"Vampiric", humanity has "broken the water cycle", denounces the head of the UN

Europe 1 with AFP 16:45 p.m., March 22, 2023

"Vampiric" humanity has "broken the water cycle", endangering billions of people across the planet, denounced Wednesday the Secretary-General of the United Nations at the opening of the first UN conference on water in nearly half a century. "We have broken the water cycle, destroyed ecosystems and contaminated groundwater," said Antonio Guterres at the opening of these three days which should welcome more than 6,500 participants including a hundred ministers and a dozen heads of state and government.

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Guterres worries about water's 'compromised' future

"We are draining humanity of its vital substance through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use of water, and we are causing its evaporation by warming the planet," he added, worrying about the "compromised" future of water, yet "the sap of humanity" and "a human right". Not enough water in places, too much in others where floods are multiplying, or contaminated water: if dramatic situations are legion in many places on the planet, a report by UN-Water and UNESCO published Tuesday highlights the "imminent risk of a global water crisis".

"How many people will be affected by this global water crisis is a matter of scenario," lead author Richard Connor told AFP. "If nothing is done, between 40 and 50 percent of the population will continue to lack access to sanitation services and about 20-25 percent to safe drinking water," he noted. And if the percentages don't change, the world's population grows and the number of people affected with it.

So the UN conference, the first of this magnitude since 1977 on this vital but too long ignored issue, raises many hopes to try to reverse the trend and hope to guarantee by 2030 access for all to drinking water or toilets, objectives set in 2015.

Additional concern about global warming

The participants, States, companies or representatives of civil society, were called to come with concrete commitments, some already announced in advance. But already, some observers doubt their scope and the availability of funding to implement them.

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"The water crisis is bad enough without climate change. But with our world warming up rapidly, it's going to be worse," WWF's Stuart Orr said. "We can build resilient societies and economies if governments and businesses quickly put in place policies, practices and investments that recognize, and restore, the full value of healthy rivers, lakes and wetlands."

10% of the world's population affected by high water stress

In a world where over the past 40 years, the use of fresh water has increased by nearly 1% per year, the UN-Water report highlights first of all water shortages that "tend to generalize" and worsen with the impact of warming, until soon hitting even the regions currently spared in East Asia or South America. Thus, about 10% of the world's population lives in a country where water stress reaches a high or critical level. And according to the report of the UN climate experts (IPCC) published Monday, "about half of the world's population" suffers from "severe" water shortages for at least part of the year.

A situation that also highlights inequalities. "Wherever you are, if you're rich enough, you'll get water," Connor said. "The poorer you are, the more vulnerable you are to these crises." And women and girls "are disproportionately affected," actor Matt Damon, co-founder of the NGO Water.org, insisted Wednesday. "Millions of girls are not in school because they have to fetch water."

Two billion people drink contaminated water

The problem is not only the lack of water, but the contamination of what may be available, due to the absence or deficiencies of sanitation systems. At least two billion people drink water contaminated with feces, exposing them to deadly diseases, such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid or polio. Not to mention pollution by pharmaceuticals, chemicals, pesticides, microplastics or nanomaterials that also affect freshwater ecosystems.

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Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water by 2030 would require at least a threefold increase in current investment levels, UN-Water estimates. "Everything we need to live a decent life is directly related to water, our health, food, habitats, economy, infrastructure and climate," King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, co-chair of the conference with the president of Tajikistan, said on Wednesday. "It is now time to overcome partial sectoral interests, look at the big picture and move forward."