The more than 700 pledges that emerged from the UN water conference, which concluded last weekend, were an insufficient response to the worsening global water crisis. But the scientific panel that the UN has committed to create, along with a new water envoy, should help bring greater clarity and raise awareness of the multiplying risks. These include sea level rises, floods, droughts and other extreme weather caused by global heating, and the lack of access of about 2 billion people to clean drinking water. The trouble is that the commitments made by attenders – who included very few world leaders – are voluntary and unenforceable. Given the broken climate pledges of the past, there is every reason to worry that the promises will not be kept.
Many participants in the three days of talks in New York were angered by the prominent role played by corporations, including manufacturers who are heavy users of water, and the lack of representation of grassroots organisations from the poorer countries that are the worst affected. As with recent reports of the influence of oil companies in US universities, there are growing concerns about the ways in which businesses are seeking to shape environmental legislation, and public understanding of the threats, to promote their own short-term economic interests.
Nonetheless, the UN’s first major conference on water since 1977 was a reminder that scarce resources must not be taken for granted. António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned that it is “making our planet uninhabitable” and that “vampiric overconsumption” must stop. Last year’s drought in Somalia, which is estimated to have caused 43,000 excess deaths, and floods in Pakistan, are grim foretastes of what lies ahead. About 10% of the global rise in migration is linked to water shortages, and armed conflict linked to competition for water is also increasing.
There are good reasons why dangerous heat tends to be the focus when we think about the climate emergency. Rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gases are the central problem – and one which continues to become more dangerous as emissions keep rising. But limiting emissions is only one part of the solution to an emergency that is certain to get worse, even if we eventually succeed in preventing the most catastrophic outcomes. Rising sea levels are the urgent priority of low-lying and island nations that could disappear under the waves.
Food production and energy generation are both highly water-intensive. The last century of development saw freshwater withdrawal rates rise almost sixfold. Now it is poorer nations driving demand. Yet a quarter of the world’s population still does not have access to safe drinking water, while half lacks basic sanitation – which is one of the sustainable development goals for 2030.
Belatedly, the need to improve water governance, and ensure fairer distribution as well as conservation, is on the wider environmental agenda. But, as with every aspect of the climate crisis, the response lags behind reality. The continuing trend towards privatisation of water supplies is concerning, as is the lack of financial transfers from rich countries. There was some good news: a UN report released just before the conference noted that, globally, water use efficiency had risen by 9% from 2015 to 2018. Richard Connor, the report’s author, warned that “binding agreements” were needed, rather than setting global targets that could be ignored and hence never reached. On current performance, Mr Connor looks to be right.
