Almost five decades after the creation of the United Nations Water Action Plan, Some 2.22 billion people lack access to drinking water supply safe despite being the sixth sustainable development goal (SDG) and more than 70% of the world's population currently lives in places with water insecurity.
Within the framework of World Water Daywhose motto this year is “Water for peace“, data from world Bankthe World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF They also point out that 771 million people cannot access even basic services of safe drinking water and some 3.5 billion people lack safe sanitation services.
Water stress, accelerated by the impacts of climate change – which are increasingly frequent and intense – It is affecting different areas of the planet and could create conflicts between countries, including European countries.as has been warned by the European Environment Agency (EEA)in a recent report in which it states that Europe is the continent that is experiencing the most rapid warming.
The report European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) The EEA also warns that climate impacts threaten energy and food security, people's health, ecosystems, infrastructure and financial stability and that many of these risks have already reached critical levels, such as food shortages. water that can unleash “conflicts” in the territory of the European Union (EU).
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, pointed out this Thursday that “there can be no peace without universal access to water”.
Because More than 3 billion people depend on water that crosses common bordersand there are 468 transboundary aquifer systems, however, only 24 countries have signed cooperation agreements for the water resources they share, according to United Nations.
On the border between Spain and Portugal, from Portuguese soil there are voices calling for an increase in the flow of the Tagus River from the Spanish sidebecause, apart from the impacts of global warming, the retention of the volume of water is affecting certain activities, especially tourism, downstream after crossing the common border.
Furthermore, the launch in Ethiopia of the first turbine of eleven contemplated for the generation of energy after the construction of the Great Renaissance Dam has raised protests from Egypt and Sudan who fear that it will affect the flow of the Nile River that passes through their territories on its long journey.
The agronomist and technical engineer of Ecologists in Action (EA), Santiago Martin Barajasexplained to EFE that the impact of climate change is producing “irreparable damage,” whose environmental consequences will make human presence increasingly “more difficult on millions of hectares on the planet.”
According to the EA technician, it is necessary to take into account the social circumstances of each country, because in places where water and crops are directly dependent, if these decline – as is already happening currently – famines and migrations, so the displacement of “climate refugees” – who are already moving – will increase.
The lack of rainfall and the lack of water supply affects areas of South and Central America, Africa and Asiawith hundreds of thousands of climate refugees who are moving towards the global north, that is, to Europe and North America, where it is creating social and political rejection.
Because the lack of rainfall and water caused a lack of food in the Sahel and affected more than 26.5 million people between March and May 2022, according to data from the United Nations 2023 SDG report.
The city of Bangalore, the “Silicon valley” of India, is currently supplied by distribution in tanker trucksa situation that more than 80,000 people already experience in southern Spain, where water cuts last for several hours a day.
But water scarcity also affects cities, where 70% of the world's population will live in 2050, according to United Nations estimates, and where the lack of the resource affected some 930 million people in 2016, a figure that will rise to 1,700. and 2,400 within 25 years.
The water situation has researchers in a quandary. incessant search for solutions for saving and providing the resourcesolutions that involve the reuse and desalination of seawater, according to experts, as well as awareness that the resource is finite.