World faces unprecedented water crisis because of leaders' inertia - UN report

The world faces a looming water crisis of unprecedented levels because of the failure of world leaders to take action now as population growth, pollution and expected climate change are rapidly depleting water resources, according to a United Nations report launched today.

The water crisis "is set to worsen despite continuing debate over the very existence of such a crisis," the report says, with growing per capita scarcity in many parts of the developing world.

"Of all the social and natural crises we humans face, the water crisis is the one that lies at the heart of our survival and that of our planet Earth," says Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which together with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs is sponsoring the International Year of Freshwater.

The "World Water Development Report - Water for People, Water for Life" - was published on the eve of the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, from 16 to 23 March. Every UN agency and commission dealing with water worked jointly to compile it as part of a 23-member UN World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), whose secretariat is hosted by UNESCO.

"No region will be spared from the impact of this crisis which touches every facet of life, from the health of children to the ability of nations to secure food for their citizens," Mr. Matsuura says. "Water supplies are falling while the demand is dramatically growing at an unsustainable rate. Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water world-wide per person is expected to drop by a third."

Despite widely available evidence of the crisis, political commitment to reverse these trends has been lacking, the report says. A string of international conferences over the past 25 years has focused on the great variety of water issues, including ways to provide the basic water supply and sanitation services required in the years to come. Several targets have been set to improve water management but "hardly any have been met," it says.

"Attitude and behaviour problems lie at the heart of the crisis, inertia at leadership level, and a world population not fully aware of the scale of the problem means we fail to take the needed timely corrective actions."