UN: Global Water Crisis Fueling More Conflict

Facts

• In its 2024 World Water Development Report released Friday, the UN said 2.2B people across the globe have zero access to clean drinking water, while 3.5B don't have access to safe sanitation.¹
• While droughts impacted over 1.4B people between 2002 and 2021, about half of the global population experienced water scarcity for at least part of the year, and a quarter faced 'extremely high' levels of water stress in 2022.²
• Furthermore, official development assistance commitments to the water sector dropped by 15% from 2015 to 2021, from $9.6B to $8.1B. The UN estimates that, between 2016 and 2030, $1.7T per year is needed to achieve sustainable development goals globally.³
• The UN's research also found that at least 10% of global migration is due to water stress, adding it would cost $114B per year to provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to the 140 low- and middle-income nations.¹
• The report finds that while 40% of the world lives in transboundary river and lake basins, only 20% have border agreements to share water fairly. In Africa, where two-thirds of fresh water sources are transboundary, 19 out of the 22 states analyzed face water scarcity.²
• These issues, according to the UN, pose significant risks for social and geopolitical stability as well as threaten fundamental rights, for example by considerably undermining the position of girls and women.⁴

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²UN, ³DW and ⁴Times of Oman.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Los Angeles Times. Water wars have occurred throughout the world for millennia, but the increasing dangers posed by climate change are making things worse. Water as a cause and weapon of war has occurred recently in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and even the US. As opposing factions struggle over an increasingly narrowing water supply, these groups resort to bombing water sources, killing environmental activists, or launching lawsuits over who gets to control this life necessity.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Taylor & Francis Online. The term 'water war' is based on false assumptions and used for fear-mongering. Even though no two countries have ever gone to war over water, those propagating this falsehood choose to conflate water as a tool in war, and even the cause of it. While transboundary rivers must be managed, water is still abundant and cheap, as it always has been, and governments are continuing to enhance their waste management systems to ensure this renewable source of life remains plentiful.

Predictions