For decades, scientists, policymakers and the media warned of a “global water crisis,” implying temporary shock – followed by recovery.
What is now emerging in many regions, however, is a persistent shortage whereby water systems can no longer realistically return to their historical baselines.
“For much of the world, ‘normal’ is gone,” said Kaveh Madani, Director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
“This is not to kill hope but to encourage action and an honest admission of failure today to protect and enable tomorrow,” he told a press briefing in New York on Tuesday.
Unequal burdens
Mr. Madani emphasised that the findings do not suggest worldwide failure – but there are enough bankrupt or near-bankrupt systems, interconnected through trade, migration and geopolitical dependencies, that the global risk landscape has been fundamentally altered.
The burdens fall disproportionately on smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples, low-income urban residents and women and youth, while the benefits of overuse often accrued to more powerful actors.
From crisis to recovery?
The report introduces water bankruptcy as a condition defined by both insolvency and irreversibility.
Insolvency refers to withdrawing and polluting water beyond renewable inflows and safe depletion limits.
Irreversibility refers to the damage to key parts of water-related natural capital, such as wetlands and lakes, that makes restoration of the system to its initial conditions infeasible.
But all is not lost: comparing water action to finance, Mr. Madani said that bankruptcy is not the end of action.
“It is the start of a structured recovery plan: you stop the bleeding, protect essential services, restructure unsustainable claims, and invest in rebuilding,” he noted.
Costly tab
The world is rapidly depleting its natural “water savings accounts”, according to the study: more than half the world’s large lakes have declined since the early 1990’s, while around 35 per cent of natural wetlands have been lost since 1970, Mr. Madani said.
The human toll is already significant. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s population live in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure.
Around four billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year, while drought impacts cost an estimated $307 billion annually.
“If we continue to manage these failures as temporary ‘crises’ with short-term fixes, we will only deepen the ecological damage and fuel social conflict,” Mr. Madani warned.
Course corrections
The report calls for a transition from crisis response to bankruptcy management, grounded in honesty about the irreversibly of losses, protection of remaining water resources – and policies that match hydrological reality rather than past norms.
The report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and children’s agency (UNICEF) issued as World Water Week gets underway, highlights persistent gaps in access, with vulnerable communities facing the greatest disparities.
Some 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water, while 106 million worldwide are forced to rely on untreated surface sources.
“Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges, they are basic human rights,” said Ruediger Krech, Director of WHO’s Environment, Climate Change and Health Department.
Clear disparities
The report finds that people in least developed countries are more than twice as likely as people in other countries to lack basic drinking water and sanitation services, and over three times as likely to go without basic hygiene.
“These inequalities are especially stark for girls who often bear the burden of water collection and face additional barriers during menstruation,” said Cecilia Scharp, UNICEF’s head of water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Data from 70 countries reveal that while most women and adolescent girls have menstrual materials and a private place to change, many still lack sufficient supplies to manage their needs safely and with dignity.
‘We must act faster’
Some 1.7 billion people still lack basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million with no facilities at all.
“We must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalised communities, if we are to keep our promise to reach the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Mr. Krech.
“At the current pace, the promise of safe water and sanitation for every child is slipping further from reach – reminding us that we must act faster and more boldly to reach those who need it most,” said Ms. Scharp.
In the municipality of Manaure in La Guajira, Colombia, a woman washes her hands at an installation of hand-washing point known as tippy taps.
Currently underway in Stockholm from 24 to 28 August, the 35th World Water Week meeting highlights the crucial link between water and global warming, under the theme, Water For Climate Action.
At the core of sustainable development and basic human survival, safe drinking water is critical for socio-economic development, energy and food production – and healthy ecosystems.
Meanwhile, reliable water supply is also at the heart of adaptation efforts in an increasingly warming world.
Landlocked countries
Improved access to water is creating new opportunities for people in some of the world’s most remote communities, particularly in landlocked developing countries (LLDCs).
On Wednesday, UN-Water – which coordinates the UN’s work on water and sanitation – will bring together LLDCs that have demonstrated substantial progress towards ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).
This session will provide an opportunity for other LLDCs to draw lessons from the progress made by Bhutan, Rwanda, and Saudi Arabia in ensuring safe drinking water and effective water management.
Innovative financing
The lack of safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene services, severely impacts human well-being, dignity and opportunities – especially for women and girls.
Indeed, contaminated water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices are still undermining efforts to end extreme poverty and control disease outbreaks in the world’s poorest countries.
On Thursday, UN-Water and partners will galvanise donors and other key collaborators to address financing gaps in water and sanitation provision.
Discussions will focus on different models and building alliances to unlock innovative funding mechanisms for safer universal access.
The incident occurred in central Gaza on Sunday, according to media reports, which said that four other people also lost their lives due to the Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli military said it had been targeting a terrorist but a “technical error” saw the munition stray off course.
Uphold protection of children
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell noted that the incident came just days after several women and children were killed while lining up for nutritional supplies.
“The Israeli authorities must urgently review the rules of engagement and ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law, notably the protection of civilians, including children,” she wrote in a statement posted on X.
The UN has repeatedly deplored the killing of Palestinians seeking food aid amid the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where food security experts have warned that the entire population, some 2.1 million people, is not getting enough to eat.
The risk of famine remains, according to UNICEF. In June, more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition, including more than 1,000 children with severe acute malnutrition, representing an increase for the fourth consecutive month.
Stockpiles of food available
Meanwhile, “truckloads of food and medical supplies are waiting in warehouses” just outside the enclave, UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA said in a tweet.
It included a quote from one of its health workers who said that “in the past, I only saw such cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries. Today, I am treating them face to face in the health centre.”
UNRWA appealed for starvation of civilians to stop and for the siege to be lifted.
“Let the UN, including UNRWA, do its lifesaving work,” the tweet said.
The small quantities of aid and critical supplies that have entered Gaza so far are nowhere near enough to meet the immense needs, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said later on Monday.
It called for Israel to allow the urgent entry of aid at scale through all possible routes and corridors.
Healthcare under attack
OCHA said health teams continue to suffer some of the worst impacts of the hostilities, with the Ministry of Health reporting on Sunday that another doctor had been killed over the previous 24 hours.
Although the health system has been decimated and is on the brink of collapse, hospitals continue to respond to mass casualty incidents as much as they can.
The Israeli authorities have continued to issue displacement orders amid the ongoing hostilities and destruction, the agency added.
On Friday, a displacement order was put out for the Rimal area of Gaza city where some 70,000 people were staying at a dozen displacement sites.
Today, more than 86 per cent of Gaza’s territory is either under displacement orders or located within the Israeli-militarized zone.
West Bank annexation ‘well underway’
Separately, UNRWA also highlighted the situation of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini told an international conference in Switzerland on Monday that “annexation is well underway.”
UNRWA said “this is not just destruction: it is part of systematic forced displacement, a violation of international law, and a form of collective punishment.”
In January, Israeli forces launched operations in Tulkarm and Jenin in the West Bank, which UNRWA has previously said are the most extensive in two decades.
Humanitarians reported last week that the operations are causing massive destruction and displacement while attacks by Israeli settlers have intensified.
The high levels of violence continue, with OCHA reporting that two Palestinian men, one of whom was a US national, were killed near Ramallah on Friday during a settler attack.
Overall, more than 700 settler attacks have been recorded in the West Bank during the first half of this year. Over 200 communities have been affected, primarily in Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron governorates
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli authorities issued displacement orders overnight for two neighbourhoods in Khan Younis, where up to 80,000 people had been living.
The Al Satar reservoir – a critical hub for distributing piped water from Israel – has become inaccessible as a result.
Grave warnings
“Any damage to the reservoir could lead to a collapse of the city’s main distribution of the water system, with grave humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at a daily news briefing in New York.
Al Satar’s disruption comes as Gaza’s infrastructure buckles under relentless displacement, strained services and critical shortages of fuel and supplies.
Approximately 85 per cent of Gaza’s territory is currently either under displacement orders or located within military zones – severely hampering people’s access to essential aid and the ability of humanitarians to reach those in need, OCHA reported.
Displacement continues
Since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire in March, nearly 714,000 Palestinians have been displaced again, including 29,000 in the 24 hours between Sunday and Monday. Existing shelters are overwhelmed, and aid partners report deteriorating health conditions driven by insufficient water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Health teams report that rates of acute watery diarrhoea have reached 39 per cent among patients receiving health consultations. Khan Younis and Gaza governorates are hardest hit, with densely overcrowded shelters and little access to clean water exacerbating the spread of disease.
Adding to the crisis, no shelter materials have entered Gaza in over four months, despite the hundreds of thousands of newly displaced people. UN partners reported that in 97 per cent of surveyed sites, displaced families are sleeping in the open, exposed to heat, disease and trauma.
Fuel shortages
Meanwhile, fuel shortages are jeopardising the humanitarian response. A shipment of diesel intended for northern Gaza was denied on Wednesday by Israeli authorities, just a day after a successful but limited delivery to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
If the fuel crisis is not urgently addressed, Mr. Dujarric warned that relief efforts could grind to a halt.
“If the fuel crisis isn’t addressed soon, humanitarian responders could be left without the systems and the tools that are necessary to operate safely, manage logistics and distribute humanitarian assistance,” he said.
“This would obviously endanger aid workers and escalate an already dire humanitarian crisis.”
The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being underestimated in surveys of pollution in the world’s oldest metro system.
The researchers carried out a new type of pollution analysis, using magnetism to study dust samples from Underground ticket halls, platforms and operator cabins.
The team found that the samples contained high levels of a type of iron oxide called maghemite. Since it takes time for iron to oxidise into maghemite, the results suggest that pollution particles are suspended for long periods, due to poor ventilation throughout the Underground, particularly on station platforms.
Some of the particles are as small as five nanometres in diameter: small enough to be inhaled and end up in the bloodstream, but too small to be captured by typical methods of pollution monitoring. However, it is not clear whether these particles pose a health risk.
Other studies have looked at overall pollution levels on the Underground and the associated health risks, but this is the first time that the size and type of particles has been analysed in detail. The researchers suggest that periodic removal of dust from Underground tunnels, as well as magnetic monitoring of pollution levels, could improve air quality throughout the network. Their results are reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
The London Underground carries five million passengers per day. Multiple studies have shown that air pollution levels on the Underground are higher than those in London more broadly, and beyond the World Health Organization’s (WHO) defined limits. Earlier studies have also suggested that most of the particulate matter on the Underground is generated as the wheels, tracks and brakes grind against one another, throwing up tiny, iron-rich particles.
“Since most of these air pollution particles are metallic, the Underground is an ideal place to test whether magnetism can be an effective way to monitor pollution,” said Professor Richard Harrison from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, the paper’s senior author. “Normally, we study magnetism as it relates to planets, but we decided to explore how those techniques could be applied to different areas, including air pollution.”
Pollution levels are normally monitored using standard air filters, but these cannot capture ultrafine particles, and they do not detect what kinds of particles are contained within the particulate matter.
“I started studying environmental magnetism as part of my PhD, looking at whether low-cost monitoring techniques could be used to characterise pollution levels and sources,” said lead author Hassan Sheikh from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “The Underground is a well-defined micro-environment, so it’s an ideal place to do this type of study.”
Working with colleagues from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Sheikh and Harrison analysed 39 dust samples from the London Underground, provided by Transport for London (TfL). The samples were collected in 2019 and 2021 from platforms, ticket halls, and train operator cabins on the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Bakerloo, Victoria, Northern, District and Jubilee lines. The sampling included major stations such as King’s Cross St Pancras, Paddington, and Oxford Circus.
The researchers used magnetic fingerprinting, 3D imaging and nanoscale microscopy to characterise the structure, size, shape, composition and magnetic properties of particles contained in the samples. Earlier studies have shown that 50% of the pollution particles in the Underground are iron-rich, but the Cambridge team were able to look in much closer detail. They found a high abundance of maghemite particles, ranging in diameter from five to 500 nanometres, and with an average diameter of 10 nanometres. Some particles formed larger clusters with diameters between 100 and 2,000 nanometres.
“The abundance of these very fine particles was surprising,” said Sheikh. “The magnetic properties of iron oxides fundamentally change as the particle size changes. In addition, the size range where those changes happen is the same as where air pollution becomes a health risk.”
While the researchers did not look at whether these maghemite particles pose a direct health risk, they say that their characterisation methods could be useful in future studies.
“If you’re going to answer the question of whether these particles are bad for your health, you first need to know what the particles are made of and what their properties are,” said Sheikh.
“Our techniques give a much more refined picture of pollution in the Underground,” said Harrison. “We can measure particles that are small enough to be inhaled and enter the bloodstream. Typical pollution monitoring doesn’t give you a good picture of the very small stuff.”
The researchers say that due to poor ventilation in the Underground, iron-rich dust can be resuspended in the air when trains arrive at platforms, making the air quality on platforms worse than in ticket halls or in operator cabins.
Given the magnetic nature of the resuspended dust, the researchers suggest that an efficient removal system might be magnetic filters in ventilation, cleaning of the tracks and tunnel walls, or placing screen doors between platforms and trains.
World’s water tainted. Synthetic PFAS, which have been linked to cancer and other diseases, have contaminated nearly every drop of water on the planet.
Unbreakable bond. These chemicals contain a carbon-fluorine bond that is almost impossible to break, making it extremely difficult to eradicate them from water supplies.
Off with their heads! Researchers devised a “guillotine” solution that uses moderate heat and inexpensive reagents to remove the “heads” of PFAS, initiating their destruction.
If you’re despairing at recent reports that Earth’s water sources have been thoroughly infested with hazardous human-made chemicals called PFAS that can last for thousands of years, making even rainwater unsafe to drink, there’s a spot of good news.
Chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a simple way to break down almost a dozen types of these nearly indestructible “forever chemicals” at relatively low temperatures with no harmful byproducts.
Simple method destroys dangerous ‘forever chemicals,’ making water safe
In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers show that in water heated to just 176 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents severed molecular bonds in PFAS that are among the strongest known and initiated a chemical reaction that “gradually nibbled away at the molecule” until it was gone, said UCLA distinguished research professor and co-corresponding author Kendall Houk.
The simple technology, the comparatively low temperatures and the lack of harmful byproducts mean there is no limit to how much water can be processed at once, Houk added. The technology could eventually make it easier for water treatment plants to remove PFAS from drinking water.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — PFAS for short — are a class of around 12,000 synthetic chemicals that have been used since the 1940s in nonstick cookware, waterproof makeup, shampoos, electronics, food packaging and countless other products. They contain a bond between carbon and fluorine atoms that nothing in nature can break.
PFAS used in shampoos
When these chemicals leach into the environment through manufacturing or everyday product use, they become part of the Earth’s water cycle. Over the past 70 years, PFAS have contaminated virtually every drop of water on the planet, and their strong carbon-fluorine bond allows them to pass through most water treatment systems completely unharmed. They can accumulate in the tissues of people and animals over time and cause harm in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. Certain cancers and thyroid diseases, for example, are associated with PFAS.
For these reasons, finding ways to remove PFAS from water has become particularly urgent. Scientists are experimenting with many remediation technologies, but most of them require extremely high temperatures, special chemicals or ultraviolet light and sometimes produce byproducts that are also harmful and require additional steps to remove.
Large pieces of plastic can break down into nanosized particles that often find their way into the soil and water. Perhaps less well known is that they can also float in the air. It’s unclear how nanoplastics impact human health, but animal studies suggest they’re potentially harmful. As a step toward better understanding the prevalence of airborne nanoplastics, researchers have developed a sensor that detects these particles and determines the types, amounts and sizes of the plastics using colorful carbon dot films.
The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall 2022 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person Aug. 21–25, with on-demand access available Aug. 26–Sept. 9. The meeting features nearly 11,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
“Nanoplastics are a major concern if they’re in the air that you breathe, getting into your lungs and potentially causing health problems,” says Raz Jelinek, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator. “A simple, inexpensive detector like ours could have huge implications, and someday alert people to the presence of nanoplastics in the air, allowing them to take action.”
Of the many well-documented risks of dirty air, one potential danger is lesser known: chronic kidney disease. Learn about new research and how to protect yourself. CREDIT: Michigan Medicine
Millions of tons of plastic are produced and thrown away each year. Some plastic materials slowly erode while they’re being used or after being disposed of, polluting the surrounding environment with micro- and nanosized particles. Nanoplastics are so small — generally less than 1-µm wide — and light that they can even float in the air, where people can then unknowingly breathe them in. Animal studies suggest that ingesting and inhaling these nanoparticles may have damaging effects. Therefore, it could be helpful to know the levels of airborne nanoplastic pollution in the environment.
Previously, Jelinek’s research team at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev developed an electronic nose or “e-nose” for monitoring the presence of bacteria by adsorbing and sensing the unique combination of gas vapor molecules that they release. The researchers wanted to see if this same carbon-dot-based technology could be adapted to create a sensitive nanoplastic sensor for continuous environmental monitoring.
Carbon dots are formed when a starting material that contains lots of carbon, such as sugar or other organic matter, is heated at a moderate temperature for several hours, says Jelinek. This process can even be done using a conventional microwave. During heating, the carbon-containing material develops into colorful, and often fluorescent, nanometer-size particles called “carbon dots.” And by changing the starting material, the carbon dots can have different surface properties that can attract various molecules.
To create the bacterial e-nose, the team spread thin layers of different carbon dots onto tiny electrodes, each the size of a fingernail. They used interdigitated electrodes, which have two sides with interspersed comb-like structures. Between the two sides, an electric field develops, and the stored charge is called capacitance. “When something happens to the carbon dots — either they adsorb gas molecules or nanoplastic pieces — then there is a change of capacitance, which we can easily measure,” says Jelinek.
Then the researchers tested a proof-of-concept sensor for nanoplastics in the air, choosing carbon dots that would adsorb common types of plastic — polystyrene, polypropylene and poly(methyl methacrylate). In experiments, nanoscale plastic particles were aerosolized, making them float in the air. And when electrodes coated with carbon-dot films were exposed to the airborne nanoplastics, the team observed signals that were different for each type of material, says Jelinek. Because the number of nanoplastics in the air affects the intensity of the signal generated, Jelinek adds that currently, the sensor can report the amount of particles from a certain plastic type either above or below a predetermined concentration threshold. Additionally, when polystyrene particles in three sizes — 100-nm wide, 200-nm wide and 300-nm wide — were aerosolized, the sensor’s signal intensity was directly related to the particles’ size.
The team’s next step is to see if their system can distinguish the types of plastic in mixtures of nanoparticles. Just as the combination of carbon dot films in the bacterial e-nose distinguished between gases with differing polarities, Jelinek says it’s likely that they could tweak the nanoplastic sensor to differentiate between additional types and sizes of nanoplastics. The capability to detect different plastics based on their surface properties would make nanoplastic sensors useful for tracking these particles in schools, office buildings, homes and outdoors, he says.
A scientist from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has discovered the first direct evidence that fluid water pockets may exist as far as 500 miles deep into the Earth’s mantle.
Impurities in diamond have no value in the jewelry business but for UNLV geoscientist Oliver Tschauner and his colleagues, diamonds pushed up from the Earth’s interior had traces of unique crystallized water called Ice-VII, as they may hold the key to understanding the inner workings of our planet.
The study, “Ice-VII inclusions in Diamonds: Evidence for aqueous fluid in Earth’s deep Mantle,” was published in the journal Science. For his study, Tschauner used diamonds found in China, the Republic of South Africa, and Botswana that surged up from inside Earth. “This shows that this is a global phenomenon,” the professor said.
Scientists theorize the diamonds used in the study, were born in the mantle under temperatures reaching more than 1,000-degrees Fahrenheit. The mantle – which makes up more than 80 percent of the Earth’s volume – is made of silicate minerals containing iron, aluminum, and calcium among others.
And now we can add water to the list.
The discovery of Ice-VII in the diamonds is the first known natural occurrence of the aqueous fluid from the deep mantle. Ice-VII had been found in prior lab testing of materials under intense pressure. Tschauner also found that while under the confines of hardened diamonds found on the surface of the planet, Ice-VII is solid. But in the mantel, it is liquid.
“These discoveries are important in understanding that water-rich regions in the Earth’s interior can play a role in the global water budget and the movement of heat-generating radioactive elements,” Tschauner said. This discovery can help scientists create new, more accurate models of what’s going on inside the Earth, specifically how and where heat is generated under the Earth’s crust.
In other words: “It’s another piece of the puzzle in understanding how our planet works,” Tschauner said.Of course, as it often goes with discoveries, this one was found by accident, explained Tschauner. “We were looking for carbon dioxide,” he said. “We’re still looking for it, actually,”
The Union Cabinet under PM Narendra Modi has given its approval for the signing of MoU between India and European Union in the field of water resources.
The MoU envisages strengthening the technological, scientific and management capabilities of India and the European Union in the field of water management on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit. It provides technical exchange on water issues, including on integrated water resource management plans within river basins and through study visits.
The MoU aims to identify key environmental issues and approaches to sustainable development where exchange of experiences and cooperation could be mutually beneficial to strengthen and further develop cooperation between India and the European Union in the field of water management.
The pact envisions a more sustainable management of water resources in India with an objective of tackling the challenges posed by water management in the context of growing population, competing water demands and a changing climate. A Joint Working Group shall be formed to monitor the activities to be carried out in fulfillment of the MoU.
The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has been envisaging bilateral cooperation with other countries in water resources development and management through sharing of policy and technical expertise, conducting of training courses, workshops, scientific and technical symposia, exchange of experts and study tours.
Keeping in view the success of the European Union in distribution of water resources, water pricing, water use efficiency by encouraging the changes in agricultural practices necessary to protect water resources and quality, such as switching to less water-demanding crops, etc., it has been decided to have an agreement with Israel to benefit from their experience and expertise.
The EU States have adopted water pricing policies to provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently thereby contributing to environmental objectives.
