Opinion: How the UN Water Conference can trigger fair water footprints
By Sareen Malik, Nick Hepworth // 24 March 2023
As the UN Water Conference is underway in New York, new research lays bare the grave injustice at the heart of the global water crisis — that the richest people on earth are exploiting the water needed by the poorest.
Data from Water Witness International’s report shows that the “water footprints” of countries in the global north are leaving aquifers drained, rivers polluted, and communities less able to cope with climate change — also caused by the world’s higher-income nations, many of whom have cut international aid for water.
Half of the global water use from rivers and aquifers to supply the food and goods consumed by high-income economies is from unsustainable sources — including from regions facing severe water scarcity.
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About the authors
Sareen Malik
Sareen Malik is executive secretary at the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation. ANEW and its members work on behalf of the hundreds of millions of people in Africa who lack safe water and those forced to migrate because of climate breakdown, as well as the women who together spend millions of hours each day collecting water and whose daughters will be locked into poverty if the water crisis is not addressed.
Nick Hepworth
Nick Hepworth is the executive director of Water Witness International, a civil society organization leading research, advocacy, and action on the global water crisis.
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