The Geneva Environment Network hosted an online and in real life event this week, responding to a recent United Nations report on water use and falling supplies.
Published by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means I the Post-Crisis Era looks at the reality of current and near-future conditions. Highlighting decades of over-use and extraction, it presented a reality in which groundwater reserves were depleted, natural flows disrupted, and overall water quality had been degraded.
Perhaps most alarming, the report made the case for water systems having been pushed far beyond the realistic possibility of recovery without extreme intervention. The phenomena, described as ‘water bankruptcy’, poses an existential threat to civilisation which many argue is well beyond climate change and global warming.
In order to restore vital systems and replenish supplies, the social, economic and environmental costs will be unprecedented. However, the analysis also presents the urgent need to stabilise water resources as an opportunity. Climate, biodiversity, land use, food and health all stand to benefit from greater cooperation over this essential resource.
Held yesterday, Thursday 26th March 2026, the General Environment Network’s Global Water Bankruptcy – Stakeholder Briefing and Dialogue was hosted by Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of UNU-INWEH. Leading water experts and diplomats all presented evidence and findings relating to the rapidly escalating crisis. Among other things, the discussion attempted to show how solutions which are considered optimal from a technical point of view often failed in the real world because they did not acknowledge actual incentives, competing interests and institutional constraints.
You can rewatch all this in the video above.
Image: Francesco Ungaro / Unsplash
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