Climate Change Could Bring Water Bankruptcy With Grave Consequences

The World Economic Forum warns that in less than 20 years the world may face water bankruptcy caused by mismanagement and over-leveraging of our water supplies in a manner that is as "unsustainable and fragile as that which precipitated the collapse in global financial markets."

One systemic problem is the failure of governments to recognize that water is the resource that links economic growth, food, energy and national security challenges that will be faced by the world over the next few decades. Policies for these key issues tend to ignore consideration of water availability or sustainability under the mistaken view that a renewable resource is infinite.

At the Barcelona climate negotiations this week, the Stockholm International Water Institute, environmental groups and United Nations agencies urged world leaders to recognize water's critical role in climate change adaptation.

So far, though, their pleas have gone unanswered, says WWF International. The negotiating text mentions the dangers to water resources but offers no solution for water management as a tool for adaptation.

“It is imperative that negotiators recognize the crucial importance of wetlands and freshwater as key factors in any climate adaptation plan,” said Denis Landenbergue, manger of wetlands conservation for WWF International. “To ignore the role of water is to cripple any climate change adaptation plans.”

Economic Growth

Access to freshwater supplies is related to increased economic growth and, conversely, limited water access has been linked to minimal growth, the World Economic Forum writes.

"Those countries, which 25 years ago had low incomes (below US$750 per year per person) yet had access to adequate safe water and sanitation, grew on average 3.7% per year, whereas countries with the same per capita income and limited water access grew at only 0.1% per year in the same period."

Today, water shortages are threatening economic growth in China, India, Indonesia, Australia and the western United States. Drought has decreased Australia's GDP by 1% in prior years while the U.S. agricultural industry lost $4 billion a year during a two–year drought.

Food

An assessment of water management in agriculture, published by 700 leading scientists, concluded that there will not be sufficient land, water and human capacity to produce food for increasing populations over the next 50 years unless water use for agriculture is improved.

The assessment evaluated water management for agriculture, which was defined to include fisheries and livestock. One problem is arising from a change to diets of higher caloric consumption and more meat, as well as increasing populations that require more water for food production.

"Imagine a canal 10 metres deep, 100 metres wide and 7.1 million kilometres long — long enough to encircle the globe 180 times. This is the amount of water it takes each year to produce food for today’s 6.5 billion people," the authors write.

"Add 2-3 billion more people and accommodate their changing diets from cereals to more meat and vegetables, and that could add another 5 million kilometres to the channel of water needed to feed the world’s people."

Another problem is the governmental mindset to seek new water supplies rather than conserve and manage existing supplies. For example, several countries, such as Saudi Arabia, China and Egypt, are now buying or leasing lands overseas to grow food because of insufficient water supplies at home.

Energy