The government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) published a detailed discussion paper calling for a decisive and coordinated international response to the global water scarcity.
Entitled "Ripple Effect Water Supply - The hidden threat to global security and prosperity", the paper examines global water scarcity and its main causes and highlighted various implications of water scarcity already evident in parts of the world.
The discussion was published by the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the sidelines of the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Announcing the publication of the report, the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said, "concerned by the growing problem of water scarcity and the severe risks that it poses to the world, the United Arab Emirates has published a discussion paper that aims to contribute to the development of a coordinated international response to this issue, and the forging of new models for effective cooperation to address this multifaceted threat to global security and prosperity."
The discussion paper highlights that 4 billion people currently live under water-scarce conditions at least one month per year, and added that by 2025 over 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity.
The paper examines that by 2050 the global fresh water deficit is project to be over 3,200 cubic-kilometers per year with severe water scarcity "likely to be found mostly in arid and semi-arid regions" including the western United States, northern China and the Middle East.
According to the UAE's discussion paper, northern latitudes affect approximately 6.2 billion people.
The paper specified various human and environmental factors that were causing the scarcity.
Human drivers for the water scarcity include waste, pollution and overuse of water along with population growth.
Environmental drivers include drought, natural and anthropogenic climate change, including shifts in temperatures due to emission of greenhouse gases.
The paper noted that climate change threatened to unleash a number of supply-side and demand-side disruptions including wet and dry seasonality.
Demographic change, including the rapid growth of global middle-class and the acceleration pace of urbanization tended to increase per capita resource demands.
The challenge of unmitigated water scarcity at the scale of a fully realized risk threatened to become a tier-one threat to human life and prosperity.
The World Bank in 2021 estimated that 10 percent of the recent increase in migration are due to water deficits, and the UN estimates water stress could displace 700 million people by 2030.
Additionally, the geopolitical implications of water scarcity and water-related mitigation are also potentially grave.
The Global Commission on the Economics of Water in 2023 reported over 202 water-related conflicts between 2020 and 2022.
In another UN survey, more than 75 percent of developing countries reported insufficient funding for their national water, sanitation and hygiene plans.
Moreover, global water scarcity does not attract the same levels of public attention and financial investment as other comparable risks.
The paper also highlights significant deficit in the amount of financial capital being deployed to address water scarcity issues.
Water also remains an underinvested sector, and neither public and international donors, nor private capital markets have "proven ready to allocate sufficient resources to address water-related challenges."
Potential solutions to water scarcity mainly can be divided into three main categories;
- Supply-side approaches which have the potential to increase the total amount of water that is available to a particular community
- Demand-side approaches, which have the potential to reduce the total amount of water that is used by a particular community
- Government-based approaches, which have the potential to optimize how individual communities price, allocate and use the limited amount of water that is available to them
Supply-side approaches mainly rely on built-infrastructure investments to increase water storage capacity, and technologies that exploit unconventional sources of water.
Demand-side approaches include technology-based approaches including adoption of drip or other precision irrigation methods in agriculture, dry cooling systems in electricity generation plants, and water-efficient appliances in households.
This also includes reduction of water use such conversion of deficit irrigation methods in agriculture, reduction of household water use and cutting back on landscape watering in urban and suburban areas.
The paper finds that the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework which distinguishes between economic, environmental and social objects as a well-established starting point for a systematic evaluation and comparison to identify the solutions that are best suited for the conditions in a given place.
The UAE intends to launch a multifaceted initiative to enhance its contribution and demonstrate its resolve to address the threat of water scarcity.
As a result, the UAE will launch a non-profit initiative dedicated to accelerating the development, testing, and deployment of transformative solutions to address the challenge of water scarcity.
UAE will also leverage the combined capabilities of its academic institutions, government agencies and water-related industries to increase research and development, accelerate innovation and facilitate the rapid deployment of promising new technologies that have the potential to address water scarcity in sustainable and affordable ways.
The country will also seek to expand educational opportunities in areas relevant to water scarcity and water-related innovation to support human capital development.
UAE also pledges to introduce domestic policy measures to improve its own water sustainability performance.
UAE extended an open invitation to "like-minded governments", organizations and individuals around the world to become a part of the multifaceted effort launched by the country in addressing and resolving the issue of water scarcity.
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