Global water crisis to threaten half of food production by 2050: Report

Unless humanity acts with greater boldness and urgency, an increasingly out-of-balance water cycle will wreak havoc on economies and humanity worldwide.

According to a report titled 'The Economics of Water: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good' published by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, the crisis will threaten more than half of the world's food production by 2050.

The crisis could also cause an 8 per cent loss of GDP in countries around the world on average by 2050, with as much as a 15 per cent loss in lower-income countries, and even larger economic consequences beyond, the report said.

The report highlights that weak economics, destructive land use, and the persistent mismanagement of water resources have combined with the worsening climate crisis to put the global water cycle under unprecedented stress.

Nearly 3 billion people and over half of the world's food production are in areas experiencing drying, or unstable trends in total water availability. Further, several cities are sinking due to the loss of water below the ground, it said.

"Today, half of the world's population faces water scarcity. As this vital resource becomes increasingly scarce, food security and human development are at risk — and we are allowing this to happen," said Johan Rockstroem, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the commission's four co-chairs.

"For the first time in human history, we are pushing the global water cycle out of balance. Precipitation, the source of all freshwater, can no longer be relied upon due to human-caused climate and land use change, undermining the basis for human wellbeing and the global economy," he said.