The price of water scarcity on a global scale is high, according to a report from the Global Commission on the Economy of Water (GCEW).
According to the report published this Wednesday, by 2050 the water crisis could cause the GDP of the richest countries to decrease by 8% on average, while for the poorest countries this number could reach 15%.
According to the report from GCEW, an international initiative to improve water management, nearly 3 billion people and more than half of the world’s food production are in areas facing drought or worsening water scarcity.
Areas with high population density – including southern Europe, northeast China and northwest India – are particularly vulnerable, the agency said in a statement. Bloomberg.
The causes
In addition to deforestation and climate change, the report’s authors attribute the worsening of the water crisis to a lesser-known problem: government subsidies that increase excessive water use.
There is talk of frequent mismanagement of water due to inadequate policies. Subsidies for crops that require water, such as cotton and sugar cane, for example, have encouraged their cultivation in South Asia and the Middle East, both the driest regions in the world.
“Today’s massive subsidies that contribute to excessive water use in many sectors and environmental degradation must be directed toward water conservation solutions, protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems, and ensuring access to clean water for vulnerable communities” , say researchers.