The way water is managed now, or not managed as the case may be, will lead to a global crisis in 15 years, a new UN report warns, unless an array of sustainable water-management practices are adopted. Within that decade and a half, the report predicts a much larger human population will have only 60% of the freshwater it needs.
Many parts of the world are suffering water stress to varying degrees now; in 15 years the stress will be more severe and more widespread, amounting to a life-threatening crisis in water-poor regions. But, as outlined in the United Nations World Water Development Report 2015, released in advance of World Water Day (today, March 22), there is hope. Read the report: Water for a Sustainable World (The report was released by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water, or which my employer, WaterLex, is a member.)
Related posts:
If You Could Advise the UN on Water, What Would You Say?
Water’s Place Among Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals
At the Point of ‘Peak Water,’ Our Foreseeable Future Grows Shorter
UNICEF Says Put Down Your Cell Phone for a Few Minutes to Help Kids Get Water
It troubles us that the UN continues to label water issues as “management” issues when it seems clear that in fact the problems are rooted in overpopulation and highly doubtful that we can “manage” our ways out of that reality. If we could say one thing to the UN, it would be “Pull your collective heads out of the sand. Become part of the solution rather than part of the problem by helping to lead a rationale discussion about overpopulation and the impact it is having on our finite resources.”