ED’s corner: Happy (belated) World Water Day 2024!

This year’s report, as should be expected from the title, is focused on highlighting how water security through sustainable water management leads to prosperity which, if equitably shared, can lead to peace.    I suspect we have all heard the saying to the effect of “the next wars will be over water”.   The report’s authors tackle that saying head on by consciously highlighting where water cooperation, especially in the transboundary arena has helped promote interjurisdictional dialogue and cooperation.   In closing, the report goes on to state that water is not “yet … a trigger of conflict” (p.149) while noting and deploring reports of attacks on water infrastructure (e.g. Kakhovka Dam) as against international law.   Personally, I don’t find the “yet” reassuring…

The report is broken into chapters on given topics (listed below).   The chapters are not long and are targeted at a general audience so not particularly technical.   It makes it easy to dive in and quickly read a topic of particular interest.

1: Introduction

2: Agriculture and rural development

3: Human settlements: WASH, disaster risk reduction and migration

4: Industry

5: Energy

6: Environment

8: Regional perspectives

9: Governance

10: Science, technology and information

11: Education and capacity development

12: Financing water security and mitigating investment risks

13: Conclusions

• Roughly 50% of the world’s population (in other words, around 4 billion people) experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year (p.1).
• Water deficits can be linked to 10% of the increase in global migration (p.3).
• “With increasing food demands, decreasing land and water availability alongside issues of environmental degradation, much of the next generation of [agriculture water] investments will need to focus on intensifying agricultural production in a sustainable manner through improved management and governance.” (p.37)
• “Disasters caused by natural hazards are estimated to cause an average of over US$300 billion in direct asset losses every year; this estimate increases to US$520 billion when considering the economic loss and well-being of affected people (Hallegatte et al., 2017).” (p.45)
• “… “dry shocks” (i.e. water shortages) were found to cost two to four times more than “wet shocks” (i.e. floods) in terms of lost income.” (p.52)
• “Flood risks could exceed 6% of GDP in 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Viet Nam …” (p.103)
• “In the chemical and food and beverage processing industries (in over 100 countries), a 50% increase in renewable energy could result in 60% reduction in water consumption and an even bigger impact on emissions (Bryan et al., 2021).” (p.54)
• Managing and manipulating (e.g. treating, moving) water is thought to use approximately “4% of equivalent global electricity demand” (p.67). Desalination alone is thought to account for ~1% of the global energy demand (p.68).
• “[T]he most water-efficient sources [of electricity production] are wind and solar-photovoltaic (PV) WWAP, 2014).” (p.63)
• “The economic use value of water from freshwater ecosystems in 2021 was estimated at approximately US$58 trillion, equivalent to 60% of global gross domestic product (GDP) (WWF, 2023).” (p.74)