ISLAMABAD: The world is experiencing the dawn of an “era of water bankruptcy”, according to a United Nations report.

The report, released on Tuesday, invited leaders to facilitate “honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality” amid chronic depletion of groundwater, over-allocation of water, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution — all compounded by global warming.

Titled “Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era”, the report was produced by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

It noted that in many regions, water systems were already in a “post-crisis state of failure”.

Leaders urged to wake up to ‘new reality’ as the world is living beyond its ‘hydrological means’

Over decades, societies have extracted more water than climate and hydrology can provide, drawing down not only the annual ‘income’ of renewable flows but also the ‘savings’ stored in aquifers, glaciers, soils, wetlands, and river ecosystems.

At the same time, pollution, salination, and other forms of degradation have reduced the fraction of water that is safely usable, the latest UN report observed.

In the Middle East and North Africa, high water stress, climate vulnerability, low agricultural productivity, energy-intensive desalination, and sand and dust storms intersect with complex political economies.

Decline in water table

In parts of South Asia, groundwater-dependent agriculture and urbanisation have produced chronic declines in water tables and subsidence; and in the American southwest, the Colorado River and its reservoirs have become symbols of “over-promised water”.

“The consequences of water bankruptcy are now visible on every continent: rivers no longer reach the sea; lakes, wetlands, and glaciers have shrunk or disappeared; aquifers pumped down until land subsides and salt intrudes; forests and peatlands are drying and burning; deserts and dust storms are expanding, and cities are repeatedly brought to the brink of ‘day zero’,” the UN study said.

Drawing on global datasets and recent scientific evidence, the report presented a stark statistical overview of trends, the overwhelming majority of which are caused by humans.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2026