According to “The World Water Development Report”, released by UN Water (the UN agency which cares about the future of water supply around the world), more than 5 billion people could suffer shortages by 2050. Climate changes and increased demand are wasting water supplies which are not polluted yet. There’s a good news too: a move towards nature-based solutions could be the solution to stop wasting water, the report says. According to Gilbert Houngbo, chairman of UN water, “In the face of accelerated consumption, increasing environmental degradation and the multi-faceted impacts of climate change, we clearly need new ways of manage competing demands on our freshwater resources.”
The report sends a clear message: humans use about 4,600 cubic km of water every year and the demand grows at the rate of 1% each year. The problem is increased in the areas which suffer a rainfalls decline: Mexico, western South America, southern Europe, China, Australia and South Africa. Today 3.6 billion of people live in countries that are water-scarce for at least one month each year. By 2050, they will be between 4.8 billion and 5.7 billion. We’re far from a solution since also a third of groundwater supplies are already in distress. Almost every river in Africa, Asia and Latin America, indeed, is damaged by pollution, which is supposed to increase in the coming two decades, because of agriculture runoffs of fertiliser and other agrochemicals products.
Although agriculture is one of the most water-polluting sector of humans’ economy, it is also the key for change: the report calls for “conservation agriculture”, which would make greater use of rainwater rather than irrigation and regularise crop rotation to maintain soil cover. So this is the road drawn by UN Water, which could lead to a huge change in water-wasting trend. Moreover, the potential savings of such practices exceed the projected increase in global demand for water, which would ease the dangers of conflict and provide better livelihoods for family farmers and poverty reduction.
The authors of the report say that a useful solution to encourage people adopting green solutions is the , which finances privates to reach better environmental standard.
According to Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of UNESCO, “we all know that water scarcity can lead to civil unrest, mass migration and even to conflict within and between countries, so ensuring the sustainable use of the planet’s resources is vital for ensuring long-term peace and prosperity.”
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