Water Crisis Endangers 8% of GDP in High-Income Countries, Report Warns
Scarcity, changing rainfall patterns and groundwater overuse all pose an increasingly dire threat to the world economy.
Numerous companies in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas along the Texas border have struggled with drought conditions.
Photographer: Mauricio Palos/BloombergWater scarcity has a price: It could cause high-income countries’ GDP to shrink by 8% on average by midcentury and a drop of up to 15% in poorer countries, according to a new analysis. It also finds that subsidies that encourage overuse are among the most consequential factors driving the crisis.
The report, released Wednesday by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), an international initiative tasked to improve water management, finds that nearly 3 billion people and more than half of the world’s food production are in areas experiencing a worsening water shortage. Regions with high population density – including southern Europe, northeastern China and northwestern India — are particularly vulnerable.