PARIS, OCT 17 – Inaction on the water crisis could endanger more than half of the world’s food production by 2050, experts warned in a major report published today.
“Nearly three billion people and more than half of the world’s food production are now in areas where total water storage is expected to decline,” said the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) report.
The report also warns that the water crisis could cause an 8 percent drop in GDP on average for high-income countries by 2050 and as much as 15 percent for low-income countries.
Disruption of the water cycle “has a major global economic impact,” the report said.
This economic decline is the result of “the combined effects of changing rainfall patterns and increased temperatures due to climate change, along with reduced water storage and lack of access to clean water and sanitation”.
In the face of this crisis, the report calls for the water cycle to be seen as a ‘global common interest’ and for the transformation of water governance at all levels.
“The cost involved in this action is very small compared to the harm that will not be taken continuously to the economy and humanity,” he said.
Although water is often regarded as ‘nature’s bountiful gift’, the report points out that it is a scarce resource and expensive to transport.
The report calls for the elimination of ‘harmful subsidies in water-intensive sectors or redirecting them to water-saving solutions and providing targeted support for the poor and vulnerable’.
“We need to pair water prices with appropriate subsidies,” said World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, co-chair of GCEW, during an online briefing. – AFP
