A UN report warns of a global crisis due to water scarcity

New York (ST): In a report published last night, the United Nations warned that excessive water consumption and climate change are making water shortages a reality around the world, leading to an imminent risk of a global crisis.

The United Nations Water Conference and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) stated in a joint report issued in New York and reported by France Press Agency that about two billion people currently lack safe drinking water, while 3.6 billion people lack reliable sanitation services.

In the introduction to the report, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world is “walking blindly on a dangerous path,” noting that the overuse of groundwater, the planet’s surface temperature and pollution together lead to “the depletion of humanity’s lifeline represented by water.”

The report stated that water use has increased around the world by about 1 percent annually over the past forty years, indicating that about 10 percent of the world’s population lives in countries that suffer from a critical level of water stress, where the rate of available water is not commensurate with the needs for its use, which greatly limits from the availability of water to meet people’s needs.

K.Q.