A Brief on the Economics of Water Usage
This is not the complete report which can be found here: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good. The report questions our present knowledge of water how it is viewed and its usage. I will let the authors explain.
The Problem Humanity Has Created
Humanity has thrown the global water cycle off balance “for the first time in human history,” fueling a growing water disaster that will wreak havoc on economies, food production and lives, according to a landmark new report.
Decades of destructive land use and water mismanagement have collided with the human-caused climate crisis to put “unprecedented stress” on the global water cycle, as detailed in a report published by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a group of international leaders and experts.
The water cycle refers to the complex system by which water moves around the Earth. Water evaporates from the ground — including from lakes, rivers and plants — and rises into the atmosphere, forming large rivers of water vapor able to travel long distances, before cooling, condensing and eventually falling back to the ground as rain or snow.
Disruptions to the water cycle are already causing suffering. Nearly 3 billion people face water scarcity. Crops are shriveling and cities are sinking as the groundwater beneath them dries out.
In the future, the consequences will be more catastrophic without urgent action. The crisis threatens more than 50% of global food production and risks shaving an average of 8% off countries’ GDPs by 2050, with much higher losses of up to 15% projected in low-income countries, the report found. Johan Rockström, Rockström, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and a report author.
“For the first time in human history, we are pushing the global water cycle out of balance. Precipitation, the source of all fresh water, can no longer be relied upon.”
In the report there is a distinction between blue and green water.
The Cycle and the Structure
The report differentiates between “blue water,” the liquid water in lakes, rivers and aquifers, and “green water,” the moisture stored in soils and plants.
While the supply of green water has long been overlooked, it is just as important to the water cycle, the report says, as it returns to the atmosphere when plants release water vapor, generating about half of all rainfall over land.
We need bolder and more integrated thinking and a recasting of policy frameworks to address these challenges. The Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) calls for a new economics of water . . .
One that recognizes the hydrological cycle as a global common good: understanding that it connects countries and regions through both the water that we see and atmospheric moisture flows; that it is deeply interconnected with climate change and the loss of biodiversity with each rebounding on the other; and that it impacts on virtually all the SDGs.
Disruptions to the water cycle are “deeply intertwined” with climate change, the report found.
A stable supply of green water is vital for supporting vegetation that can store planet-heating carbon. But the damage humans inflict, including destroying wetlands and tearing down forests, is depleting these carbon sinks and accelerating global warming. In turn, climate change-fueled heat is drying out landscapes, reducing moisture and increasing fire risk.
The crisis is made more urgent by the increasing need for water. The report calculates . . . on average, people need a minimum of about 4,000 liters (just over 1,000 gallons)? a day to lead a “dignified life,” far above the 50 to 100 liters the United Nations says is needed for basic needs, and more than most regions will be able to provide from local sources
Why we must govern the water cycle as a global common good
It starts with recognizing that the problems we face are not only local. Communities, countries and regions are interdependent not just through transboundary blue water – as globally, more than 263 watersheds and 300 aquifers span political boundaries – but through atmospheric moisture flows that travel great distances.
Current approaches tend to focus on water resources rather than the economic drivers that shape the water cycle. They also deal predominantly with the water we can see – the “blue water” in our rivers, lakes, and aquifers. They overlook a critical freshwater resource, namely “green water.” The water stored as soil moisture and in vegetation, which returns to the air through evaporation and transpiration. As it circulates naturally, green water generates around half of all rainfall over land, the very source of all our freshwater.
Further, current approaches too often assume stable patterns of water supply year after year, but this is no longer true: as land-use changes and global warming destabilize the water cycle, rainfall patterns are shifting.
Disruptions and Climate Change
Most dangerously, disruptions to the water cycle are deeply intertwined with climate change and the depletion of the world’s biodiversity, with each reinforcing the other. A stable supply of green water in soils is crucial to sustaining the natural systems that absorb more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil-fuel combustion.
Yet the loss of wetlands and soil moisture, together with deforestation, is depleting some of the world’s
most important carbon stores, accelerating global warming. In turn, rising temperatures trigger extreme heatwaves and increased moisture loss, severely drying landscapes and heightening the risk of wildfires. When viewed holistically, the impact of water scarcity on both people and nature now jeopardizes virtually every one of the SDGs. Left unchecked, it will result in growing gaps in nutrition in populations already at risk, the greater spread of diseases, widening inequalities within and across nations, and increased conflicts and forced migration.
Governing the Water Cycle
The water cycle must therefore be governed as a global common good: recognizing:
first, our interdependence through both blue and green water flows;
second, the wicked interaction between the water crisis, climate change, and the loss of the planet’s natural capital; and
third, how water flows through all our 17 SDGs. A destabilized water cycle is a large-scale collective
and systemic problem, which can only be fixed through concerted action in every country and
collaboration across boundaries and cultures.
A shared understanding of the common good is crucial. Otherwise, what might look good for
one country today could easily create problems for that same country tomorrow, as well as for
others around the world.