World leaders say a global water crisis now affects 40 percent of all people but climate change is not just responsible for that "water scarcity."
A study released by the U.N. and the World Bank Group said more than 700 million people could be at risk of being displaced by "intense" water scarcity by 2030. The study said two billion people are forced to drink unsafe water while more than 4.5 billion don't have sanitation services that are managed safely, CBS News reported.
"The ecosystems on which life itself is based – our food security, energy sustainability, public health, jobs, cities – are all at risk because of how water is managed today," said the World Bank Group’s president, Jim Yong Kim. "The work of this panel took place at the level of heads of state and government because the world can no longer afford to take water for granted."
The executive summary of the report said growing populations, more water-intensive patterns of growth, increasing rainfall variability, and pollution "are combining in many places to make water one of the greatest risks to economic progress, poverty eradication and sustainable development."
"Floods and droughts already impose huge social and economic costs around the world, and climate variability will make water extremes worse. … The consequences of such stress are local, national, transboundary, regional, and global in today's interconnected and rapidly changing world, with consequences that will be disproportionately felt by the poorest and most vulnerable."
The Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the crisis should be a call for world leaders to act now on coming up with global solutions, CBS News said.
"There is no other option," Rutte said in presenting the report. "The innovative solutions of today's creative minds can safeguard the future of generations to come."
Dan Shepard of the U.N. Department of Public Information told CBS News that climate change is only part of the problem in the water crisis.
"The problems of water are many, like more intense droughts caused by climate change, such as the one that parts of East Africa is experiencing now," Shepard said. "And then there is water mismanagement, allocation and inadequate infrastructure."
A statement by the U.N. and World Bank Group recommended "evidence-based policies" and innovative approaches at the global, national and local level to make water management and water and sanitation services attractive for investment and more disaster-resilient.
The study called for the creation of policies that would lead to "at least a doubling of water infrastructure investment in the next five years."
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