<div id="readability-page-1"><div>Jan 20 (Reuters) - The world is facing irreversible water &#34;bankruptcy&#34;, with billions of people struggling to cope with the consequences of decades of overuse as ​well as shrinking supplies from lakes, rivers, glaciers and wetlands, U.N. researchers said ‌on Tuesday.Nearly three-quarters of the global population live in countries classified as &#34;water insecure&#34; or &#34;critically water insecure&#34;, and ‌4 billion people face severe water scarcity at least one month per year, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned in a report.&#34;Many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,&#34; said Kaveh ⁠Madani, lead author and director ‌of the institute.&#34;By acknowledging the reality of water bankruptcy, we can finally make the hard choices that will protect people, economies and ‍ecosystems,&#34; he said.The report said water supplies are &#34;already in a post-crisis state of failure&#34; after decades of unsustainable extraction rates that have drawn down water &#34;savings&#34; contained in aquifers, glaciers, soils, wetlands and ​river ecosystems, with supplies also degraded by pollution.More than 170 million hectares of irrigated ‌cropland - an area larger than Iran - are under &#34;high&#34; or &#34;very high&#34; water stress, and economic damage from land degradation, groundwater depletion and climate change amounts to more than $300 billion a year worldwide, the report said.Three billion people and more than half of global food production are concentrated in areas already facing unstable or declining water storage levels, ⁠while salinisation has also degraded more than 100 ​million hectares of cropland, it said.The researchers wrote that ​the current approach to solving water problems was no longer fit for purpose, and the priority was not &#34;returning to normal&#34; but a new &#34;global ‍water agenda&#34; designed to ⁠minimise damage.However, Jonathan Paul, geoscience professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the report did not address one major factor behind the crisis.&#34;The elephant in ⁠the room, which is mentioned explicitly only once, is the role of massive and uneven population growth ‌in driving so many of the manifestations of water bankruptcy,&#34; he said.(Reporting ‌by David Stanway; Editing by Hugh Lawson)</div></div>

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The UN warns of a looming water supply 'bankruptcy' affecting billions globally due to overuse and diminishing resources. Nearly 75% of the population lives in water-insecure regions, with 4 billion facing severe scarcity annually. The report highlights unsustainable extraction and pollution leading to economic damages exceeding $300 billion yearly. It calls for a new global water agenda to address these issues, while noting that population growth is a significant factor in the crisis.

Looming water supply 'bankruptcy' puts billions at risk, UN report warns