The world will face “severe pressure on fresh water” within one or two generations that is entirely “self-inflicted and … entirely avoidable”, a coalition of 500 leading scientists has warned.
In a declaration to be made in Bonn today, the scientists blame “mismanagement, overuse, and climate change” for driving fresh water systems across the planet into “a precarious state”.
Two-thirds of major river deltas are sinking due to groundwater and hydrocarbon pumping in low lying coastal areas, they warn, adding that damming and draining have damaged river basins irreparably in some cases.
“In the short span of one or two generations, the majority of the nine billion people on Earth will be living under the handicap of severe pressure on fresh water, an absolutely essential natural resource for which there is no substitute,” the declaration reads. “This handicap will be self-inflicted and is, we believe, entirely avoidable.
“Current increases in the use of water and impairment of the water system are on an unsustainable trajectory,” it continues. “However, current scientific knowledge cannot predict exactly how or precisely when a planetary-scale boundary will be breached. Such a tipping point could trigger irreversible change with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
The declaration comes in the same week UN secretary-general ban Ki-moon warned the world may run out of freshwater, as demands for water-intensive energy and agricultural production increases and weather patterns shift due to climate change.
It calls for scientists, public stakeholders, decision-makers and the private sector to work together to tackle the issue through “ecosystem-based sustainable water management” rather than the traditional engineering solutions that it claims rarely consider long-term impacts on the environment.
Without a universal approach, the scientists warn the situation could deteriorate further.
“Stewardship requires balancing the needs of humankind and the needs of nature through the protection of ecosystems and the services that they provide,” they say. “Without such a design framework, we anticipate highly fragmented decision-making and the persistence of maladaptive approaches to water management.”
