can actually be used is shrinking due to pollution, among other things.
Image: dpa
Around three quarters of the world's population live in countries that are considered water insecure or critically water insecure.
Image: dpa
Around 50 percent of domestic water consumption worldwide now comes from groundwater.
Image: dpa
3 billion people live in areas where water supplies are declining or unstable.
Image: dpa
The report does not classify Europe as water bankrupt across the board, but emphasizes global interdependencies.
Image: dpa
Many societies are exceeding their quota of renewable water and their long-term reserves.
Image: dpa
Researchers recommend, for example, stricter protection of wetlands, limiting groundwater extraction and restructuring water-intensive economic sectors.
Image: dpa
Even where water volumes appear stable, the proportion that can actually be used is shrinking due to pollution, among other things.
Image: dpa
Around three quarters of the world's population live in countries that are considered water insecure or critically water insecure.
Image: dpa
Around 50 percent of domestic water consumption worldwide now comes from groundwater.
Image: dpa
Around the world, lakes are shrinking, groundwater levels are falling and wetlands are disappearing. This is not a temporary crisis, warn UN experts.
20.01.2026, 20:01
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A UN report warns of an "era of global water bankruptcy".
- The report is about the available and usable amount of freshwater on the planet.
- In many cases, withdrawals have exceeded new production.
According to a UN report, the world is entering an "era of global water bankruptcy". Terms such as "water scarcity" or "water crisis" no longer reflect the reality in many places because they suggest temporary and potentially reversible conditions, according to the United Nations University in Canada. However, irreversible losses of freshwater reserves are now characteristic.
"This report conveys an uncomfortable truth: many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many important water systems are already bankrupt," said lead author Kaveh Madani, director of the university's Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
According to the report, many societies have not only exceeded their annual quota of renewable water from rivers, soils and snowpacks, but have also depleted their long-term reserves in aquifers, glaciers, wetlands and other natural reservoirs.
What does this mean for humanity?
A critical amount of water systems around the world have now exceeded irreversible thresholds, Madani explained. "These systems are interconnected through trade, migration, climate feedbacks and geopolitical dependencies, so the global risk landscape has now fundamentally changed."
Agriculture, for example, is responsible for the majority of freshwater consumption - and global food systems are closely linked through trade and prices, says Madani. "If water scarcity undermines agriculture in one region, the impact will affect global markets, political stability and food security in other regions."
Other points mentioned:
- 2 billion people live on sinking ground, and in some cities the annual decline is around 25 centimeters.
- 4 billion people are exposed to severe water shortages for at least one month a year.
- 3 billion people live in areas where total water supplies are declining or unstable.
- 1.8 billion people lived in drought conditions in 2022 to 2023.
Millions of farmers are trying to produce food based on shrinking, polluted or disappearing water sources, Madani said. "Without a rapid transition to water-efficient agriculture, the rate of water bankruptcy will increase rapidly."
How can water become scarce when the earth is full of it?
The report is about the available and usable amount of freshwater on the planet. In many cases, withdrawals exceed the amount of new water created. And even in places where the amount of water seems stable, the amount that can actually be used is shrinking. The causes include groundwater pollution, overuse of resources, degradation of land and soil, deforestation and environmental pollution, exacerbated by global warming.
Some of the trends mentioned:
- More than half of the world's great lakes have lost water since the early 1990s, and 25 percent of humanity is directly dependent on these lakes.
- Around 50 percent of domestic water consumption worldwide now comes from groundwater.
- 40 percent of irrigation water is drawn from aquifers that are constantly drying up.
- Around 70 percent of the major aquifers show long-term declines.
- 410 million hectares of natural wetlands have disappeared in the past five decades, which is almost equivalent to the area of the EU.
- The world has lost more than 30 percent of its glacier mass since 1970. Dozens of large rivers no longer flow to the sea for part of the year.
- 100 million hectares of arable land have been destroyed by salinization.
Where is the situation particularly critical?
According to the report, around three quarters of the world's population live in countries that are considered water insecure or critically water insecure. The regions particularly affected include the Middle East and North Africa, parts of South Asia and the southwest of the USA. However, the UN experts also emphasize: "Water insecurity is not a series of isolated local crises, but a shared global risk." Europe, like other regions that have sufficient available water, is also affected by bankruptcy via trade flows, prices and supply chains.
Experts paint a differentiated picture for Germany. Rike Becker from Imperial College London said that Germany only uses a comparatively small proportion of its water. A large proportion of German consumption takes place via imports of food and industrial goods, some of which come from countries severely affected by water problems.
Jörg Dietrich from the University of Hanover added that local bottlenecks could occur in Germany, for example during extreme drought or due to nitrate contamination of the groundwater. However, a failure of the water supply in this country is usually still reversible.
Does bankruptcy mean the end?
Not at all - that is important to the UN experts. "Declaring bankruptcy does not mean giving up - it means starting again," emphasized Madani. By recognizing the global water bankruptcy, difficult decisions could finally be made. "The longer we procrastinate, the bigger the deficit becomes."
What is needed, therefore, is a new response characterized by honesty, courage and political will: insolvency management instead of crisis management. "We cannot restore glaciers that have disappeared or replenish heavily compacted aquifers," says Madani. "But we can prevent the further loss of our remaining natural capital and redesign institutions to live within new water boundaries."
The current water agenda, which focuses on drinking water, sanitation and incremental efficiency improvements, is no longer fit for purpose in many places, according to the UN University. The priority for governments must be to prevent further irreversible damage such as the loss of wetlands, groundwater depletion and pollution. Water-intensive sectors such as agriculture must be restructured by converting cultivation and irrigation.
The experts also emphasize that water bankruptcy is not only a hydrological problem, but also a question of justice with profound social and political implications. The burdens fall disproportionately on small farmers, indigenous peoples, low-income urban dwellers, women and young people, while the benefits of overuse often accrue to powerful actors.
The report is published in the run-up to a UN water conference in the United Arab Emirates at the end of the year. The authors hope that a new start for global water policy will be negotiated there.
This report is a further wake-up call to push for the necessary paradigm shift in water management, said Dieter Gerten from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). As serious as the situation is, there is a wide range of sustainable solution options that need to be promoted and implemented.
Rike Becker from Imperial College London emphasized: "What is important is that the report should not demotivate us and focus on failure, but rather wake us up and call for action at global, national and local level."
