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World Water Development Report – Press Conference | United Nations
Summary
1230seconds video
The briefing presents the 2025 UNESCO World Water Development Report titled “Mountains and Glaciers, Water Towers,” introduced by Banu Nupen. The report highlights the critical state of global water resources, stressing that water scarcity is an immediate crisis impacting health, food, energy, and economic stability. Agriculture uses 72% of freshwater, followed by industry at 15% and domestic use at 13%. One-quarter of the global population faces extreme water stress. The report warns that melting glaciers, which provide half of the world’s freshwater, are occurring at alarming rates due to climate change and could lose more than half of their volume by 2200 if warming exceeds 2 degrees Celsius. This poses severe risks for mountain and downstream communities and global food and economic security. The report calls for investment in better water management, international cooperation, and closing the knowledge, governance, and funding gaps, highlighting the need for $187 billion annually for water security.
During the briefing, issues such as the need for improved water infrastructure, sanitation access, and potential climate change mitigation strategies were discussed. Concerns about the role of developed nations in contributing to climate change and the high resource use per capita were mentioned, alongside calls for a bottom-up approach to tackling these issues. The impact of modernization on water use efficiency was noted, with developed nations showing improvements, while less developed regions lag behind.
The specific challenges faced by the Arab region were also addressed, emphasizing water scarcity and geopolitical issues affecting resource management. The report suggests reviving cooperative initiatives like the Nile Friend Initiative for transboundary water management. Overall, the briefing underscores the urgency of addressing water security and climate change impacts through collaborative global efforts.
Full Script
Right, I think we’re set up. So we’ll start on our briefing here. I am very pleased to welcome Banu Nupen, the process coordinator for the UNESCO World Water Development Report, who is here to talk to you about that report. Please, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Today, United Nations System as a whole is going to publish this report. And they have entrusted me to present this report to you. Ladies and gentlemen, water is life. It is essential for health, food, energy, and economic stability. But today, we’re facing an unprecedented crisis. The 2025 United Nations World Water Development Report, titled Mountains and Glaciers, Water Towers, tells a stark story. The fate of glaciers is directly linked to the fate of humanity. The report is the result of contribution from over 25 different UN agencies, fully endorsed by all of them with the facts and figures and then everything else. But the funding for this to publish this report has come from government of Italy, which for which we are extremely grateful. The facts are clear. We are not just approaching a global water crisis. We are already living it. Next slide, please. Water scarcity is no longer a distant threat. It is happening now. Agriculture alone consumes 72% of the world’s fresh water, followed by industry, which consumes about 15% and domestic use about 13%. Over the last 20 years, global freshwater withdrawals have increased by 14%, driven by rising demand, and inefficient uses. Today, one quarter of the global population faces extreme water stress, and 4 billion people suffer severe shortages for at least part of the year. This is not just about water availability. It’s about food security, economic stability, and for survival. Next slide. The water may seem abundant, but its sources are fragile. Mountains and glaciers provide over 50% of world’s fresh water. The Indus Nile, Colorado, and Craigslist rivers, among others, are lifelines for millions. Depends on glacier melt for over 70% of the total flow. But glaciers are melting faster than ever. In the Himalayas, also known as the third pole, glaciers are melting 65% faster than a decade ago. If global warming exceeds 2 degrees Celsius, glaciers could lose more than half their volume by 2,200. As glacier retreat, the risk of glacier lake outburst flood increases. Entire communities can be wiped out in an instant. The consequences are irreversible if we do not act now. Mountain communities home to 658, 48 million people are especially vulnerable. Their farming depends on reliable water. Yet water supplies are becoming increasingly unpredictable. 35% to 40% of people in mountain regions suffer from food insecurity and half experience chronic hunger. Water shortages drive poverty and forced migration, a crisis we cannot ignore. The world must realize what happens in the mountain definitely does not remain in the mountain. It affects food and economic survival of downstream community. Next slide, please. Mountain don’t just supply water to communities. They power our industries. The high endists hold about 56% of the world’s lithium reserves. Critical for batteries and clean energy transition. But extraction of just one ton of lithium requires about 2,000 cubic meters of water. Hydro power from mountain regions provides 16% of the world’s clean energy. And this resource is also threatened. Beyond industries, mountain support 25% of the world’s 34% biodiversity hotspot. Yet 57% of these ecosystems are under severe pressure. We are extracting, consuming, and degrading these water resources faster than they can recover. What must be done? There are a few call of action. There is an extreme knowledge gap. We lack high altitude data and glaciers, water flows and climate impact, making it harder to predict and manage crisis. There is a governance gap of the 153 countries that share transboundary water resources. Only 43 of them have agreements on how to manage them. There is a funding gap. And you will be surprised to know that water security requires about $187 billion of funding annually. And we do not have that. But here are some good news. Solutions do exist. We must invest in better water monitoring and management. We must strengthen international cooperation, primarily to bring a new era of multilateral and multi-stakeholder collaboration. We must act now because climate change is accelerating. Water crisis and delays will cost lives. Just to tell you that mountains are not just landscape. They are the live blood of our planet, the water sustains billions of people. And just to give you two parting messages, water security is not a future problem, but it exists now. And mountains are dramatically changing. The question is whether or not we will change with the mountain. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for that. That’s a great segue now to our questions. So I’ll turn the floor over to Edith Leder from AP. Thank you very much on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing. As Farhan said, my name is Edith Leder from the Associated Press. You just said that $187 billion is needed for water security annually. How much are you getting? And what exactly do you need that money for? This is an excellent question. It’s not only that we have to preserve the sources, but also we have to make them sustainable as well. The other thing is, just to give you a statistic, 2.5 billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water. The worst is 3.5 billion people still do not have access to safe sanitation. So we have to first provide for that. And then year after year, we’ll have to maintain any infrastructure, any services that we will develop in order to cater for that. But it’s normally that water also sustains our food security. In order for us to do that, I think that is the irrigation canals and so forth. And everything needs to be properly maintained and managed and so forth. As a follow-up, with climate change melting glaciers, as well as ice and a lot of other places in the world, what can actually be done to prevent that? To prevent the glaciers from melting and to preserve them for future generations? I think there are just three things that we have to do. The first thing is, several things that needs to be done at the people’s level. People have to make several sacrifices at the end. The second is, it goes through the communities. Communities must start to take care of their resources. The third thing is, countries come in. Countries will have to properly start monitoring and managing the glaciers that they have. And then they will have to somehow find a way for multilateral cooperation to take things forward. So I think that instead of going from top to bottom, I would rather say that there is a bottom-up approach that is very much needed, because we have got the solution. But solutions sometimes escape the people at the center of the solution that we provide. Noreen? Thank you very much. I wondered if you could just expand on the factors that have led to the increase in glacier melting over the last decade. ED has just said that climate change has led to glaciers melting faster. But could you just sort of flip specific examples of how that has come about? I think, you know, this is, see, whatever we have got, although the science is still uncertain, what we know that, you know, the world is, our planet is rising in temperature. How it’s rising, I think, you know, there are several things, you know, that we can look at, you know, from the fossil fuel use and to unsustainable practices, you know, that we do and so many other things, you know, that we are doing. I think, you know, there is, this is a cumulative effect, you know, that is occurring. It’s not, it doesn’t happen in one day. If you look at how glaciers were melting about a year, about 100 years ago, and if you compare that with now, the changes are alarming. It was not like melting to the rate and extent that it is melting now. So something has actually gone wrong. We know the triggers, you know, what it is happening, but how to somehow, you know, keep it checked. This is a major concern for us, because what has happened is essentially like, you know, if you have already put one domino down, like whether we like it or not, you know, if you are sitting at the other end of the domino, like, that this domino will also eventually fall. So the thing is that, you know, we’ll have to somehow find a way to either like go somewhere and then make this domino not, you know, topple the next domino that will come after it. But I think that there is a lot of effort, you know, that is needed. We do not have data. That’s one thing. Even if you have data, you know, the data is not open for people to use. So there’s a lot of, you know, concern for openness of data as well. The third thing which is quite interesting is the new technology has started to come up, and which can be a source of, say, lifeline, you know, like to safeguard, you know, some of these things, you know, that are happening. But we do not have sufficient, you know, way to go about it. I think, you know, perhaps, you know, what we will have to do is, you know, we’ll have to, again, you know, I’ll go back to the same statement that we’ll have to start from us and then perhaps, you know, move forward. Do you sort of foresee the industries that you mentioned that are dependent on water or like, you know, sort of, you know, use up a lot of water in the production of technology or, like, you know, the mining of certain resources, like lithium, as you mentioned, do you also foresee them being involved in this, in that sort of assessment of what can be done to mitigate the use of the reliance of water, like the melt or the mitigate the fast melting of glaciers? I think, you know, about the international community and the world has already come up with the way to upset, you know, the carbon that it is producing, that are ways to upset. If they are producing an X, like cubic kilometer of, you know, carbon dioxide, you know, every, say, X, they have got, they have found ways to do it. They have got technologies to kind of address it. But whether or not, you know, they are doing a necessary measure, taking necessary measures for this, you know, this is still a big question mark. Every one has a responsibility to safeguard it. And whether or not, you know, everyone is in fact, you know, doing what they are supposed to do. This is, again, you know, a big question. I’ll stop at that. Efrem. Thank you so much. My name is Efrem Kosafi from the Arab News Daily. If I may ask you please to zoom in on one particular region, which is the Arab region. How could you give us an overview? What are the main concerns in that region? We know also that there have been advancements in creating potable water as well and good water. That’s my first question. And then I have another one. Okay. Quite interestingly, this report has, in fact, you know, like produced a specific section on Arab world. So there is, in fact, and then this, this wisdom has come from Iskwa. So Iskwa has in fact, you know, contributed a chapter in this report. There are, of course, you know, two things, you know, that is, that I would like to highlight is one that, you know, availability of water, of course, and it’s Arab world has one of the lowest, say, per capita availability of water. So you already have, you know, very less to manage, you know, that’s the first thing. The second thing is there are several, you know, geopolitical things, you know, that are also not going. I do not want to delve on that. But that can also, that is also triggering, you know, some of the, you know, say consequences of proper use of resources. See, think about, you know, like Arab reason knew, you know, how to manage, you know, water before, you know, if you look at, you know, like whether it’s a great man made river or, you know, something that was going, the great Nile initiative and so forth. So I think, you know, there are several, you know, very good examples. And this report kind of, you know, like highlights under those examples as well. How can we revive? And just to tell you that, you know, this is slightly, you know, outside of the context of the report, the Nile friend initiative, I think, you know, from tomorrow and day after tomorrow, there is an event, you know, that is taking place in Paris, primarily to revive, you know, this Nile friend initiative, which is probably to say that, you know, okay, if data and information can be shared between and amongst, you know, countries sharing a trans-banded river, can that, you know, bring out a new, say, a wisdom to better manners and provide for all the population living in that particular place. Thank you so much for that. And I know you just told our colleague, Nureen, that it’s not 100% clear the science behind the speed of glacier melting, but we have heard throughout the few past years that the blame is basically to be put on the most developed nations who are producing the highest levels of CO2 versus countries such as Pakistan or continents such as Africa, they’re producing less than 1%. And therefore, developed nations should be the first to hear your call and actually also the first to pay up what is needed for the solution. Does this still make sense to you? Absolutely. No, this does. In fact, the level of development somehow is correlated with how much energy and how much resources that we consume. If you look at, you know, say, big countries, you know, that are out there, big countries maybe, if you produce a cumulative figure, you know, of course, because of the sheer number of population there, the total resources that they’re using may be too high. But if you look at, you know, in the per capita basis, you will be very surprised that, you know, like something that is being utilized in more developed countries that may be two, three, even, you know, four times more than, you know, someone using it in a small country like, you know, maybe, like, in sub-Saharan Africa or in South Asia. One quick one. You also mentioned the average citizens and the role they have to play. We know also it’s been now in the culture to take care of water, you know, when you use the restroom, when you brush your teeth. I mean, we’ve heard this over and over again, and it’s part of the culture now. I wonder if in your new report, is this having any effect? Is this improving the situation at all? Because people are starting to feel that whatever they’re doing, the news keeps on getting worse and worse. This report also talks about the world is in very fast, like urbanizing. As soon as, you know, urban services are, like, acquired by us, we tend to somehow, you know, start, like, ourselves, you know, like, in tune of this. I really, in fact, you know, this is not in the report, but I really, in fact, share my own, you know, personal experience on this one. Like, when I was growing up, you know, we had one toilet and then, you know, like, seven household members, you know, would use that. These days, you know, I have got three members and four toilets, and all of these, you know, we actually, you know, like, keep on flushing this toilet. So I think, you know, some of the new way of living has definitely some consequences. And perhaps what we have not realized is the world is becoming more urbanized, like something that you would see in, like, a city in Pakistan, you know, several years ago. Now, you know, these cities in Pakistan have also, you know, urbanized, even in a small, you know, communities in Nepal have become, you know, urbanized. This report has, in fact, provided regional, you know, say, snaps up on how things are changing in terms of, you know, whether we are becoming more water efficient or not. And I think, you know, in the slide that I showed, the second slide actually talks about while the developed countries have a leverage for water use efficiency. Unfortunately, the lower and then the least developed countries, they have not gained any on making their water use efficient. So this is, and this is where, you know, like almost 60% of the humanity lives. So we have a concern, and we have put that concern in this report that we published. Thank you. And with that, I’d like to thank once again our guest, Banu Nupan, the process coordinator for the UNESCO World Water Development Report. And I’d like to wish you all a happy World Water Day tomorrow. Have a good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
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