The world is “living beyond our hydrological means”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, warning that overconsumption, pollution and climate change are pushing water supplies towards an irreversible decline.
Mr Guterres made the comments while addressing ministers at the opening of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York, urging governments to use this year's UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi to confront the worsening global crisis.
He said many river basins, lakes, aquifers and freshwater ecosystems were already suffering “permanent, irreversible effects”.
“Governments, the private sector, businesses and communities must work together to fill gaps in finance, innovation, infrastructure, capacities and governance,” he told member states. “They must join forces and leverage resources to build accountable, equitable, and inclusive institutions that secure clean water and sanitation for all, manage conflicting demands on water, and address the growing risks stemming from unsustainable water use and climate change.”
UN researchers warned in a report in January that the world is in a state of “water bankruptcy”, in which human demand and depletion of natural water systems exceed replenishment rates.
Wetland degradation and shrinking glaciers, for example, “are not simply signs of stress or episodes of crisis”, the report said, but are rather symptomatic of ecosystems that have passed the point of recovery. The result will create “knock-on effects for food prices, employment, migration and geopolitical stability”, it added.
The consequences are already being felt around the world. In the Middle East, one of the world's most water-stressed regions, prolonged drought and over-extraction have contributed to crop failures and groundwater depletion.
Climate change has dramatically worsened water shortages across the Middle East, with the World Bank warning that the resulting scarcity could reduce the region's GDP by between 6 per cent and 14 per cent by 2050. At the same time, several countries, including Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, lack the effective institutions, governance capacity and financial resources needed to address their deepening water crisis.
In Europe, record-breaking heatwaves and droughts have repeatedly reduced water levels on major rivers such as the Rhine, disrupting shipping and industry.
And in the US, decades of drought have strained the Colorado River, forcing unprecedented water-use cuts for millions of people, while parts of southern Africa have faced recurring droughts that have devastated harvests and left millions in need of humanitarian assistance.
Against that backdrop, the 2026 UN Water Conference, to be co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal in Abu Dhabi in December, will bring together global leaders, policymakers and practitioners to mobilise financing and political commitments to improve global water governance. It will “serve as a crucial milestone for unifying international efforts in the field of water and achieving tangible and sustainable outcomes”.
The UAE recently launched the Abu Dhabi Global Water Platform, a $2 billion initiative aimed at improving water security for 10 million people by 2030, backed by a $1 billion commitment from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.
Domestically, the Water Security Strategy 2036 targets a 21 per cent cut in water demand, a 95 per cent wastewater reuse rate and a reduction of more than 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, alongside campaigns to promote responsible water use.
Although Mr Guterres acknowledged that hundreds of millions more people had gained access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services in recent years, he said progress remained too slow to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 by 2030.
More than two billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, while 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation, according to the UN.
“Water is humanity’s common denominator – central to all life on Earth,” said Mr Guterres. “This year’s UN Water Conference will be a critical opportunity to drive collective action on this issue.”
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are a set of 17 goals aimed at reaching a sustainable future by 2030. In 2015, all 193 UN member states agreed to this agenda. The Sustainable Development Goal 6 promises to ensure clean water and sanitation for everyone by 2030.
