Global water challenge: urgent need for concerted action

Gegevens

Nummer: 2024/106

Publicatiedatum: 16 september 2024

Auteur: Editorial staff

Rubriek: News

The UN has issued another urgent call for concerted and immediate action to safeguard freshwater resources, reverse the decline in aquatic life and restore the health of the world's aquatic ecosystems.

The recent reports published by the United Nations on Wednesday August 28, 2024 forcefully highlight the impending crisis facing the world's freshwater resources. This crisis is characterized by a worrying reduction in available resources and a deterioration in their quality. Major sustainable development goal number 6, which aims to guarantee access to water and sanitation for all by 2030, looks increasingly out of reach.

Climate change and human responsibility

A series of alarming indicators highlight the critical challenges facing the world. The significant decline in river flows in over 400 watersheds, potentially affecting 107 million people, highlights the scale of the water crisis. Climate change, land clearing and massive deforestation for agriculture and urbanization are major factors contributing to this decline in flow and worrying water shortages.

Damage caused by hydraulic structures

The increasing construction of dams and reservoirs in regions such as Southeast Asia and China, while providing a degree of food security, is having a detrimental effect on underground aquifers, water quality and the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems. These man-made structures disrupt the natural ecosystems of rivers and lakes, while concentrating harmful nutrients from agriculture, thus exacerbating water pollution.

Degradation of water quality and loss of biodiversity

The worldwide degradation of rivers and water bodies, with worrying levels of turbidity and eutrophication, threatens hundreds of millions of people, as well as the biodiversity that depends on these ecosystems. Lakes, the main sources of unfrozen surface water, are facing a general decline, aggravated by high levels of pollutants from human activities, such as intensive agriculture and urban and industrial emissions. It is essential to underline the crucial materiality of aquatic ecosystems, particularly mangroves, in filtering contaminants and storing carbon. The continuing decline in these ecosystems, particularly in South Asia, calls for urgent action to preserve them.

Decreasing funding for aquatic environments

Despite growing commitments to protecting aquatic ecosystems, reports point to a decline in actual spending in this area. It is crucial that decision-makers become fully aware of the consequences of the degradation of freshwater resources, and recognize the inestimable value to humanity of the goods and services derived from these ecosystems. According to the UN, the way out of this crisis requires collaborative efforts on a global scale to ensure equitable access to water and to preserve this essential resource for the survival of the planet.

Some figures on SDGs 6 indicators

6.1.1. DRINKING WATER: 2.2 billion people (nearly one person in four worldwide) will not have access to safe drinking water in 2022.

6.2.1a SANITATION: 3.5 billion people will not have access to safely managed sanitation services, and 419 million people will practice open defecation in 2022 (43% of the world's population).

6.2.1b HYGIENE : in 2022, 2 billion people will lack basic handwashing facilities with soap and water at home (25% of the world's population).

6.3.1. WASTEWATER: Only 27% of industrial wastewater is treated safely (based on limited data from 22 countries). 42% of domestic wastewater is not treated safely.

6.3.2 WATER QUALITY : 56% of water bodies monitored in 120 countries were classified as having "good quality". By 2030, the health and livelihoods of 4.8 billion people could be at risk if current water quality monitoring is not improved.

6.4.1 WATER USE EFFICIENCY: Between 2015 and 2021, global water use efficiency increased by 19.3%. Around 58% of countries still have low water use efficiency, with less than USD 20 of value added for every m³of water used by all economic activities over time.

6.4.2 WATER STRESS: around 10% of the world's population lives in countries with high and critical levels of water stress in 2021.

6.5.1 INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT : the world will not achieve sustainable water management before 2049. 40% of countries are being left behind, with limited capacity to balance competing demands between sectors and cope with growing pressures.

6.5.2 TRANSBOUNDARY COOPERATION: only 43 of the 153 United Nations member states sharing transboundary waters have operational agreements covering 90% or more of their shared rivers, lakes and aquifers. At least 20 countries have no transboundary water-sharing arrangements at all.

6.6.1 ECOSYSTEMS : in more than 90 out of 185 countries, one or more types of water-related ecosystem are being degraded. River flows have fallen considerably in 402 river basins around the world, home to around 107.5 million people.

6.a.1 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: aid disbursements to the water sector fell by 5% between 2015 and 2022. A third of countries reported that donor funds are poorly aligned with national water sector plans, the vast majority in low-income countries.

6.b.1 PARTICIPATION: less than a third of the 106 countries responding to the survey indicated that local communities were widely involved in water and sanitation decision-making.

Alexandre Wastiaux and Olivier Cizel (inset), Code permanent Environnement et nuisances

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