A new report released by the United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health points to how many regions of the world are living beyond their hydrological means and that many water systems are already bankrupt.

The report also finds that the world is very far from meeting Goal Six of the Sustainable Development Goals, which seeks to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

The report is titled Global Water Bankruptcy, living beyond our hydrological means in the post-crisis era, with a key argument that available water resources and associated ecosystems have significantly reduced, with some impacts effectively irreversible on human time scales.

The report finds that the planet has entered the global water bankruptcy era with many water systems damaged beyond prospects of full recovery.

Nearly three-quarters of the world’s population lives in countries classified as water-insecure; it finds that wetlands have been liquidated on a continental scale, that draughts are increasing due to human activity with almost two billion people living under drought conditions in 2022-2023 and that existing governance are no longer fit for purpose.

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