Reacción a "The world has entered the era of water bankruptcy, according to a new UN report"

The idea of 'global water bankruptcy' put forward in the report fits well with the scientific evidence accumulated in recent years and represents a very apt conceptual shift from the classic approach of 'water crisis'. In my opinion, the use of this terminology is also a particularly effective strategy from a governance perspective, as it allows the seriousness of the situation to be conveyed to managers and policymakers who are accustomed to operating within economic and financial frameworks. The parallel with bankruptcy helps to understand that this is not a temporary or reversible problem, but rather that we have been living for decades beyond our 'water income', consuming natural capital such as rivers, wetlands, aquifers, soils and glaciers to levels that no longer allow us to recover the conditions of the past. In this sense, the report does not describe a future threat, but rather a diagnosis of the current situation, consistent with evidence of groundwater depletion, degradation of aquatic ecosystems, deterioration of water quality and increasingly anthropogenic droughts, and forces us to rethink water policies from a logic of biophysical limits and structural adaptation.

As to whether we are at a point of no return, the report clearly states that not all systems are 'bankrupt', but enough are for the risk to be global and systemic. In Europe, although traditionally perceived as a less vulnerable region, the problems are evident: overexploitation of aquifers, especially in intensive agricultural areas; degradation of rivers and wetlands; loss of water quality due to diffuse and urban pollution; and an increasing frequency of prolonged droughts, especially in the Mediterranean. The main implication for Europe is that it cannot continue to address scarcity solely through efficiency improvements, reuse or new infrastructure, without a thorough review of demand, land use and production models. The report points to the need to accept that some impacts are irreversible and that water management must be geared towards preventing further damage, redistributing risks and costs fairly, and adapting socio-economic systems to structurally lower water availability.