Prof. Kaveh Madani, architect of the ‘water bankruptcy’ framing of today’s acute global predicament, wins world’s highest water honor for his courageous and peerless ability to transform groundbreaking research into global policy, diplomacy and outreach under extreme personal risk and political complexity

Paris – March 18, 2026 — In a special ceremony at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to mark World Water Day, Professor Kaveh Madani of Iran, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), was named the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize recipient, to be officially presented by H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in August 2026, during World Water Week in Stockholm.

The Stockholm Water Prize is the ultimate global recognition for extraordinary achievements in water-related activities. Often described as the “Nobel Prize of Water,” it is the most prestigious water award given annually to an individual or organization for outstanding contributions to the sustainable use and protection of water resources. This year’s selection stands out not only for the scientific achievements of the laureate, but for the extraordinary journey behind them.

Professor Madani’s selection is a historic milestone for the global water community: at 44, he is the youngest laureate in the prize’s 35-year history, the first UN official, and the first former politician to receive the honor.

What makes this selection truly inspiring and unique is the resilience behind it. While many past laureates reached this pinnacle through steady institutional support, Madani reached it after being branded an enemy of the state in his own homeland.

Known to many as “Iran’s expat eco-warrior,” his journey—from a celebrated scientist to an accused “spy”, and finally to a global leader in water science and education at the United Nations—represents a triumph of scientific truth over political persecution.

A destiny in water: The academic journey of a native son

For Kaveh Madani, water was a calling long before it was a career. Born in Tehran in 1981, he was the son of two professionals who both worked in Iran’s water sector. Growing up in a country facing severe water challenges helped shape his academic path. He earned his BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Tabriz before moving to Sweden—the future home of his prize—to complete a MSc in Water Resources at Lund University. He later earned a PhD from the University of California, Davis, and conducted post-doctoral research at University of California, Riverside, before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida.

A few years later, by his early 30s, Madani was a faculty member at Imperial College London, established as a world-class systems analyst with expertise in mathematical modeling of complex human-water systems to support policy making. His interdisciplinary and innovative work at the interface of hydrology, decision sciences, and economics earned him some of the most prestigious awards of his field at an early age. Yet, the pull of his homeland remained.

In 2017, at the invitation of Iran’s government, he made the perilous decision to leave his prestigious job in London to serve as the Deputy Vice President of Iran and the Deputy Head of Iran’s Department of Environment. His move was seen as a “symbol of hope” for the return of the Iranian diaspora and the rise of a patriotic scientist dedicated to saving his country’s environment.

The scientist they called a terrorist

Madani’s tenure in government was as impactful as it was brief. He fought for bold reforms to improve water governance and transparency. He engaged the general public in the national environmental campaigns that he designed using his game theory skills. However, his reforms and courage to speak openly about the country’s growing water crisis threatened entrenched interests.

The backlash was brutal. He was targeted by hardline security forces and subjected to a surreal smear campaign. State-aligned media labeled him a “water terrorist” and a “bioterrorist,” accusing him of using water and environmental projects as a cover for espionage for the CIA, Mossad, and MI6. Some went further, spreading conspiracy theories that he was involved in weather manipulation and “cloud theft” in collaboration with Western powers. They challenged his motives for encouraging the Parliament to ratify the Paris Agreement, a treaty that they believed was a serious threat to national security and the capacity for development.

In early 2018, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) started an active crackdown on Iranian environmental experts. Despite having a senior governmental role, Madani was a target. He was arrested and interrogated multiple times. His conservationist friends were jailed and one of them, Dr. Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian university professor, died in custody under suspicious circumstances.

A few weeks later, Madani was forced into exile. He left behind a country he loved. After living in hiding for months, he accepted an academic position at Yale University, continuing to raise awareness about Iran’s water problem and advocating for his imprisoned friends to make the world hear their plight.

But he believed that a scientist who has experienced high-level decision-making firsthand can contribute far beyond the traditional role of academia. So, he took his mission to the global stage, eventually rising to lead UNU-INWEH, known as the “UN’s Think Tank on Water.” Today, the scientist whose warnings were once dismissed in his homeland shares his expertise with governments around the world.

Revolutionizing human behavior modeling

Kaveh Madani, who also serves as Research Professor of the City College of New York, is globally recognized for his fundamental contributions to integrating game theory and decision analysis into conventional water resources management models. Early in his career, his scholarly work questioned the implicit assumption of “cooperation” in conventional mathematical human-water models.

Madani argued that in the real world individual incentives often make the optimal solution infeasible. By applying game theory frameworks to human behavior, he showed why traditional engineering models often fail to capture real-world complexities. His research provided a new toolkit for understanding the “non-cooperative” nature of water resources governance, offering pathways for resolving transboundary disputes and fostering cooperation in regions where trust is scarce. This not only impacted behavior modeling in his field but also helped him develop a skillset that was a unique asset to him when he served as Iran’s lead environmental diplomat during his political tenure.

Beyond the crisis: The era of global water bankruptcy

Millions of people around the world have heard the term ‘water bankruptcy’. Many journalists have used it to refer to local water problems. But few people beyond Madani’s compatriots know that this powerful framing is the product of two decades of his work in academia, politics, and public outreach.

Water bankruptcy is not just an influential metaphor. Madani developed this concept after challenging frequently used terms such as “water crisis.” His reasoning was simple but philosophically powerful. A crisis is supposed to be a temporary shock and deviation from normal. When water shortage becomes chronic and lasts forever, using the term “water crisis” becomes misleading to societies, he argued. By formally introducing “water bankruptcy” as a post-crisis state of failure in water management, he called for a fundamental change in global water discourse to spark different policy solutions.

Madani is the author of the landmark UN report that declared that the planet entered the era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’ as of January 2026 with many river basins and aquifer systems around the world having lost their ability to bounce back to their historical conditions. The report sparked intense international debate by declaring that the global water problem is no longer a temporary shock, but a state of systemic insolvency and irreversibility. By shifting the discourse to “bankruptcy management,” he has forced many policymakers to confront the reality that for many regions, the old hydrological “normal” is gone forever.

He uses simple financial language to make a complex ecological reality clear: humanity is no longer living off the “interest” of the water cycle that was being deposited into its “chequing” account; it is liquidating the “principal” and “savings” accounts by draining aquifers beyond the point of return. This simplicity is what has made the term so popular. Yet, even Madani’s colleagues in science do not know how the rising adoption of the term in Iran led to conspiracy theories by the Iranian hardliners, claiming that he created this concept to discourage farming in Iran and compromise food and national security.

The people’s scientist: A global voice for water justice

Madani has shattered the traditional mold of the “cloistered academic.” With nearly one million social media followers, he is ‘the most followed water scientist in the world’. He has pioneered a new form of scientific communication, using documentaries, viral digital campaigns, and accessible storytelling to turn complex hydrological data into public knowledge.

By stripping away the jargon, he has empowered a generation of “citizen scientists” and Gen Z activists to hold their own leaders accountable for resource mismanagement. This commitment to transparency is what earned him the reputation of a tireless global influencer for the planet for the digital age; he has proven that when people understand the science of their own survival, they become the most powerful force for environmental change.

A global diplomat: Elevating water in the global agenda

Kaveh Madani’s diplomatic roles are another highlight of his career. During his political tenure, he served as Iran’s lead environmental diplomat and the official in charge of the Department of Environment’s International Affairs and Conventions Center. In 2017, he was elected Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) Bureau, overseeing the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, comprising all 193 UN member states.

Madani’s speech at COP23 in Bonn makes him the first national delegation leader to publicly criticize the limited attention given to water in the Paris Agreement. He called for making water a central pillar of global climate negotiations. Today, as Director of the UN’s Water Think Tank, he remains a fierce champion for the Global South, bridging the gap between scientific evidence and political action, while advocating for the elevation of water in the global policy agenda as the backbone of peace, security, and sustainability.

At a time when the Middle East is once again overshadowed by war, Kaveh Madani’s life journey serves as a poignant reminder that despite the noise of politics, our shared vulnerability is what unites us; water scarcity is a common threat that transcends all political and military boundaries.

Official Stockholm Water Prize 2026 Citation, The Prize Committee of the Stockholm Water Prize at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Professor Kaveh Madani is awarded the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize “based on his unique combination of groundbreaking research on water resources management with policy, diplomacy and global outreach, often under personal risk and political complexity.”

Comments

Prof. Madani:

“In the Persian tradition of Nowruz, water is a symbol of light and purity on our New Year table. To be named the Stockholm Water Prize Laureate at this specific moment is a vindication I share with all Iranians who believed in me when I was labeled a ‘threat’ for simply speaking the truth. I accept this honor with profound humility, and I am deeply grateful to my nominators, the selection committee, and the mentors, colleagues, and students who have been my intellectual family throughout this journey.
“I share this award with the millions of compatriots who stood by me, with my friends in the conservation community, who were imprisoned and killed for their love of nature, and with the brave and innocent Iranian lives taken from us in January 2026, and those lost before and since.”
“It is a profound coincidence that this news arrives as my country and the region whose sustainability I have fought for have been burning in the fires of conflicts and a war being conducted in defiance of international law. I hope that in the midst of this fragmented world, this Prize and World Water Day serve as a reminder that water does not wait for politics. Water bankruptcy is a common threat that transcends every military line. We must recognize our shared vulnerability if we are ever to find our shared peace.”

Tshilidzi Marwala, UN Under Secretary-General and Rector, United Nations University

“Professor Kaveh Madani exemplifies the mandate of the United Nations University: turning rigorous scientific insight into practical solutions for the world’s most urgent challenges.

His work has transformed how governments and societies understand water scarcity, bringing clarity and urgency to one of the defining issues of our time. Beyond his outstanding scholarship and policy impact, Professor Madani has demonstrated exceptional strategic leadership within the UNU system, revitalizing UNU-INWEH’s global footprint and forging innovative partnerships that bridge the United Nations and academia to accelerate solutions for Member States.

The United Nations family is immensely proud to see his leadership and scholarship recognized with the Stockholm Water Prize.”

Anette Scheibe Lorentzi, Chair of Stockholm Water Foundation

“Through his work and outstanding achievements, Professor Madani has made invaluable contributions to our understanding of cross-cutting and complex water issues. In the face of a changing climate, this knowledge is more important than ever, and I congratulate Professor Madani on being awarded the Stockholm Water Prize 2026”.

Vincent Boudreau, President, City College of New York

“Only a small number of scientists succeed in bridging the worlds of research, policy, and public understanding. Professor Madani belongs to that rare group.”

“His pioneering work on water governance and the concept of ‘water bankruptcy,’ along with his dedication to policy and societal outreach, has helped elevate water to the center of global sustainability discussions.”

“This recognition reflects both his extraordinary scholarship and the vital role of science in shaping a more secure future. The City College has been a proud home to many Nobel laureates and now celebrates the well-deserved awarding of the first ‘Nobel Prize of Water’ to one of its own.”

The Stockholm Water Prize

Known as the ‘Nobel Prize of Water’, the Stockholm Water Prize is the world’s most prestigious water award. Since its inception in 1991, it has been awarded annually to individuals and organizations who have made substantial contributions to the sustainable use and protection of the world’s water resources, thereby leading to improved health and well-being of humans as well as ecosystems.

The Stockholm Water Foundation presents the Prize in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, with H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden serving as official patron and presenter.

Each year’s Laureate is announced around World Water Day in March, then formally honored at a royal ceremony during World Water Week in August, where they play a central role in the Week’s celebrations.

stockholmwaterfoundation.org/stockholm-water-prize

UNU-INWEH

The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) is one of 13 institutions that make up the United Nations University (UNU), the academic arm of the UN. Known as ‘The UN’s Think Tank on Water’, UNU-INWEH addresses critical water, environmental, and health challenges around the world. Through research, training, capacity development, and knowledge dissemination, the institute contributes to solving pressing global sustainability and human security issues of concern to the UN and its Member States.

Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, UNU-INWEH has been hosted and supported by the Government of Canada since 1996. With a global mandate and extensive partnerships across UN entities, international organizations, and governments, UNU-INWEH operates through its UNU Hubs in Calgary, Hamburg, New York, Lund, and Pretoria, and an international network of affiliates.

unu.edu/inweh

Coverage highlights

The Guardian, United Kingdom (86,302,986) ‘They called me a water terrorist’: exiled Iranian scientist wins global prize

Reuters, United States (40,705,191) Climate Focus: World Water Day Special

El País, Spain (31,938,258) Kaveh Madani, from being accused of bioterrorism to winning the ‘Nobel’ of water: “I watch the destruction of Iran with deep anxiety”

The New York Times, United States (146,388,433)The planet’s warning signs are flashing red

Euronews, France (17,112,138)‘ Nobel Prize of Water’ awarded to Iranian scientist who was exiled from his homeland

Deutsche Welle, Germany (12,722,183) “Nobel of Water”: Kaveh Madani receives Stockholm World Water Prize

Dawn.com, Pakistan (4,192,219) Controversial Iranian scientist selected for ‘Nobel prize of water’

Yahoo! Actualités, France (4,132,067) The “Nobel Prize for Water” awarded to an exiled Iranian scientist

Yahoo! Finance, United States (42,208,246) CCNY Research Professor Kaveh Madani wins ‘Nobel Prize of Water’

Full coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Flagship report calls for fundamental reset of global water agenda as irreversible damage pushes many basins beyond recovery

UN Headquarters, New York – Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate “honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality.”

“Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era,” argues that the familiar terms “water stressed” and “water crisis” fail to reflect today’s reality in many places: a post-crisis condition marked by irreversible losses of natural water capital and an inability to bounce back to historic baselines.

“This report tells an uncomfortable truth: many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” says lead author Kaveh Madani, Director of the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known as ‘The UN’s Think Tank on Water.’

Expressed in financial terms, the report says many societies have not only overspent their annual renewable water “income” from rivers, soils, and snowpack, they have depleted long-term “savings” in aquifers, glaciers, wetlands, and other natural reservoirs.

This has resulted in a growing list of compacted aquifers, subsided land in deltas and coastal cities, vanished lakes and wetlands, and irreversibly lost biodiversity.

The UNU report is based on a peer-reviewed paper in the journal of Water Resources Management that formally defines water bankruptcy as

1) persistent over-withdrawal from surface and groundwater relative to renewable inflows and safe levels of depletion; and

2) the resulting irreversible or prohibitively costly loss of water-related natural capital.

By contrast:

• “Water stress” reflects high pressure that remains reversible
• “Water crisis” describes acute shocks that can be overcome

The report is issued prior to a high-level meeting in Dakar, Senegal (26–27 Jan.) to prepare the 2026 UN Water Conference, to be co-hosted by the United Arab Emirates and Senegal 2-4 Dec. in the UAE. 

While not every basin and country is water-bankrupt, Madani says, “enough critical systems around the world have crossed these thresholds. These systems are interconnected through trade, migration, climate feedbacks, and geopolitical dependencies, so the global risk landscape is now fundamentally altered.”

Madani underlines the following four essential points:

• Water cannot be protected if we allow the hydrological cycle, the climate, and the underlying natural capital that produces water to be interrupted or damaged. The world has an important and still largely untapped strategic opportunity to act.
• Water is an issue that crosses traditional political boundaries. It belongs to north and south, and to left and right. For that reason, it can serve as a bridge to create trust and unity between and within nations. In the fragmented world we live in, water can become a powerful focus for cooperation and for aligning national security with international priorities.
• Investment in water is also investment in mitigating climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification. Water should not be treated only as a downstream sector affected by other environmental crises. On the contrary, targeted investment in water can address the immediate concerns of communities and nations while also advancing the objectives of the Rio Conventions (climate, biodiversity, desertification).
• A renewed global emphasis on water could help reaccelerate stalled negotiations and potentially reenergize halted international processes. A practical and cooperative focus on water offers a way to connect urgent local needs with long-term global goals.

Hotspots

In the Middle East and North Africa region, high water stress, climate vulnerability, low agricultural productivity, energy-intensive desalination, and sand and dust storms intersect with complex political economies;

In parts of South Asia, groundwater-dependent agriculture and urbanization have produced chronic declines in water tables and local subsidence; and

In the American Southwest, the Colorado River and its reservoirs have become symbols of over-promised water.

A world in the red

Drawing on global datasets and recent scientific evidence, the report presents a stark statistical overview of trends, the overwhelming majority caused by humans:

50%: Large lakes worldwide that have lost water since the early 1990s (with 25% of humanity directly dependent on those lakes)

50%: Global domestic water now derived from groundwater

40%+: Irrigation water drawn from aquifers being steadily drained

70%: Major aquifers showing long-term decline

410 million hectares: Area of natural wetlands – almost equal in size to the entire European Union – erased in the past five decades

30%+: Global glacier mass lost since 1970, with entire low- and mid-latitude mountain ranges expected to lose functional glaciers altogether within decades

Dozens: Major rivers that now fail to reach the sea for parts of the year

50+ years: How long many river basins and aquifers have been overdrawing their accounts

100 million hectares: Cropland damaged by salinization alone

And the human consequences:

75%: Humanity in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure

2 billion: People living on sinking ground.

25 cm: Annual drop being experienced by some cities

4 billion: People facing severe water scarcity at least one month every year

170 million hectares: Irrigated cropland under high or very high water stress – equivalent to the areas of France, Spain, Germany, and Italy combined

US$5.1 trillion: Annual value of lost wetland ecosystem services

3 billion: People living in areas where total water storage is declining or unstable, with 50%+ of global food produced in those same stressed regions.

1.8 billion: People living under drought conditions in 2022–2023

US$307 billion: Current annual global cost of drought

2.2 billion: People who lack safely managed drinking water, while 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation

Says Madani: “Millions of farmers are trying to grow more food from shrinking, polluted, or disappearing water sources. Without rapid transitions toward water-smart agriculture, water bankruptcy will spread rapidly.”

A new diagnosis for a new era

A region can be flooded one year and still be water bankrupt, he adds, if long-term withdrawals exceed replenishment. In that sense, water bankruptcy is not about how wet or dry a place looks, but about balance, accounting, and sustainability.

Says Madani: As with global climate change or pandemics, a declaration of global water bankruptcy does not imply uniform impact everywhere, but that enough systems across regions and income levels have become insolvent and crossed irreversible thresholds to constitute a planetary-scale condition.

“Water bankruptcy is also global because its consequences travel,” Madani explains. “Agriculture accounts for the vast majority of freshwater use, and food systems are tightly interconnected through trade and prices. When water scarcity undermines farming in one region, the effects ripple through global markets, political stability, and food security elsewhere. This makes water bankruptcy not a series of isolated local crises, but a shared global risk that demands a new type of response: Bankruptcy management,  not crisis management.”

A call to reset the global water agenda

The report warns that the current global water agenda – largely focused on drinking water, sanitation, and incremental efficiency improvements – is no longer fit for purpose in many places and calls for a new global water agenda that:

• Formally recognizes the state of water bankruptcy
• Recognizes water as both a constraint and an opportunity for meeting climate, biodiversity, and land commitments
• Elevates water issues in climate, biodiversity, and desertification negotiations, development finance, and peacebuilding processes.
• Embeds water-bankruptcy monitoring in global frameworks, using Earth observation, AI, and integrated modelling
• Uses water as a catalyst to accelerate cooperation between the UN Member States

In practical terms, managing water bankruptcy requires governments to focus on the following priorities:

• Prevent further irreversible damage such as wetland loss, destructive groundwater depletion, and uncontrolled pollution
• Rebalance rights, claims, and expectations to match degraded carrying capacity
• Support just transitions for communities whose livelihoods must change
• Transform water-intensive sectors, including agriculture and industry, through crop shifts, irrigation reforms, and more efficient urban systems
• Build institutions for continuous adaptation, with monitoring systems linked to threshold-based management

The report underlines that water bankruptcy is not merely a hydrological problem, but a justice issue with deep social and political implications requiring attention at the highest levels of government and multilateral cooperation. The burdens fall disproportionately on smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples, low-income urban residents, women and youth while the benefits of overuse often accrued to more powerful actors.

“Water bankruptcy is becoming a driver of fragility, displacement, and conflict,” says UN Under-Secretary-General Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of UNU. “Managing it fairly – ensuring that vulnerable communities are protected and that unavoidable losses are shared equitably – is now central to maintaining peace, stability, and social cohesion.”

“Bankruptcy management requires honesty, courage, and political will,” Madani adds. “We cannot rebuild vanished glaciers or reinflate acutely compacted aquifers. But we can prevent further loss of our remaining natural capital, and redesign institutions to live within new hydrological limits.”

Upcoming milestones —  the 2026 and 2028 UN Water Conferences, the end of the Water Action Decade in 2028, and the 2030 SDG deadline, for example — provide critical opportunities to implement this shift, he says.

“Despite its warnings, the report is not a statement of hopelessness,” adds Madani. “It is a call for honesty, realism, and transformation.  Declaring bankruptcy is not about giving up — it is about starting fresh. By acknowledging the reality of water bankruptcy, we can finally make the hard choices that will protect people, economies, and ecosystems. The longer we delay, the deeper the deficit grows.”

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Report in brief

Media highlights

• This report declares that the world has already entered the era of Global Water Bankruptcy. The condition is not a distant threat but a present reality. Many human water systems are now in a post-crisis failure state where past baselines can no longer be restored.
• Global Water Bankruptcy is defined as a persistent post-crisis state of failure. In this state, long-term water use and pollution have exceeded renewable inflows and safe depletion limits. Key parts of the water system can no longer realistically be brought back to previous levels of supply and ecosystem function.
• Terms such as water stress and water crisis are no longer sufficient descriptions of the world’s new water realities. Many rivers, lakes, aquifers, wetlands, and glaciers have been pushed beyond tipping points and cannot bounce back to past baselines. The language of temporary crisis is no longer accurate in many regions.
• The global water cycle has moved beyond its safe planetary boundary. Together with climate, biodiversity, and land systems, freshwater has been pushed outside its safe operating space. The report concludes that the world is living beyond its hydrological means.
• Billions of people are living with chronic water insecurity. Around 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation, and nearly 4 billion face severe water scarcity for at least one month each year. Almost three-quarters of the world’s population live in countries classified as water insecure or critically water insecure.
• Surface waters and wetlands are shrinking on a massive scale. More than half of the world’s large lakes have lost water since the early 1990s, affecting about one-quarter of the global population that relies on them directly. Over the last five decades, humanity has lost roughly 410 million hectares of natural wetlands, almost the land area of the European Union. This includes about 177 million hectares of inland marshes and swamps, roughly the size of Libya or seven times the area of the United Kingdom. The loss of ecosystem services from these wetlands is valued at over US$5.1 trillion, similar to the combined GDP of around 135 of the world’s poorest countries.
• Groundwater depletion and land subsidence show that hidden reserves are being exhausted. Around 70 percent of the world’s major aquifers show long-term declines. Land subsidence linked to groundwater over-pumping now affects more than 6 million square kilometers, almost 5 percent of the global land area, and nearly 2 billion people. This permanently reduces storage and increases flood risk in many cities, deltas, and coastal zones.
• Water quality degradation further reduces usable water and accelerates bankruptcy. Growing loads of untreated wastewater, agricultural runoff, industrial pollution, and salinization are degrading rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Even where volumes appear sufficient on paper, the fraction of water that is safe for drinking, irrigation, and ecosystems continues to shrink.
• The cryosphere is melting, eroding a critical long-term water buffer. The world has already lost more than 30 percent of its glacier mass since 1970. Some mountain ranges risk losing functional glaciers within decades, undermining water security for hundreds of millions of people who depend on rivers fed by glacier and snowmelt.
• Farmers and food systems sit at the very heart of Global Water Bankruptcy. Roughly 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, much of it in the Global South. Groundwater provides about 50 percent of domestic water use and over 40 percent of irrigation water worldwide. Both drinking water and food production now depend heavily on aquifers that are being depleted faster than they can realistically recharge.
• Global food production is increasingly exposed to water decline and degradation. About 3 billion people and more than half of global food production are concentrated in areas where total water storage is already declining or unstable. More than 170 million hectares of irrigated cropland, about the combined land area of France, Spain, Germany, and Italy, are under high or very high water stress. Salinization has degraded roughly 82 million hectares of rainfed cropland and 24 million hectares of irrigated cropland, eroding yields in key global breadbaskets.
• Drought impacts are becoming steadily more human-made and extremely costly. The report identifies a growing pattern of anthropogenic drought, meaning water deficits caused by overuse and degradation rather than natural variability alone. These impacts already cost around US$307 billion per year, more than the annual GDP of almost three-quarters of United Nations Member States.
• Global Water Bankruptcy is also a justice, security, and political economy challenge. Without a deliberate commitment to equity, the costs of adjustment will fall disproportionately on farmers, rural communities, Indigenous Peoples, informal urban residents, women, youth, and other vulnerable groups. This imbalance increases the risk of social unrest and conflict in many regions.
• Governments need to urgently shift from crisis management to bankruptcy management. The report calls for an end to short-term emergency thinking. Instead, it urges strategies that prevent further irreversible damage, reduce and reallocate demand, transform water-intensive sectors, tackle illegal withdrawals and pollution, and ensure just transitions for people whose livelihoods must change.
• The current global water agenda is no longer fit for the Anthropocene. A narrow focus on drinking water, sanitation, and small efficiency gains will not be sufficient to resolve escalating water risks. In fact, that limited approach will increasingly compromise progress on climate action, biodiversity protection, land management, food security, and peace.
• Water can be a bridge in a fragmented world. Every country, sector, and community depends on freshwater. Investing in water bankruptcy management therefore becomes an investment in climate stability, biodiversity protection, land restoration, food security, employment, and social harmony. This shared reliance offers practical common ground for cooperation between North and South and across political divides within nations.
• World leaders are urged to use upcoming UN water milestones as decisive turning points. The report calls on governments and the UN system to use the 2026 and 2028 UN Water Conferences, the conclusion of the Water Action Decade in 2028, and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal deadline to reset the global water agenda. It urges formal recognition of Global Water Bankruptcy, stronger monitoring and diagnostics, and a renewed effort to position water as a bridge for peace, climate action, biodiversity protection, and food security in an increasingly fragmented world.

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Key Policy Messages

• The world is already in the state of “water bankruptcy”. In many basins and aquifers, long-term overuse and degradation mean that past hydrological and ecological baselines cannot realistically be restored. While not every basin or country is water-bankrupt, enough critical systems around the world have crossed these thresholds, and are interconnected through trade, migration, climate feedbacks, and geopolitical dependencies, that the global risk landscape is now fundamentally altered.
• The familiar language of “water stress” and “water crisis” is no longer adequate. Stress describes high pressure that is still reversible. Crisis describes acute, time-bound shocks. Water bankruptcy must be recognized as a distinct post-crisis state, where accumulated damage and overshoot have undermined the system’s capacity to recover.
• Water bankruptcy management must address insolvency and irreversibility. Unlike financial bankruptcy management, which deals only with insolvency, managing water bankruptcy is concerned with rebalancing demand and supply under conditions where returning to baseline conditions is no longer possible.
• Anthropogenic drought is central to the world’s new water reality. Drought and water shortage are increasingly driven by human activities, over-allocation, groundwater depletion, land and soil degradation, deforestation, pollution, and climate change, rather than natural variability alone. Water bankruptcy is the outcome of long-term anthropogenic drought, not just bad luck with hydrological anomalies.
• Water bankruptcy is about both quantity and quality. Declining stocks, polluted rivers, and degrading aquifers, and salinized soils mean that the truly usable fraction of available water is shrinking, even where total volumes may appear stable.
• Managing water bankruptcy requires a shift from crisis management to bankruptcy management. The priority is no longer to “get back to normal”, but to prevent further irreversible damage, rebalance rights and claims within degraded carrying capacities, transform water-intensive sectors and development models, and support just transitions for those most affected.
• Governance institutions must protect both water and its underlying natural capital. The existing institutions focus on protecting water as a good or service disregarding the natural capital that makes water available in the first place. Efforts to protect a product are ineffective when the processes that produce it are disrupted. Recognizing water bankruptcy calls for developing legal and governance institutions that can effectively protect not only water but also the hydrological cycle and natural capital that make its production possible.
• Water bankruptcy is a justice and security issue. The costs of overshoot and irreversibility fall disproportionately on smallholder farmers, rural and Indigenous communities, informal urban residents, women, youth, and downstream users, while benefits have often accrued to more powerful actors. How societies manage water bankruptcy will shape social cohesion, political stability, and peace.
• Water bankruptcy management combines mitigation with adaptation. While water crisis management paradigms seek to return the system to normal conditions through mitigation efforts only, water bankruptcy management focuses on restoring what is possible and preventing further damages through mitigation combined with adaptation to new normals and constraints.
• Water can serve as a bridge in a fragmented world. Water can align national priorities with international priorities and improve cooperation between and within nations. Roughly 70% of global freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, much of it by farmers in the Global South. Elevating water in global policy debates can help rebuild trust between South and North but also within nations, between rural and urban, left and right constituencies.
• Water must be recognized as an upstream sector. Most national and international policy agendas treat water as a downstream impact sector where investments are focused on mitigating the imposed problems and externalities. The world must recognize water as an upstream opportunity sector where investments have long-term benefits for peace, stability, security, equity, economy, health, and the environment.
• Water is an effective medium to fulfill the global environmental agenda. Investments in addressing water bankruptcy deliver major co-benefits for the global efforts to address its environmental problems while addressing the national security concerns of the UN member states. Elevating water in the global policy agenda can renew international cooperation, increase the efficiency of environmental investments, and reaccelerate the halted progress of the three Rio Conventions to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification.
• A new global water agenda is urgently needed. Existing agendas and conventional water policies, focused mainly on WASH, incremental efficiency gains and generic IWRM guidelines, are not sufficient for the world’s current water reality. A fresh water agenda must be developed that takes Global Water Bankruptcy as a starting point and uses the 2026 and 2028 UN Water Conferences, the conclusion of the Water Action Decade in 2028, and the 2030 SDG 6 timeline as milestones for resetting how the world understands and governs water.

* * * * *

Report Information

Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, doi: 10.53328/INR26KAM001

Support Paper

Madani K. (2026) Water Bankruptcy: The Formal Definition, Water Resources Management.

About UNU-INWEH

The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) is one of 13 institutions that make up the United Nations University (UNU), the academic arm of the UN. Known as ‘The UN’s Think Tank on Water’, UNU-INWEH addresses critical water, environmental, and health challenges around the world. Through research, training, capacity development, and knowledge dissemination, the institute contributes to solving pressing global sustainability and human security issues of concern to the UN and its Member States.

Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, UNU-INWEH has been hosted and supported by the Government of Canada since 1996. With a global mandate and extensive partnerships across UN entities, international organizations, and governments, UNU-INWEH operates through its UNU Hubs in Calgary, Hamburg, New York, Lund, and Pretoria, and an international network of affiliates.

unu.edu/inweh

Coverage highlights

News release in full, click here

The rapidly-growing bottled water industry can undermine progress towards a key sustainable development goal: safe water for all, says a new United Nations report.  

Based on an analysis of literature and data from 109 countries, the report says that in just five decades bottled water has developed into “a major and essentially standalone economic sector,” experiencing 73% growth from 2010 to 2020. And sales are expected to almost double by 2030, from US$ 270 billion to $500 billion.

Released a few days prior to World Water Day (March 22), the report by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health concludes that the unrestricted expansion of the bottled water industry “is not aligned strategically with the goal of providing universal access to drinking water or at least slows global progress in this regard, distracting development efforts and redirecting attention to a less reliable and less affordable option for many, while remaining highly profitable for producers.”

Says Kaveh Madani, UNU-INWEH’s new Director: “The rise in bottled water consumption reflects decades of limited progress in and many failures of public water supply systems.”

When the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed in 2015, he notes, experts elsewhere estimated an annual investment of US$ 114 billion was needed from 2015 to 2030 to achieve a key target: universal safe drinking water. 

The report says providing safe water to the roughly 2 billion people without it woulds require an annual investment of less than half the US$ 270 billion now spent every year on bottled water.

“This points to a global case of extreme social injustice, whereby billions of people worldwide do not have access to reliable water services while others enjoy water luxury.”

Tap water perceptions

The study quotes surveys showing bottled water is often perceived in the Global North as a healthier and tastier product than tap water – more a luxury good than a necessity. In the Global South, sales are driven by the lack or absence of reliable public water supplies and water delivery infrastructure limitations due to rapid urbanization.

In mid- and low-income countries, bottled water consumption is linked to poor tap water quality and often unreliable public water supply systems – problems often caused by corruption and chronic underinvestment in piped water infrastructure.

Beverage corporations are adept at marketing bottled water as a safe alternative to tap water by drawing attention to isolated public water system failures, says UNU-INWEH researcher and lead author Zeineb Bouhlel, adding that “even if in certain countries piped water is or can be of good quality, restoring public trust in tap water is likely to require substantial marketing and advocacy efforts.”

Not necessarily safe

Dr. Bouhlel notes that the source of bottled water (municipal system, surface, etc.) the treatment processes used (e.g. chlorination, ultraviolet disinfection, ozonation, reverse osmosis), the storage conditions (duration, light exposure, temperature), and packaging (plastic, glass), can all potentially alter water quality. This may be inorganic (e.g. heavy metals, pH, turbidity etc.), organic (benzene, pesticides, microplastics, etc.) and microbiological (pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungus and parasitic protozoa).

According to the report, “the mineral composition of bottled water can vary significantly between different brands, within the same brand in different countries, and even between different bottles of the same batch.”

The report lists examples from over 40 countries in every world region of contamination of hundreds of bottled water brands and all bottled water types.

“This review constitutes strong evidence against the misleading perception that bottled water is an unquestionably safe drinking water source,” says Dr. Bouhlel.

Water bottlers generally face less scrutiny than public water utilities

Co-author Vladimir Smakhtin, past Director of UNU-INWEH, underscores the report’s finding that “bottled water is generally not nearly as well-regulated and is tested less frequently and for fewer parameters. Strict water quality standards for tap water are rarely applied to bottled water, and even if such analyses are carried out, the results seldom make it to the public domain.”

Bottled water producers, he says, have largely avoided the scrutiny governments impose on public water utilities, and amid the market’s rapid growth, it is “probably more important than ever to strengthen legislation that regulates the industry overall, and its water quality standards in particular.”

With respect to the industry’s environmental impacts, the report says there is “little data available on water volumes extracted,” largely due to the lack of transparency and legal foundation that would have forced bottling companies to disclose that information publicly and assess the environmental consequences.”

“Local impacts on water resources may be significant,” the report says. 

In the USA, for example, Nestlé Waters extracts 3 million litres a day from Florida Springs; in France, Danone extracts up to 10 million litres a day from Evian-les-Bains in the French Alps; and in China, the Hangzhou Wahaha Group extracts up to 12 million litres daily from Changbai Mountains springs. 

Regarding plastic pollution, the researchers cite estimates that the industry produced around 600 billion plastic bottles and containers in 2021, which converts to some 25 million tonnes of PET waste – most of it not recycled and destined for landfills – a mass of plastic equal to the weight of 625,000 40-ton trucks, enough to form a bumper-to-bumper line from New York to Bangkok.

According to the report, the bottled water sector used 35% of the PET bottles produced globally in 2019; 85% wind up in landfills or unregulated waste.

By the numbers 

Among the report’s many insights, derived from data analysis and other information assembled from global studies and literature:

• Over 1 million bottles of water are sold worldwide every minute
• Annual spending per capita worldwide is US$ 34
• Worldwide annual consumption of the three main bottled water types – treated, mineral, and natural – is estimated at 350 billion litres
• The estimated US $1.225 trillion in bottled water revenues represent 17 to 24% of the global market for non-alcoholic packaged beverages
• The biggest market segment (with 47% of global sales) is treated bottled water, which could originate from public water systems or surface water, and that undergoes a disinfection treatment such as chlorination
• Citizens of Asia-Pacific are the biggest bottled water consumers, followed by North Americans and Europeans 
• 60% of global sales are in the “Global South” (Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean)
• By country, the USA is the largest market, with around US$ 64 billion in sales, followed by China (almost US$ 45 billion) and Indonesia (US$ 22 billion). Together, these three countries constitute almost half of the world market. Other top countries by sales: Canada, Australia, Singapore, Germany, Thailand, Mexico, Thailand, Italy, Japan
• The average cost of a bottle of water in North America and Europe is around US$ 2.50, more than double the price in Asia, Africa and LAC ($0.80, $0.90 and $1, respectively). Australia, the fifth largest market, has the highest average price: $3.57 per unit.
• Bottled water per litre can cost 150 to 1,000 times more than the price a municipality charges for tap water.
• Biggest per capita consumers: Singapore and Australia. Citizens of Singapore spent $1,348 per capita on bottled water in 2021, Australians $386
• According to previous studies, about 31% of Canadians, 38% of Americans, and 60% of Italians use bottled water as their primary drinking source. In the Dominican Republic, 60% of households use bottled water as their primary water source, with a strong correlation between income and bottled water consumption. About 80% of Mexicans use bottled water, and 10% use home-purified water as their primary drinking water source; roughly 90% cite health concerns for doing so
• Egypt is the fastest-growing market for treated bottled water (40% per year). Seven other countries from the Global South are among the top 10 fastest-growing markets: Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, India, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.
• In Europe, Germany is the biggest bottled water market; in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico is the biggest market; in Africa, it’s South Africa.
• Treated water appears to be the market’s largest component by volume, while natural waters appear to generate the most profit.
• Five companies – PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Nestlé S.A., Danone S.A, and Primo Corporation have combined sales of $65 billion, over 25% of the global total
• Earlier studies of water withdrawals declared in India, Pakistan, Mexico and Nepal showed total estimated withdrawals by Coca-Cola and Nestlé in 2021 at 300 and 100 billion litres, respectively

* * * * * 

UNU-INWEH

http://bit.ly/1vjfKAS

The UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. Its mission is to help resolve pressing water challenges of concern to the UN, its Member States and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and relevant and targeted public outreach.  UNU-INWEH is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.

******

News release in full, click here

CNN, United States (134,312,034) The plastic water bottle industry is booming. Here’s why that’s a huge problem  https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/world/plastic-water-bottles-un-report-climate

Reuters, via Daily Mail, United Kingdom (76,772,682) Rising bottled water consumption signals safe drinking water goal is under threat, says U.N. think tank https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-11868165/Rising-bottled-water-consumption-signals-safe-drinking-water-goal-threat-says-U-N-think-thank.html

Agence France Presse, France, a) French, via La Croix, France (2,705,128) La moitié des ventes d’eau en bouteille suffirait à fournir de l’eau potable à tous, selon l’ONU https://www.la-croix.com/environnement/moitie-ventes-deau-bouteille-suffirait-fournir-leau-potable-tous-selon-lONU-2023-03-16-1201259394

b) English via Radio France International (6,120,000) Half of bottled water sales would be enough to give universal access to drinking water (UN)
https://www.rfi.fr/es/m%C3%A1s-noticias/20230316-mitad-de-ventas-de-agua-embotellada-alcanzar%C3%ADa-para-dar-acceso-universal-al-agua-potable-onu

c) Spanish, via La Nación, Argentina (21,474,486)
Mitad de ventas de agua embotellada alcanzaría para dar acceso universal al agua potable (ONU) https://www.lanacion.com.ar/agencias/mitad-de-ventas-de-agua-embotellada-alcanzaria-para-dar-acceso-universal-al-agua-potable-onu-nid16032023/

Bloomberg, United States (30,080,279) Bottled Water Sales Exceed Cost of Providing Safe Water for All, UN Says  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-16/bottled-water-boom-detracts-from-safe-drinking-water-focus-un-warns

Agencia EFE, via MSN.com, United States (185,235,630) Hay millones de personas sin agua potable. La ONU acusa a las embotelladoras  https://www.msn.com/es-us/noticias/others/hay-millones-de-personas-sin-agua-potable-la-onu-acusa-a-las-embotelladoras/ar-AA18IbbX

Australian Associated Press, Australia, via Daily Mail, United Kingdom (76,772,682) a) Unquenched Aussie thirst for world’s most costly water https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-11868183/Unquenched-Aussie-thirst-worlds-costly-water.html
b) Australians are thirsty for pricey bottled water: UN https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-11868181/Australians-thirsty-pricey-bottled-water-UN.html

Belga, Belgium, from AFP, via Sudinfo (3,804,253)
La moitié des ventes d’eau en bouteille suffirait à fournir de l’eau potable à tous, affirme l’ONU https://www.sudinfo.be/id634776/article/2023-03-16/la-moitie-des-ventes-deau-en-bouteille-suffirait-fournir-de-leau-potable-tous

Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP), Netherlands, via Noordhollands Dagblad, (1,036,049)  Instituut: fleswater zit ontwikkeling leidingwater in de weg  https://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/cnt/dmf20230316_54723590

News sites, original stories (different reporters)

La Nación, Argentina (21,474,486)
Aumento de consumo de agua embotellada hace peligrar objetivo de agua potable de onu: expertos https://www.lanacion.com.ar/agencias/aumento-de-consumo-de-agua-embotellada-hace-peligrar-objetivo-de-agua-potable-de-onu-expertos-nid16032023/

El Español, Spain (33,831,415) El negocio del agua o cómo el ‘boom’ de la embotellada disfraza el fracaso de proveerla de forma segura https://www.elespanol.com/enclave-ods/historias/20230316/negocio-embotellada-disfraza-fracaso-proveerla-forma-segura/748925300_0.html

El Confidencial, Spain (28,465,479)
El desastre global del agua embotellada: más cara y contaminante (y no es más saludable) https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/ciencia/2023-03-16/desastre-agua-embotellada-cara-saludable_3593902/

L’Obs, France (5,784,242) L’eau en bouteille est-elle un obstacle au développement durable?  https://www.nouvelobs.com/sciences/20230316.OBS70921/l-eau-en-bouteille-est-elle-un-obstacle-au-developpement-durable.html

Les Echos, France (5,297,982) La charge des Nations Unies contre l’eau vendue en bouteille https://www.lesechos.fr/monde/enjeux-internationaux/la-charge-des-nations-unies-contre-leau-vendue-en-bouteille-1916470

Público, Portugal (2,865,936)
Água engarrafada não é mais segura que a da torneira, diz relatório da ONU https://www.publico.pt/2023/03/16/azul/noticia/agua-engarrafada-nao-segura-torneira-relatorio-onu-2042389

Investing, Spain (2,221,188)

Aumento de consumo de agua embotellada hace peligrar objetivo de agua potable de ONU: expertos https://es.investing.com/news/commodities-news/aumento-de-consumo-de-agua-embotellada-hace-peligrar-objetivo-de-agua-potable-de-onu-expertos-2372980

MeteoWeb, Italy (1,340,114)

Uno studio svela il lato oscuro dell’industria dell’acqua in bottiglia  https://www.meteoweb.eu/2023/03/acqua-potabile-acqua-imbottigliata-industria-ambiente-inquinamento/1001215591/

The New Daily, Australia (1,017,563) ‘One of the biggest scams’: Study uncovers the downsides of bottled water fad  https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/health/2023/03/17/bottled-water-environmental-toll/

ABC National Radio, Australia

Full coverage summary, click here

Trapped sediment has robbed roughly 50,000 large dams worldwide of an estimated 13% to 19% of their combined original storage capacity, and total losses will reach 23% to 28% by 2050, UN research warns.

The global loss from original dam capacity foreseen by mid-century – from ~6,300 billion to ~4,650 billion m3 in 2050, a difference of ~1,650 billion m3 – roughly equals the annual water use of India, China, Indonesia, France and Canada combined.

UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health applied previously-determined storage loss rates in various areas worldwide to large dams in 150 countries to forecast cumulative reservoir storage losses by country, region, and globally. 

The United Kingdom, Panama, Ireland, Japan and Seychelles will experience the highest water storage losses by 2050 – between 35% and 50% of their original capacities – the study shows. By contrast, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, and Niger will be the five least affected countries, losing less than 15% by mid-century.

“The decrease in available storage by 2050 in all countries and regions will challenge many aspects of national economies, including irrigation, power generation, and water supply,” says Dr. Duminda Perera, who co-authored the study with UNU-INWEH Director Vladimir Smakhtin and Spencer Williams of McGill University in Montreal. It is published by the journal Sustainability.

“The new dams under construction or planned will not offset storage losses to sedimentation. This paper sounds an alarm on a creeping global water challenge with potentially significant development implications.”

The researchers applied previously-established storage loss rates worldwide to a subset of nearly 60,000 dams in a database maintained by the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD). The subset comprises 47,403 large dams for which original storage capacity and year of construction are known: 28,045 in Asia-Pacific, 2,349 in Africa, 6,651 in Europe, and 10,358 in North, Central and South America.

Large dams and reservoirs – defined as higher than 15 m, or between 5 and 15 m high impounding over 3 million m3 – are essential in many places for hydroelectricity, flood control, irrigation, and drinking water.

River sediment accumulates behind a dam’s barrier. The problem, often ignored, has now become a significant challenge to global water storage infrastructure that must be addressed with a long-term sediment management strategy.

“Sedimentation is a serious issue that endangers the sustainability of future water supplies for many,” says Dr. Smakhtin.

“It stimulates downstream flooding causing erosion, impacting wildlife habitats and coastal populations. And abrasive sediments can damage hydroelectric turbines and other dam components and mechanisms, decreasing their efficiency and increasing maintenance costs.”

Global average annual storage losses amount to approximately 0.36% of initial capacity, the UNU-INWEH study says, noting that figure may err on the conservative side. Previous attempts to estimate a global annual rate of loss from initial reservoir capacity generally agree on a range between 0.5% and 1%. 

Many other studies suggest, however, that reservoir sedimentation rates and associated storage losses are site-specific and vary significantly between regions.

For example, other researchers have estimated the loss from 190 California reservoirs at more than 50% from their original capacities, with 120 reservoirs having lost over 75%. A similar study predicted Japan’s Sakuma reservoir will lose around 44% of its initial capacity by 2040. 

* * * * *

The Americas

The Americas’ 19 countries contain 10,358 large dams with an initial storage capacity of 2,810 billion m3 foreseen falling 28% to 2,014 billion m3 by 2050. And Panama’s 21 dams appear to be facing the highest storage loss: 38%, from an initial 9.5 billion m3 to 5.9 billion m3 by 2050.

Brazil, second after the USA in the Americas in number of large dams, will lose an estimated 23% of its initial storage of 600 billion m3 by 2050.

* * * * *

Europe

Europe’s 6,651 large dams across 42 countries had a total initial storage capacity of 895 billion m3.  The region has already lost 19% of that volume, will lose up to 21% by 2030 and 28% by 2050, the study found.

Among the 42 countries, 33 (~78%) will likely lose over 25% of initial storage by 2050 in part because of the dams’ age. Ireland can anticipate the greatest loss of storage by 2050 (39%), Denmark the least loss (20%). Turkey, Iceland, Hungary, and Cyprus appear to be Europe’s other least-impacted countries.

* * * * *

Africa

Already, the 2,349 dams across Africa’s 44 countries have lost about 702 billion m3 or 15% of their original storage capacity. By 2030 and 2050, cumulative storage losses are estimated at 17% and 24%, respectively.

The Seychelles’ two dams have to date lost about 30% of their original 1 million m3 capacity and are projected to lose 50% by 2050 – the greatest loss of any country. Madagascar, DR Congo, Chad, and Zambia are projected to lose 30% by 2050, while another 11 countries will lose an estimated 25% to 30% by mid-century. 

The lowest storage loss by 2050 is estimated for Niger (11%).  Losses of less than 15% are foreseen for Sierra Leone, Congo, Ethiopia, and Guinea, mostly attributable to their relatively young dams.

A previous study noted that the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, with 99% of estimated trapping efficiency, has almost completely blocked sediment flow to the Nile River Delta. 

The new UNU-INWEH study estimates Aswan dam storage losses at 18%, 21%, and 28% in 2022, 2030, and 2050 respectively.

* * * * *

Asia-Pacific

Combined with those in Australia, and New Zealand, Asia’s 43 countries are home to 35,252 large dams, making it the world’s most heavily dammed region. The region is home to 60% of the world’s population and water storage is crucial for sustaining water and food security. 

In 2022, the region is estimated to have lost 13% of its initial dam storage capacity. It will have lost nearly a quarter (23%) of initial storage capacity by mid-century. 

The loss of storage capacity of Japan’s 3,052 dams (average age: over 100 years) is the most acute in the region.  Having already lost 39% of their total initial storage capacity, they will have lost nearly 50% by 2050 on average, and 67% in some cases.

In 2015, India’s Central Water Commission reported that among 141 large reservoirs over 50 years old, one-quarter had already lost at least 30% of their initial storage capacity. UNU-INWEH estimates that India’s 3,700 large dams will have lost on average 26% of their initial total storage by 2050.

China, meanwhile, the world’s most heavily dammed nation, has lost about 10% of its storage and will lose a further 10% by 2050.

* * * * *

Authors of the new paper note that their rough estimates could be greatly improved through consistent basin-wide monitoring of sediment transport and frequent bathymetry surveys of individual reservoirs.

Dredging can be costly, they add, and only temporary. Sediment flushing is more financially attractive but may have significant adverse impacts downstream. 

Solutions such as bypass (or diversion) are gaining traction due to the growing public quest to minimize dams’ adverse environmental impacts. Bypassing is a technique that diverts the flow downstream via a separate channel to manage high-flow events during which sediment concentration is particularly high.

At their optimum operational levels, bypass tunnels can reduce sedimentation by 80%–90% as mentioned in a previous study. 

Enhancement of the dam height is another alternative to recover the storage loss due to sedimentation. However, this should be executed only after a careful assessment of the dam’s structural strength. 

Such an increase in height will also expand the reservoir area, potentially displacing communities and many species’ habitat. 

Complete dam removal, including those filled with sediments, is a slowly emerging practice, returning rivers to their natural state and reestablishing natural river sediment transport. Treatment and disposal of accumulated sediments may be needed as they may contain heavy metals and other toxins.

“Clearly, this study’s results need to be interpreted by local authorities with consideration given to local specifics and factors,” says Dr. Perera.

“What is most important to underline is the disturbing overall magnitude of water storage losses due to sedimentation.  This adds to the list of world water development issues we need to address with resolve.”

* * * * * 

UNU-INWEH (http://bit.ly/1vjfKAS)

The UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996.

Its mission is to help resolve pressing water challenges of concern to the UN, its Member States and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and relevant and targeted public outreach. 

UNU-INWEH is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

Coverage highlights;

Newswires

Reuters, UK “World’s dams to lose a quarter of storage capacity by 2050 – UN research World’s dams to lose a quarter of storage capacity by 2050 – UN research” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-11624173/Worlds-dams-lose-quarter-storage-capacity-2050–UN-research.html

Agence France Presse, “Trapped sediment in dams ‘endangers’ water supplies: UN” https://news.yahoo.com/trapped-sediment-dams-endangers-water-193052837.html

Agencia EFE, Spain “ONU advierte de amenaza oculta que afecta a los embalses en todo el mundo” (UN warns of hidden threat that affects reservoirs worldwide) https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2023/01/11/onu-advierte-de-amenaza-oculta-que-afecta-a-los-embalses-en-todo-el-mundo/

Deutsche Presse Agentur, Germany “Sedimente lassen Speicherkapazität von Staudämmen sinken” (Sediments let the storage capacity of dams decrease) https://www.welt.de/newsticker/dpa_nt/infoline_nt/wissenschaft_nt/article243160207/Sedimente-lassen-Speicherkapazitaet-von-Staudaemmen-sinken.html

SAPO, Portugal “Maiores barragens do mundo podem perder 26% da capacidade de armazenamento até 2050” (Largest dams in the world can lose 26% of the storage capacity by 2050) https://greensavers.sapo.pt/maiores-barragens-do-mundo-podem-perder-26-da-capacidade-de-armazenamento-ate-2050/

Press Trust of India, “3,700 dams in India will lose 26% storage capacity due to sedimentation by 2050: UN study” https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/3700-dams-in-india-will-lose-26-storage-capacity-due-to-sedimentation-by-2050-un-study-9835031.html

Ars Technica, United States “Sedimentation threatens to steal capacity from nearly 50,000 dams” https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/sedimentation-threatens-to-steal-capacity-from-nearly-50000-dams/

Berita Harian, Malaysia “Empangan seluruh dunia hilang 25 peratus simpanan menjelang 2050” (Worldwide dams lost 25 percent savings by 2050) https://origin.bharian.com.my/dunia/asia/2023/01/1050865/empangan-seluruh-dunia-hilang-25-peratus-simpanan-menjelang-2050

Dawn, Pakistan “Sediment robbing dams of storage capacity Sediment robbing dams of storage capacity” https://www.dawn.com/news/1731221/sediment-robbing-dams-of-storage-capacity

Kompas, Indonesia “PBB: Bendungan Besar Dunia Bisa Kehilangan Seperempat Kapasitasnya pada 2050” (UN: The world’s large dam can lose a quarter of its capacity in 2050) https://www.kompas.com/global/read/2023/01/12/143000170/pbb–bendungan-besar-dunia-bisa-kehilangan-seperempat-kapasitasnya-pada

Le Temps, Switzerland “La capacité de stockage des lacs de barrage se réduit dangereusement” (The storage capacity of dam lakes is dangerously reduced) https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/capacite-stockage-lacs-barrage-se-reduit-dangereusement

Naver, Korea “잦은 가뭄·홍수에 댐 바닥 침전물까지…전세계 물 부족 경고” (Frequent droughts and floods to dam floor sediment… Water shortage warning around the world) https://n.news.naver.com/article/028/0002623070

Coverage summary in full, click here

News release in full, click here

Tapping a fraction can help meet fast-growing global freshwater needs

UN and partner water experts say it is time to increase the tapping of Earth’s diverse and abundant unconventional water sources – the millions of cubic kilometres of water in deep land-based and seabed aquifers, in fog and icebergs, in the ballast holds of thousands of ships, and elsewhere. 

A new book, Unconventional Water Resources, published by Springer and compiled by experts at UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), the UNU Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says these potential supplies can help many of the 1 in 4 people on Earth who face shortages of water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture and economic development.

Based on the most up to date information and data, and with contributions from renowned scientists, experts and practitioners worldwide, the book showcases the potential of different types of unconventional water resources – tapping offshore and onshore deep groundwater, for example, reusing water, moving water physically to water-scarce areas, and more.

Says UNU-INWEH Director Vladimir Smakhtin: “As climate change worsens and with population rising worldwide, water shortages are a top threat to human development and security, making this authoritative analysis of unconventional water resources both timely and important.”

“Harnessing the potential of unconventional water sources could benefit billions of people,” says UNU-INWEH Deputy Director Manzoor Qadir, the book’s lead editor. “These sources will be essential to building a future in arid areas.”

The book identifies six broad categories of unconventional water sources: 

1) Harvesting water from the air with cloud seeding and fog collectors

The atmosphere contains an estimated 13,000 km³ of water vapour, some of which can be captured through cloud seeding and the collection of water from fog and mist.  (A cubic kilometre of water equals the volume of 400,000 Olympic swimming pools, and annual global freshwater demand today is estimated at roughly 4,600 km³ – comparable to the volume of North America’s Lake Michigan, or 1.7 times that of Africa’s Lake Victoria.)

Cloud Seeding or Rain Enhancement 

Cloud seeding can enhance rainfall by up to 15% under the right conditions, and studies show that rain enhancement can work with reasonable cost-benefit ratios. An increasing number of countries plan to carry out rain enhancement in response to water shortages and other societal needs.

Fog Harvesting

Remote communities in Chile, Morocco, and South Africa have used vertical mesh nets to harvest fog for over 100 years, and there are viable sites for fog harvesting on every continent. Advancements in materials and indigenous knowledge have helped develop highly productive, relatively low cost, environmentally-friendly designs to collect potable water – more than 20 litres on a dense fog day for every square metre of mesh.  At an overall cost of less than $250 per square metre of mesh lasting more than a decade, some 75,000 litres per square metre is produced at a cost of just 33 cents a litre.

2) Desalination

Every day desalination contributes over 100 million cubic metres of water, supporting approximately 5% of the world’s population. This volume is projected to double by 2030 while costs will fall by 50%.  New developments in desalination will likely make it the lowest-cost unconventional water supply resource worldwide, particularly in low-income countries where production of desalinated remains far from reality.

While desalination is energy intensive today, innovative technologies such as nanoparticle enhanced membranes and forward osmosis are reducing energy inputs by 20 to 35%. Meanwhile, desalination produces enormous quantities of brine, a pollutant of increasing concern where it is discharged. New technologies that can extract salts, magnesium and other metals from brine to yield commercially-viable products could offset the cost of desalinated water production in the next decade.

3) Reusing water 

Municipal wastewater

Advanced municipal wastewater treatment systems offer a water source while protecting high-quality freshwater surface and groundwater. 

Today around 70% of municipal wastewater in high-income countries is treated, but this falls to only 8% in low-income countries. The annual volume of untreated municipal wastewater is estimated at 171 km³, much of it dumped into the environment, reducing the quality of water in many parts of the world.

Treated wastewater is increasingly used to recharge underground aquifers that supply drinking water in a number of countries. Treated wastewater provides 25% of Windhoek, Namibia’s potable water supply and meets 40% of Singapore’s demand. San Diego, California and other US cities likewise obtain some of their drinking water this way, while Israel and other places use treated wastewater to supply close to a quarter of its agricultural water needs. 

Acceptance of reused wastewater by people and policymakers remains a challenge.

Agricultural drainage water 

Just 1/5th of all cultivated lands are irrigated but they produce 40 percent of the world’s food. Compared to rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture is, on average, at least twice as productive per unit of land as it enables production intensification and crop diversification.  And even more food can be grown using the same amount of water through better conservation and reuse of irrigated agricultural drainage water. The latter requires extra care and management as drainage water will always be more saline than the irrigation water from which it is generated. 

Salt-tolerant crops along with new varieties make it increasingly possible to grow crops in saline water. Cyclic and blending are key management options where one field uses the irrigated drainage water from another and then a third uses that drainage water mixed with freshwater. Water and salt from super-saline drainage can be harvested using solar evaporation. 

4) Tapping fresh and brackish groundwater offshore and onshore

The volume of renewable groundwater may be as great as 5 million km³, though much of it tends to be brackish (salty). The seabed near shorelines has considerable volumes of water that is fresh to brackish. 

Offshore 

There are vast quantities (estimated 300,000-500,000 km³) of water in aquifers at shallow depths in continental shelves around the world. These aquifers are less than 100 km offshore, created millions of years ago when sea levels were much lower. 

Some 3,000 years ago, ancient Syrians placed an inverted funnel over a submarine spring offshore to provide about 1,500 litres per second to the city of Tyre. In the 1970s, exploratory drilling offshore of the US eastern seaboard found little oil or gas but did identify vast quantities of fresh to brackish water. Today new marine electromagnetic exploration methods provide detailed images of offshore freshwater. These images, combined with horizontal drilling technologies, can make production of economically significant volumes of freshwater available to be pumped to shore for at least 30 years. To date, no offshore freshwater resources have been developed. 

Inshore Continental Brackish Groundwater Resources 

Deep inland aquifers with brackish or salty water in volumes estimated to total millions of cubic kilometres. As shallow freshwater sources have diminished there has been an exponential growth in brackish water reverse-osmosis desalination plants for drinking water across the United States. In Israel and Spain desalinated water produced from brackish water is also used for production of high value crops. 

Reducing the high costs involved can be accomplished by using electromagnetic surveys to find relatively abundant fresh / brackish water sources and locating desalination facilities there. Improving the efficiency of such facilities will enable broader use of desalinated water in agriculture. Notably, deep underground aquifers can contain hot brackish water that can first be used for geothermal heating in greenhouses and aquaculture facilities and then desalinated, reducing overall costs. 

5) Micro-scale capture of rainwater that would otherwise evaporate

In dry environments over 90% of rainwater is typically lost to evaporation and surface runoff. Micro-catchment rainwater harvesting provides a unique opportunity to capture water for crop production and local needs. It is an ancient practice that employs a wide range of techniques from rooftop and cistern collection to farm and landscape systems including contour ridges, bunds, small runoff basins and strips.  

Even in very dry areas, collecting rainwater from three quarters of the land and using it on the remaining quarter can often provide plenty of water for livestock watering and shrub production.

6) Moving water physically to water-scarce areas in ships’ ballast holds, or towing icebergs

Ballast water 

Ships transport around 90 percent of the goods traded worldwide and discharge some 10 billion tons of ballast water (10 km³) every year. Under the International Convention on the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, all ships of 400 gross tonnage and above must have onboard treatment options to desalinate ballast water, remove invasive aquatic organisms and unhealthy chemical compounds, and is usable for other economic activities such as irrigation. This water could be sold to port cities in arid regions. 

One study estimated that oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships docking in the port city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates could transfer their ballast water to an onshore water treatment plant. Ports with onshore desalination facilities could also sell treated ballast water.

Icebergs

The more than 100,000 Arctic and Antarctic icebergs that melt into the ocean each year contain more freshwater than the world consumes. Iceberg-harvesting for freshwater has long been discussed but not seen as practical. However icebergs are towed to supply water to 700 residents of Qaanaaq, Greenland.  Iceberg towing is done in Newfoundland and Labrador to prevent collisions with offshore oil and gas platforms as well as for freshwater and other uses.

Long distance iceberg-towing has never been attempted due to significant loss of water volume and potential breakup of the ice while towing. However a financial feasibility analysis of towing icebergs to Cape Town, South Africa suggests it is an economically attractive option if the icebergs to be towed are big enough, i.e. 125 million tons. Wrapping icebergs in a net and then a mega-bag would likely prevent breakup and reduce melting, studies suggest. Other challenges, however, include turning an iceberg into potable water at its destination and the environmental impacts.

* * * * *

Additional comments

Vladimir Smakhtin, Director, UNU-INWEH (inweh.unu.edu)

“The stark fact is that conventional water provisioning approaches relying on snowfall, rainfall and river runoff are not enough to meet growing freshwater demand in water-scarce areas.  Water scarcity is expected to intensify in regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which has 6% of the global population but only 1% of the world’s freshwater resources. Climate change adds to this complexity, creating uncertainty and extended droughts, mostly in arid areas.”

“Water-scarce countries need a radical rethink of water resource planning and management that includes the creative exploitation of a growing set of viable but unconventional water resources for food production, livelihoods, ecosystems, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development.”

Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director, UNU-INWEH

“Water scarcity is ranked among the top 5 in terms of impacts on livelihoods and human wellbeing. By 2030, humanity’s annual global water requirements will exceed current sustainable supplies by 40%, according to one analysis, and almost half of all countries (87 out of 180) are projected to become water-scarce by 2050.”

“The time has come for humanity to tap into the vastly under-used unconventional water sources.  Our book stresses, however, that national water policies and action plans to tap these sources will first require local assessments of the environmental trade offs.  And a prerequisite for that in many places will be greater institutional and human capacity to evaluate potential unconventional water source uses, including comprehensive cost analyses.  Innovative financing mechanisms will also be needed.” 

Edeltraud Guenther, book co-Editor and Director, UNU-FLORES (flores.unu.edu)

“Increasing water scarcity is now recognized as a major cause of conflict, social unrest and migration and at the same time water is increasingly considered as an instrument for international cooperation to achieve sustainable development. When exploiting unconventional water resources, we often focus on the costs of actions only. But we have to calculate the costs of inaction as well, and we have to explore opportunities to transfer or shift costs to other stakeholders, consumers or the government. Tapping and assessing sustainably every available option in water-scarce areas is needed as pressure continues to build on limited water resources.”

Sasha Koo-Oshima, book co-Editor and Deputy Director, UN FAO (fao.org) 

“The increasing pressures on water resources requires a new era of water management, one that addresses barriers to efficient water management and ensures that water in all its forms is monitored and accounted for, including its value to food, ecosystems and health, and its role in supporting food security and basic needs of humanity and economic development.”

* * * * * 

Media coverage highlights:

The Hill, via Yahoo! News, United States (62,797,142), UN experts call upon nations to tap ‘unconventional water resources’

Deutsche Presse Agentur via DIE WELT, Germany (16,239,674)
Wasserknappheit: Experten wollen andere Quellen Nutzen (Water scarcity: experts want to use other sources) 

Agencia EFE, Spain, De la atmósfera a los icebergs: Las nuevas fuentes para buscar agua (From the atmosphere to icebergs: The new sources to search for water) 

Libération, France (6,275,441), Icebergs, nuages, eaux usées… les 6 solutions «non conventionnelles» de l’ONU pour pallier au manque d’eau potable (Icebergs, clouds, waste water… the 6 “unconventional” solutions of the UN to overcome the lack of drinking water)

Público, Portugal (3,029,407)
Chegou a hora de aproveitar as fontes de água menos convencionais. Porque cada gota conta (The time has come to take advantage of less conventional water sources. ‘Cause every drop counts)

Interesting Engineering, Canada (2,501,776)
United Nations: Harvesting new water sources can benefit ‘billions of people’

Down To Earth, India (1,046,015) Icebergs and fog: These unconventional sources can help beat global water scarcity 

MeteoWeb, Italy (1,074,200) Le proposte dell’Onu: “prendere acqua da nebbia e iceberg contro la crisi idrica” The UN proposes “take water from fog and icebergs against the water crisis” 

CCTV 央视网, Mainland China (22,026,184) 淡水缺了 “非常规水源”来补 (“Unconventional water sources” to make up fresh water shortages 

China News Network, Mainland China (5,659,775) 非常规水源”，潜在水供应或可助全球四分之一人口 (Potential water supply from ‘unconventional sources’ could help a quarter of the world’s population)

Coverage summary in full, click here

News release in full, click here

1st assessment of water security in Africa is based on 10 indicators

Despite global Sustainable Development Goals and commitments made in 2015, just 29 African nations have made some progress over the past three to five years, 25 have made none, according to the UN’s first-ever assessment of water security in Africa.

Published on the eve of World Water Day (March 22) by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water Environment and Health, the assessment employed 10 indicators to quantify water security in Africa’s 54 countries.  Water security is elaborated below.

UNU-INWEH authors Grace Oluwasanya, Duminda Perera, Manzoor Qadir and Vladimir Smakhtin, the Institute’s Director, say the assessment is limited by “very poor” data on water security-related issues such as access to drinking water or sanitation, but it nevertheless offers some “preliminary but obvious conclusions.”

“Data limitations do not change the main outcome of this assessment, which is strong and clear,” says lead author Grace Oluwasanya.  “Overall levels of water security in Africa are low. Not a single country let alone a subregion have at present achieved a state that can be seen as ‘model’ or even ‘effective’ stage of water security.”

Says co-author Duminda Perera: “This assessment for African countries aimed to create a quantitative starting point and a platform for subsequent discussions with national, regional and international agents; it is neither a prescription nor a guide.”

“As this quantitative tool develops, it will help generate targeted policy recommendations and inform decision-making and public-private investments toward achieving water security in Africa.”

Results in brief

Overall

Except for Egypt, all country scores are below 70 (on a scale of 100). Only 13 of 54 countries reached a modest level of water security in recent years, and over a third are deemed to have levels of water security below the threshold of 45.  

Together, the 19 countries below the threshold are home to half a billion people.

Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius and Tunisia are Africa’s top five most water-secure countries in Africa, yet with only modest absolute levels of water security achieved. 

Somalia, Chad and Niger appear to be the least water-secure countries in Africa. 

There has been little progress in national water security of most African states over the past three to five years, the report finds. The number of countries that made some progress (29) is close to the number of those that made none (25).

Indicator 1 

Access to drinking water ranged from 99% in Egypt to 37% in the Central African Republic, and between subregions from 92% in North Africa to 62% in Central Africa. Africa’s average basic drinking water service is 71%, “leaving behind some 29% of the total population” or more than 353 million people. 

Indicator 2 

Access to sanitation is broadly similar at the subregional level, but a few countries — Seychelles and most countries in North Africa countries — have reached or nearly reached 100%. The most challenged countries are Chad and Ethiopia (under 20% access), with 60% average access to even limited sanitation; thus at least 40% of the total population (483 million people) are left behind. 

Indicator 3

Access to hygiene facilities and practices (e.g. hand washing) are greatest in North Africa (67%), worst in West Africa (with Rwanda, Liberia lowest among eight countries with less than 10% access; Chad and the Central African Republic suffer the highest number of deaths from diarrhea).

Indicator 4

Per capita water availability is highest in Central Africa (with the Republic of Congo considered Africa’s most water-rich country — over 31,000 cubic meters per capita), while half of North African countries appear to be absolutely water scarce — less than 500 cubic meters of water per capita per annum. Due to their population growth, water availability has recently declined in West, Central and Southern Africa sub-region, and, on a country scale, in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Somalia, Mozambique, and Malawi.

Indicator 5

Water use efficiency appears to be lowest in North Africa (with Somalia lowest at the national level) highest in Central Africa (with Angola highest at a national level). In general, agriculture-dominant countries score lower.  An improvement seen in water use efficiency in Africa as a whole is primarily due to efforts in Tunisia, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Uganda, but poor data quality makes assessment difficult.

Indicator 6

Water infrastructure is deemed best in the Southern Africa sub-region, worst in East Africa. South Africa, with over 25% of all large dams in Africa, is outscored by Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, likely due to just one mega reservoir in those countries. Half of all countries score very low, reflecting the continent’s low level of water storage development. Only Ethiopia and Namibia have increased their storage over recent years, while Ivory Coast and Gabon have shown a decline, partly explained by rising populations with no or minimal increase in storage. Africa-average per capita storage capacity increased by only 3% over five recent years. 

Indicator 7

Wastewater treatment scores are highest in North African countries, lowest in East and West Africa, where 12 countries in each region treat less than 5% of wastewater. No country treats more than 75%, only Tunisia, Egypt and Lesotho treat over 50% and 67% of African countries treat less than 5%. The issue is poorly tracked in Africa overall. 

Indicator 8

Water governance appears to be most advanced in North and Southern Africa sub-regions, while Central Africa the least advanced. Nationally, Ghana reported reaching 86% of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) implementation, a significant improvement in just two years. Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Comoros are the lowest-performing countries, but again the assessment may be affected by the quality of national reporting. 

Indicator 9

Disaster risk has either remained unchanged (North and Southern Africa sub-regions) or increased. North Africa appears to be the least risky subregion, West Africa the riskiest. Egypt appears to be the least risky country, while Cape Verde is the most, followed by Djibouti and Comoros. Some 49 of 54 African countries have seen increased disaster risk scores over five recent years, explained by the impacts of changing climate worsening countries’ exposure to natural disasters and outpacing their ability to adapt. 

Indicator 10

Water dependency on neighboring nations and water resources variability:  Egypt stands out as Africa’s most water-dependent country; the Southern Africa sub-region has the most variable water resources. Naturally existing physiographic conditions may, to an extent, determine how much effort is needed for a country to achieve higher levels of water security. 

Call for global standards

To compare Africa’s situation globally, the authors call for global standards for water security measurement data and assessment. 

“Some critical components of water security simply cannot be assessed without introducing surrogates or proxies,” as used in the report in the case of drinking water and sanitation, for example. 

“With such poor data availability, progress toward water security is difficult to assess accurately.” 

For example, it is not possible to estimate the percentage of the African population that will have access to safely managed drinking water services or safely managed sanitation by 2030, a key UN Sustainable Development Goal globally agreed in 2015. 

“Data availability – or the lack of it – in itself may be an excellent indicator of water security,” says Dr. Oluwasanya. “Action needs to be taken immediately by national governments with support from international agents to radically improve data collection efforts for Africa.”

What is water security?

The UN’s concept of water security encompasses various needs and conditions — water for drinking, economic activity, ecosystems, hazard resilience, governance, transboundary cooperation, financing, and political stability.

See https://bit.ly/3hUzIh4

Hence water security is not just about how much natural water a country has but also how well the resource is managed.  It is defined as “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”

UNU-INWEH led the UN’s development and definition of water security and its related tools are now the most widely-accepted in the world.  This was a fundamental milestone, contributing to conceptualization of the SDGs and to on-going efforts to assess national water security in a quantifiable way.

The assessment tool is still a work in progress, Dr. Smakhtin notes, adding that UNU-INWEH’s goal is to have by 2025 — five years before the deadline for meeting the UN’s Agenda 2030 — “an improved, influential and nationally-owned tool” for assessing water security in all African countries. 

* * * * *

About UNU and UNU-INWEH 

The United Nations University (UNU), an academic arm of the UN, includes 13 institutes and programmes located in 12 countries around the world, and dealing with various issues of development.

UNU-INWEH was established as a public service agency and a subsidiary body of the UNU, in 1996. Its operations are secured through long-term host-country and core-funding agreements with the Government of Canada.

The Institute is located in Hamilton, Canada, and its facilities are supported by McMaster University. 

UNU-INWEH’s mission is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through critical analysis and synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; application of on-the-ground scalable science-based solutions to water issues; and global outreach. 

UNU-INWEH carries out its work in cooperation with the network of other research institutions, international organisations and individual scholars throughout the world. 

* * * * *

Media coverage highlights:

New York Times, United States (181,487,873): Climate change is making armed conflict worse. Here’s how. Click here

Reuters, United Kingdom, Africa’s water security perilous – but data reveals surprises, click here

Agencia EFE, Spain (via e.g. Infobae, Argentina, 49,192,499)
1) Some 500 million people live in Africa without water security, click here
2) Spanish: Unos 500 millones de personas viven en África sin seguridad del agua, click here
3) Russian, click here

The Hill, United States (15,808,772): 500 million people in Africa remain ‘water insecure’: UN report, click here (also distributed via MSN, United States (198,375,148) and Yahoo News, United States (61,261,480)

ORF Online, Austria (7,871,539), Jedes dritte Land ohne Wassersicherheit, click here

Deutsche Press Agentur, via e.g. Handelsblatt, Germany (6,134,345), UN: Mehr als ein Drittel der Länder in Afrika ohne Wassersicherheit, click here

Xinhua (新华网), Mainland China (4,312,277), UN report says Africa’s fragile water security a threat to sustainability agenda, click here

IndoAsian News Service, India (via ProKerala, 10,631,550)25 African nations ‘least’ water-secure, click here

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, Italy (4,066,652)Rischio acqua per oltre mezzo miliardo di persone in Africa, click here

France 24 (EN) France (2,853,455), Eye on Africa video program – Water security in Africa ‘unacceptably low’ (UN), click here

Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Germany (4,274,603), click here

Diario de Sevilla, Spain: Alrededor de 500 millones de personas viven en África sin seguridad del agua, click here

* * * * *

Mainstream media coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Of the 18 science news releases produced in 2021, 16 were environment-themed: food waste, e-waste, oceans, biodiversity, dams, and floods. And one announced 14 living male relatives of Leonardo da Vinci, advancing a project investigating his DNA. 

2 minute slideshow: Click here

These releases generated over 9,200 news articles, published at thousands of online news sites in scores of countries and dozens of languages, ~33 billion potential public impressions in all, according to the Meltwater news search engine, which estimates actual impressions via online news sites at 825 million. Millions of additional impressions were also generated via print newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and social media.

With thanks to the researchers and collaborators behind these stories, and to the many journalists who covered them, the following releases were the most noted last year.

• See also: “Popular Science Magazine: UN’s World Flood Mapping Tool is One of 2021’s 100 Greatest Innovations,” click here

Developed by UN University with Google and other partners, free online World Flood Mapping Tool will help plan urban and agricultural development, effective flood defences, disaster readiness, identify supply chain vulnerabilities

UN University-led experts have debuted a new tool that generates instant, accurate street-level resolution maps of floods worldwide since 1985.  The free online World Flood Mapping Tool will help all countries but especially those in the Global South, where flood risk maps are rare and often badly out of date.

Created by the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Hamilton, Canada, with support from Google, MapBox and other partners listed below, the tool lets users adjust variables to help locate gaps in flood defences and responses, and to plan future development of all kinds — for example, where to build or upgrade infrastructure, or develop agriculture. 

Simple to use, the tool, at https://floodmapping.inweh.unu.edu, requires only Internet access to obtain a flood map at 30-meter resolution — street by street level.  An upcoming version for more commercial uses, for example by insurance firms, will offer even more precise building-level resolution. 

The tool allows users to adjust variables to help locate gaps in flood defences and responses, and to plan future development of all kinds — for example, where to build or upgrade infrastructure, or develop agriculture. 

Says UNU-INWEH Director Vladimir Smakhtin: “Floods in the past decade have impacted the lives of more than half a billion people, mainly in low and middle income countries, and resulted in damages of nearly US $500 billion — roughly equal to the GDP of Singapore.  More recent floods worldwide have added to a fast growing toll of upended lives, damage and deaths.”

“An estimated 1.5 billion people — greater than the population of Europe — live at risk of exposure to intense flooding,” adds Dr. Smakhtin. “We need to prepare now for more intense and more frequent floods due to climate change and hope this tool will help developing nations in particular to see and mitigate the risks more clearly.”

Hamid Mehmood, a GIS and remote sensing specialist at UNU-INWEH who led the tool’s development, says that a UNU-INWEH survey showed a majority of flood forecasting centers in flood-prone countries lack the ability to run complex flood forecasting models.

He adds that floods like those this year in Europe that killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars in damages are now up to nine times more likely because of climate change. 

“As temperatures continue to rise the number of flood events will increase along with their severity,” he said.  “No place is immune. And yet remarkably few regions, even in wealthy countries, have useful, up-to-date flood maps because of the cost and difficulty of creating them.”

The World Flood Mapping Tool uses the Google Earth Engine combined with decades of Landsat data since 1985 — a vast catalog of geospatial data enabling planet-scale analysis capabilities. 

Layers of Landsat information for a selected region and specified timeframe identifies temporary and permanent water bodies while integrating site-specific elevation and land-use data. 

This produces a detailed map of flood inundation in recent decades, with available overlays of population, buildings and land use, which can be used for community planning, building zoning, insurance assessments and more.

To validate the technology, maps generated in less than a minute using the new tool were compared to documented flooding events in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Cambodia, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and Thailand (detailed below), with 82% accuracy achieved.

Wikipedia’s list of history’s deadliest floods (here) shows 211 events, 103 of which occurred from 1985, the first year covered by the new tool’s data.

The new tool will also reflect new floods soon after they occur to provide the most up-to-date maps to help assess overall flood impacts and plan for the future.

“Painting a detailed picture of the historical and potential flood risk areas will be invaluable for any urban and regional planning department,” says project collaborator Dr. Duminda Perera of UNU-INWEH.

The more detailed version of the tool in development for commercial use will provide resolution at a building-by-building level and incorporate building occupancy data.

And a free flood risk prediction tool for release next year will use artificial intelligence to generate current and future flood risk maps for three climate change scenarios at the city, district, and river basin levels.

Maximizing the effectiveness of investments in public infrastructure and reducing costs

Reliable up-to-date information about areas at risk of flooding is especially valuable in Africa and Southeast Asia, where urban areas are expected to grow 80% by 2030. The tool can show the flood-safe locations for housing and industry as well as improving overall urban planning.

The new World Flood Mapping Tool enables governments, funding agencies, and disaster management authorities to hone in on the highest potential risk locations of flooding in the future. Knowing exactly where flooding will occur can maximize the effectiveness of investments in public infrastructure and reduce costs.

It differs from previously available systems in a number of ways, including: 

• Improved resolution of inundation maps to 30 meter resolution, enabling analysis at a citywide level
• Focus on the Global South, where data and information gaps are prominent and annual losses due to floods are high
• Improved accuracy of inundation maps using data from multiple satellite sensors
• Improved accuracy and shorter development time of flood risk maps by using AI models

Dr. Mehmood adds that natural disaster-related insurance rates (where such insurance exists for homes and livelihoods impacted by flooding), flood-related human and economic losses, etc., can be estimated using the new tool. 

Potential supply chain vulnerabilities can be revealed. And during disasters, the tool can be used to help determine emergency relief routes.

The World Flood Mapping Tool could also potentially guide development of agriculture insurance support for persons living and farming at the subsistence level. Creating this safety net would have far-reaching implications for global development goals and promoting more secure economies and nations.

The flood inundation maps generated by the tool can be merged with other open datasets — population density or land use / land cover changes, for example — enabling a variety of ways to peer into the future. 

Adding other remote-sensing datasets will also improve the tool and offer new ways to employ it, all of which strengthens the ability of countries in the Global South and elsewhere to better plan for and respond to disasters.

* * * * * 

Partners

UN: 

UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Centre for South Asia Water Management, Sri Lanka

Government: 

Water Resources Research and Development Centre, Nepal

Directorate of Planning, Bangladesh

Private Sector: 

Google, in-kind support under their their Google Cloud for Researchers program

MapBox, in-kind support under their Education program 

Civil Society: 

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Thailand

Network of Disaster Management Practitioners, Pakistan

Academia: 

McMaster University, Canada

International Institute of Information Technology, India

* * * * *

Background

The following case studies were used to validate the accuracy of the new flood mapping tool:

Australia, Queensland, 11 – 18 February, 2008

Severe weather and intense rain hit the central coast of Queensland, where some rainfall stations received over 600 mm of rain in just six hours.  Insurance companies paid out roughly US $297 million, and road and drainage infrastructure repairs cost an estimated US $32 million.

Bangladesh, Dhaka, 2017

Three major flood events affected over 8 million people and caused loss of life, severe damage to housing, infrastructure, and affected crops and livestock throughout the country. The flood event studied resulted from heavy rains from late March to early April, with a focus on the country’s northeastern region, where over 850,000 households were impacted, and 220,000 acres of ready-to-harvest rice were damaged.

Cambodia, Phnom Penh, 2011

Flooding affected 18 of 24 provinces in 2011, damaged infrastructure and agriculture, jeopardized food security, and directly impacted over 1.2 million people.

Canada, Red River, April 2019

The Red River, which originates from Minnesota and North Dakota and flows northwards through Manitoba to Hudson Bay, flooded extensively in 1950 and 2011. The study area focused on the agricultural land and small communities between Winnipeg and the US border flooded in April 2019.

India, Bihar, April 2017

Floods caused by excess rainfall during the monsoon season in April 2017 affected 19 districts of North Bihar, caused 500 deaths and impacted around 17 million people

Mozambique / Malawi, March 2015

Near Mozambique’s border with Malawi, a flood in March 2015 occurred shortly after two tropical cyclones hit. Over 530,000 people were affected, about 30,000 displaced and 37 died.  Cascading post-disaster events included an outbreak of cholera that ravaged the already badly-affected communities

Sri Lanka, Colombo, May 2016

A tropical storm in May 2016 impacted 22 of 25 districts in the country and caused widespread flooding and landslide devastation. Over 300,000 people were affected, with 203 listed as dead or missing

Thailand, Pathumthani and Bangkok, 2011

In 2011 Thailand recorded record high rainfall during the monsoon season, immediately followed by four tropical storms in the north. River banks burst and releases of water from upstream dams exacerbated flooding that persisted for over 150 days.  The floods inundated over 30,000 square km and caused roughly US $900 million in losses (US $360 in insured losses).

About the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health: Inweh.unu.edu

UNU-INWEH is supported by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and hosted by McMaster University

Media coverage highlights

Daily Mail, United Kingdom, Earth’s floods mapped: UN develops an interactive tool that reveals street-level resolution maps of floods worldwide since 1985, click here

The Independent, United Kingdom, UN map tool shows every flood in the world since 1985, click here

Newswires

Europa Press, newswire, Spain: Ciencia.-Nueva herramienta de la ONU cartografía las inundaciones desde 1985, click here

United Press International, United States: Flood mapping New U.N. tool designed to enhance flood prediction, disaster planning, click here

Agencia EFE, via Diario Libre, United States: Una herramienta en línea de la ONU permitirá planificar inundaciones, click here

Europa Press, Spain (via Infobae, Argentina): Nueva herramienta de la ONU cartografía las inundaciones desde 1985, click here

IndoAsian News Service (IANS, via ProKerala, India): UN tool maps floods worldwide since 1985, click here

PPB newswire, Indonesia (via WowKeren, Indonesia): Kembangkan Alat Baru Prediksi Banjir, Bisa Diakses Gratis!, click here

Akhbar el-Yom- بوابة أخبار اليوم الإلكترونية, Egypt: تطوير أداة تفاعلية تحدد موقع الفيضانات بالشوارع منذ عام 1985, click here

Coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Media worldwide have often helped communicate UNU-INWEH’s scientific and policy-relevant discoveries and insights to the general public and important decision-making audiences worldwide.

With thanks to the hundreds of reporters and thousands of news editors involved, UNU-INWEH top news making highlights in its first 25 years are showcased in a colourful presentation.

Click here

Increasingly expensive to maintain, experts foresee a trend to decommissioning dams

By 2050, most people on Earth will live downstream of tens of thousands of large dams built in the 20th century, many of them already operating at or beyond their design life, according to a UN University analysis.

The report, “Ageing water infrastructure: An emerging global risk,” by UNU’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, says most of the 58,700 large dams worldwide were constructed between 1930 and 1970 with a design life of 50 to 100 years, adding that at 50 years a large concrete dam “would most probably begin to express signs of aging.”

Ageing signs include increasing cases of dam failures, progressively increasing costs of dam repair and maintenance, increasing reservoir sedimentation, and loss of a dam’s functionality and effectiveness, “strongly interconnected” manifestations, the paper says.

The report says dams that are well designed, constructed and maintained can “easily” reach 100 years of service but predicts an increase in “decommissioning” — a phenomenon gaining pace in the USA and Europe — as economic and practical limitations prevent ageing dams from being upgraded or if their original use is now obsolete.

Worldwide, the huge volume of water stored behind large dams is estimated at 7,000 to 8,300 cubic kilometres — enough to cover about 80% of Canada’s landmass under a meter of water.

The report provides an overview of dam ageing by world region and primary function — water supply, irrigation, flood control, hydropower, and recreation.

It also details the increasing risk of older dams, the rising maintenance expense, the declining functionality due to sedimentation, the benefits of restoring or redesigning natural environments, and the societal impacts — pro and con — that need to be weighed by policymakers deciding what to do. Notably, “the nature of these impacts varies significantly between low- and high-income countries.”

The analysis also includes dam decommissioning or ageing case studies from the USA, France, Canada, India, Japan, and Zambia & Zimbabwe.

Climate change will accelerate the dam ageing process

“This report aims to attract global attention to the creeping issue of ageing water storage infrastructure and stimulate international efforts to deal with this emerging, rising water risk,” says co-author Vladimir Smakhtin, Director of UNU-INWEH.

“Underlined is the fact that the rising frequency and severity of flooding and other extreme environmental events can overwhelm a dam’s design limits and accelerate a dam’s ageing process. Decisions about decommissioning, therefore, need to be taken in the context of a changing climate.”

Notes lead author and UNU-INWEH Senior Researcher Duminda Perera: “This problem of ageing large dams today confronts a relatively small number of countries — 93% of all the world’s large dams are located in just 25 nations.”

“Large dam construction surged in the mid-20th century and peaked in the 1960s – 70s,” he says, “especially in Asia, Europe and North America, while in Africa the peak occurred in the 1980s. The number of newly-constructed large dams after that continuously and progressively declined.”

According to the report, the world is unlikely to witness another large dam-building revolution as in the mid-20th century, but dams constructed then will inevitably be showing their age.

China has 23,841 large dams (40% of the world’s total). And 32,716 large dams (55% of the world’s total) are found in just four Asian countries: China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea — a majority of which will reach the 50-year threshold relatively soon. The same is true of many large dams in Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe.

The pace of large dam construction has dropped dramatically in the last four decades and continues to decline in part because “the best locations for such dams globally have been progressively diminishing as nearly 50% of global river volume is already fragmented or regulated by dams,” the report says.

As well, there are strong concerns regarding the environmental and social impacts of dams, and large dams in particular, as well as emerging ideas and practices on the alternative types of water storage, nature-based solutions, and types of energy production beyond hydropower.

Drivers of dam decommissioning

Public safety, escalating maintenance costs, reservoir sedimentation, and restoration of a natural river ecosystem are among the reasons driving dam decommissioning.

However, most dams removed to date have been small; decommissioning large dams (defined by ICOLD as 15 or more metres from lowest foundation to crest, or 5 to 15 metres impounding more than 3 million cubic metres) is “still in its infancy, with only a few known cases in the last decade.”

“A few case studies of ageing and decommissioned large dams illustrate the complexity and length of the process that is often necessary to orchestrate the dam removal safely,” adds co-author and UNU-INWEH Adjunct Professor R. Allen Curry, based at the University of New Brunswick.

“Even removing a small dam requires years (often decades) of continuous expert and public involvement, and lengthy regulatory reviews. With the mass ageing of dams well underway, it is important to develop a framework of protocols that will guide and accelerate the dam removal process.”

Decommissioning will also have various positive and negative economic, social, and ecological impacts to be considered in a local and regional social, economic, and geographic context “critical to protect the broader, sustainable development objectives for a region,” the report says.

“Overall, dam decommissioning should be seen as equally important as dam building in the overall planning process on water storage infrastructure developments.”

“Ultimately, value judgments will determine the fate of many of these large water storage structures. It is not an easy process, and thus distilling lessons from and sharing dam decommissioning experiences should be a common global goal. Lack of such knowledge and lack of its reflection in relevant regional/national policies/practices may progressively and adversely affect the ability to manage water storage infrastructure properly as it is ageing.”

###

In addition to the three UNU-INWEH experts, the report was co-authored by Spencer Williams, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. and Taylor North of McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

The report is available post-embargo at http://bit.ly/UNU-dams

By the numbers

General

58,700: large dams registered in the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) database, a large dam is defined as 15+ metres in height, measured from lowest foundation to crest, or 5 to 15 metres high impounding more than 3 million cubic metres (0.003 km3). Within the 58,700 large dam total, roughly one in eight has a 100 million cubic metre (0.1 km3) capacity

7,000 to 8,300 km3: volume of water stored behind large dams worldwide — about one-sixth of all river discharge worldwide each year — enough to cover roughly 80% of Canada’s landmass under a meter of water

50 to 100 years: design life of dams constructed between 1930 and 1970 (when most existing large dams were built). Average life expectancy: 50 years

~16,000: large dams 50 to 100 years old in North America and Asia
~2,300: large dams 100+ years old in North America and Asia

USA / Canada

56: average age of 90,580 US dams (all sizes)

85%+: US dams in 2020 operating at or beyond their life expectancy

75%: US dam failures that occurred after 50 years of age

US$ 64 billion: estimated cost to refurbish US dams

1,275: dams removed in 21 US states in the last 30 years; 80 removed in 2017 alone

50%+: large dams in Canada over 50 years old

Asia / Pacific

China

56%: proportion of the world’s large dams located in China and the US (the top 25 countries account for more than ~93%)

23,841: large dams in China (the most of any country, and 40% of the world’s total
60%: proportion of the world’s large dams in Asia
55%: proportion of the world’s large dams in just four countries — China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea — the majority of which will soon reach 50 years of age

India

1,115+: large dams in India that will be roughly 50 years old in 2025
4,250+: large dams in India that will be 50+ years old in 2050
64: large dams in India that will be 150+ years old in 2050
3.5 million: the approximate number of people at risk if India’s Mullaperiyar dam, built 100+ years ago, were to fail. The dam, in a seismically active area, shows significant structural flaws and its management is a contentious issue between Kerala and Tamil Nadu States

Japan

100+ years: average age of large dams in Japan

Australia

650: large dams in Australia, half of them 50+ years old; 50+ have been in operation for 100+ years. Portion of Australia’s clean energy generated from hydropower: 65%

UK / Europe

100+ years: average age of large dams in the UK

~10%: large dams in Europe 100+ years old

Africa

2,000: large dams in Africa (¼ of them in South Africa), the fewest of any continent; mostly used for irrigation

UNU-INWEH (inweh.unu.edu) is supported by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, and hosted by McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

UNU-INWEH’s Water Learning Centre (http://bit.ly/wlc-unu-inweh) offers free courses to university students and practicing water professionals looking to strengthen their capacity in several focused and multidisciplinary learning areas.

Coverage highlights

Agence France Presse, France
World’s aging big dams pose ’emerging risk’: UN
https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/world-s-aging-big-dams-pose-emerging-risk-un-1.5278178
French version: La vétusté des barrages fluviaux est un risque émergent, estime l’ONU
https://actu.orange.fr/societe/environnement/la-vetuste-des-barrages-fluviaux-est-un-risque-emergent-estime-l-onu-CNT000001wAWEn.html

Agencia EFE, Spain
El envejecimiento de miles de grandes embalses es un creciente problema mundial
https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2021/01/22/el-envejecimiento-de-miles-de-grandes-embalses-es-un-creciente-problema-mundial/

Europa Press, Spain
La mayor parte de la Humanidad vivirá amenazada por viejas presas para 2050
https://www.europapress.es/ciencia/habitat/noticia-mayor-parte-humanidad-vivira-amenazada-viejas-presas-2050-20210122180412.html

Press Trust of India
Ageing dams in India, US, other nations pose growing threat: UN report
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ageing-dams-in-india-us-other-nations-pose-growing-threat-un-report/articleshow/80433078.cms

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, Italy
Le dighe invecchiano, allarme dell’Onu sulla manutenzione
https://www.agi.it/estero/news/2021-01-24/clima-dighe-invecchiano-e-urge-manutenzione-allarme-onu-11137456

SINC (Spanish Scientific News Agency), Spain
Las presas envejecidas se convierten en una amenaza creciente
https://www.virtualpro.co/noticias/las-presas-envejecidas-se-convierten-en-una-amenaza-creciente

Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), India
Ageing, unsafe dams growing threat in India too: UN report
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/environment/ageing-unsafe-dams-growing-threat-in-india-too-un-report

News sites

Guardian, UK
UN warns most will live downstream of ageing large dams by 2050
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/22/un-warns-most-will-live-downstream-ageing-large-dams-2050

Daily Mail, UK
Most of the world’s 58,000 biggest dams are crumbling, report warns
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9176301/Most-worlds-58-000-biggest-dams-crumbling-report-warns.html

China Global Television Network (CGTN)
Aging dams pose grave threat as climate change tests their strength
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-22/Aging-dams-pose-grave-threat-as-climate-change-tests-their-strength-Xb7uC5mNKU/index.html

Kompas, Indonesia
Puluhan Ribu Bendungan Besar Dunia Mulai Menua, Apa Dampaknya?
https://www.kompas.com/tren/read/2021/01/24/123000265/puluhan-ribu-bendungan-besar-dunia-mulai-menua-apa-dampaknya-

ReliefWeb (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), United States
Ageing Water Storage Infrastructure: An Emerging Global Risk
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/ageing-water-storage-infrastructure-emerging-global-risk

Clarín, Argentina
Próximo peligro para la humanidad: los 60.000 viejos embalses que hay en el mundo
https://www.clarin.com/viste/proximo-peligro-humanidad-60-000-viejos-embalses-mundo_0_w2tvUidTf.html

Eco-Business, Singapore
Retiring ageing hydropower dams could protect people and budgets. But aren’t they needed in the energy transition?
https://www.eco-business.com/news/retiring-ageing-hydropower-dams-could-protect-people-and-budgets-but-arent-they-needed-in-the-energy-transition/

Radio France International
Online: Are Africa’s Ageing Dams Doomed?
https://www.modernghana.com/news/1057391/are-africas-ageing-dams-doomed.html 
Audio: https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20210125-are-africa-s-ageing-dams-doomed-united-nations-water-environment-health-safety-report

News release in full, click here

Coverage summary, click here