Data governance provides evidence-based decision-making that improves the quality of service delivery
The lack of awareness and understanding of the importance of water resources, has come at an immense cost, with the world now facing a pervasive and worsening crisis that is undermining human and planetary health.
A new report by the WWF describes how billions of people still lack access to safe water and sanitation, food insecurity is rising, water risks to agriculture and industry are escalating and freshwater species and ecosystems are being lost at alarming rates.
Growing populations, economies and urbanisation are putting further strain on water supplies and freshwater ecosystems, as climate change “drastically disrupts the world’s hydrological system”.
The report said that tackling water blindness is crucial to inform decision-making and sustainable water governance, “through understanding and valuing all the benefits that healthy freshwater ecosystems bring”. This includes their role in food and water security, adaptation to a changing climate, biodiversity and cultural and spiritual significance to communities.
But the infinite value that societies, economies and ecosystems obtain from rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers is “chronically overlooked”. More than one-third of the world’s food production directly depends on rivers through their crucial role in sustaining freshwater fisheries, irrigated cropland, flood-recession agriculture and highly fertile and nutrient-rich deltas.
Achieving development objectives around health, gender equality and conflict prevention requires better water management, stewardship and protection. Water is also pivotal to the industrial production of goods, their transportation through inland waterways, and all forms of energy production.
Intact freshwater ecosystems provide huge benefits to people and nature, offering critical regulatory ecosystem functions and sustaining biodiversity, with their value extending to marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
And water is the primary channel through which societies, economies and ecosystems experience the profound effects of the climate crisis, including through severe droughts, catastrophic floods and water pollution.
“The immense value of freshwater ecosystems — including the ability of wetlands to filter pollution, floodplains to absorb the worst of flood events and aquifers and springs to provide sufficient, good quality water to enhance resilience to droughts — often goes unnoticed.”
Pricing benefits
The WWF report estimates the total quantifiable economic use value of water in 2021 at about $58 trillion, which is equivalent to 60% of global GDP in 2021. But the world’s freshwater ecosystems are in a “downward spiral, posing an ever growing risk to these values”.
The direct economic benefits of water, such as water for households, agriculture and industry, amount to $7.5 trillion annually. This pales in comparison to the unseen benefits, such as water purification, carbon storage and defence against extreme floods and droughts, which are seven times higher at $50 trillion annually.
Governments and businesses have invariably focused on the direct uses of water, “treating rivers as just water pipes, wetlands as ‘wastelands’ and lakes and aquifers as water reserves to be pumped dry and polluted without consequence”.
“The price of water, particularly for large users, has invariably been set too low — and has not factored in the value or health of freshwater ecosystems,” the report said.
It described how unsustainable withdrawals from surface and groundwater; human alterations to river flows; agricultural run-off; industrial effluent and sewage as well as climate change’s impact on rainfall patterns and glacier melt “are threatening the health of our freshwater ecosystems”.
Two-thirds of the world’s large rivers are no longer free-flowing and one third of wetlands
have been lost since 1970. Consequently, the report said, half of the world’s population is exposed to water scarcity at least once a month, while 55 million people are affected by droughts annually.
By 2050, GDP may decline by up to 6% in some areas “if societies do not change the way they manage water and protect freshwater ecosystems”.
The degradation of freshwater ecosystems is worsened by climate change and inappropriate land use and management and “is leading to intensifying water stress, including catastrophic water shortages and intense flooding”, the report said.
Water doesn’t come from a tap
The world urgently needs to accelerate action on water, increasing the current rate of progress sixfold to achieve water for all by 2030 (SDG6). This requires increased investment in sustainable water infrastructure.
But “outdated 20th-century thinking” cannot solve the water crisis because water does not come from a tap; it comes from nature.
“Relying solely on more built infrastructure cannot decouple us from our dependence on nature nor build long-term resilience,” the report said. “We need to start treating rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers as the dynamic, life-providing systems they are, especially in the era of climate uncertainty.”
In response to rising freshwater threats, political momentum is slowly building at national, regional and international levels, with water and rivers mentioned for the first time in a UN Climate Change Conference (COP) cover text in Egypt in 2022.
This year, the UN held its first water conference in 50 years and launched the Freshwater Challenge, a country-led initiative that aims to restore 300 000 km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands globally by 2030 and protect intact freshwater ecosystems. The Global Biodiversity Framework calls for the protection of 30% of freshwater ecosystems and the restoration of 30% of degraded rivers and wetlands by 2030.
But although there is growing momentum and evidence of progress, “societies are still damming, draining and destroying freshwater ecosystems at alarming rates”.
“Incorporating freshwater ecosystems into global agreements is critical but only if governments start to set national targets and implement steps to achieve them,” the report said. “Similarly, action from corporates and financial institutions still falls short of what is required to reduce the risks to their operations and assets — and prevent ongoing, large-scale freshwater degradation.”
A fundamental shift is needed in the way society treats its invaluable freshwater resources.
“The convergence of environmental urgency, political momentum, corporate initiative and public awareness presents an unprecedented opportunity to mobilise around freshwater and drive more far-reaching action.”