The water-security crisis

LONDON :When it comes to water, the world confronts an unsustainable situation. Yet fixing the problem is not only within reach; it is also the low-hanging fruit in tackling climate change and generating jobs and growth.

The water crisis is plain to see. Year after year, in one region after another, record-high heatwaves and droughts are followed by destructive storms and floods. Food systems are running dry and cities are sinking as we reach the limits of extracting water from the land. More than 1,000 children under the age of five die each day from illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and a lack of sanitation, and hundreds of millions of women spend hours each day collecting and hauling water.

This is a human-made crisis, and it can and must be resolved through human interventions. But to achieve equity and sustainability everywhere, we will need new approaches to governing water and a wave of vastly higher investment, scaled-up innovation, and capacity-building. The costs of these moves are insignificant compared to the economic and humanitarian harms that will be inflicted by continued inaction.

The first step is to recognise that the problems we face are not merely local tragedies. A destabilised water cycle increasingly affects every corner of the world. Current approaches tend to deal with the water we can see – the “blue water” in our rivers, lakes, and aquifers – and assume that the water supply is stable year after year. But this is no longer true, as changes in land use, climate change, and a water cycle out of kilter are affecting rainfall patterns.

Too often, current thinking overlooks a critical freshwater resource, namely the “green water” in our soil, plants, and forests, which transpires and is recycled through the atmosphere. Green water generates around half the rainfall that we receive on land, the very source of all our freshwater. In the same vein, countries are connected not only through flows of blue water (like rivers) but, more critically, through atmospheric flows of moisture. As a critical component of the global water cycle, green water urgently needs to be better managed.

Most dangerously, disruptions to the water cycle are deeply intertwined with global warming and the decline of the world’s biodiversity, with each reinforcing the other. A stable supply of green water in soil is crucial to sustaining the land-based natural systems that absorb 25-30% of the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil-fuel combustion.

This process represents one of the most significant natural subsidies to the global economy. Yet the loss of wetlands and soil moisture, together with deforestation, is depleting the planet’s greatest carbon stores, with devastating consequences for the pace of global warming. Rising temperatures then trigger extreme heat waves and increase evaporative demand in the atmosphere, which severely dries landscapes and heightens the risk of wildfires.

Hence, the water crisis impacts virtually every one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and threatens people everywhere. Insufficient food for a growing world population, an accelerated spread of diseases, and increased forced migration and cross-border conflicts are just a few of the predictable outcomes.

Mission H2O

Such a large-scale collective and systemic problem can be fixed only with concerted action in every country and through collaboration across boundaries and cultures. A shared understanding of the common good is crucial. Otherwise, what might look good for one country today could easily create problems for that same country tomorrow, as well as for others around the world.

The situation demands not only greater ambition but also a mission-driven approach to water – one that cuts across multiple sectors and focuses on all levels, from managing local river basins to shaping multilateral cooperation. We can and must succeed on the world’s most important water missions:

-Launching a new Green Revolution in food systems to cut back on water use while increasing agricultural yields to meet a growing population’s nutritional needs.

-Conserving and restoring the natural habitats that are critical for protecting green water resources.

-Establishing a “circular” water economy in every sector.

-And ensuring that every vulnerable community has adequate clean and safe water and sanitation services by 2030.

While these missions should drive policy shifts, align the public and private sectors, and spur innovation, they also require new ways of governing. Policymaking must become more collaborative, accountable, and inclusive of all voices, especially those of youth, women, marginalised communities, and the Indigenous Peoples who are on the frontlines of water conservation.

The most fundamental policy shift lies in valuing water properly to reflect its scarcity as well as its critical role in sustaining the natural ecosystems that every society depends on. We must cease the underpricing of water across the economy and the harmful agricultural subsidies that drive unsustainable usage and degrade the land. Rechannelling those funds toward promoting water-saving solutions and providing targeted support for the poor and vulnerable would go a long way.

To fix chronic underinvestment in water, we must reprioritise water infrastructure in public finance, where it is oddly neglected in most countries. Policymakers can draw on best practices in public-private partnerships to provide fair incentives for long-term commitments, while serving the interests of the public, especially underserved communities. 

Given the collective nature of the water challenge, we must ensure larger and more reliable flows of finance to help low- and lower-middle-income countries invest in water resilience. Multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, and public development banks will need to work closely with governments to support national water missions that reflect local needs and ecological conditions. International trade agreements also offer potential levers to promote efficient water use, because they can help to ensure that the “virtual water” embedded in traded goods does not aggravate scarcity in water-stressed regions.

Just as we are doing for emissions, we must compile high-integrity data on corporate water footprints and create frameworks for water-use disclosure. We must also develop systems for valuing water as part of natural capital. Putting a price on this most critical resource could deliver significant dividends for countries over time.

In short, we must shape markets across our economies – from agriculture and mining to energy and semiconductors – so that they become radically more efficient, equitable, and sustainable in their water use.

The 2023 preliminary report of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water set out the case for pursuing fundamental change in the way the world manages water. Our final report this October will show how we can do so through transformative, collective action.

We are only in 2024. If we do not address these problems head on, wildfires, floods, and other water- and climate-driven extreme events will only get more intense and deadly in the years to come. Advancing the water-security agenda may seem more difficult amid growing geopolitical tensions, but it presents an opportunity to prove that collaboration can benefit all countries and enable a just and liveable future for all. We cannot shrink from this challenge.

Mariana Mazzucato, Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, is Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, is Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a former finance minister and foreign affairs minister of Nigeria, and a former board chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam, is Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore, is Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and Chair of the Group of Thirty.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024.

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