September 12, 2026 | 12:16 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Permanent Representative of Patriotic Vision (PVA) to the United Nations, Mohamad Safa, said on Thursday that the world is officially entering “global water bankruptcy.”
In a post on social media X, he said the UN announced that people will start running out of clean water for drinking, cooking, showering, dishes, and laundry in the next few years.
Mohamad warned that when clean water becomes scarce, it won’t be free. Water could be privatized, priced, and controlled. “You will pay for it. And those who can’t pay won’t survive,” he wrote on the post.
He also raised concerns about data centers' water demands. The UN representative argued that data centers are using water-based cooling systems because it’s cheaper. “Water should be for people before profits,” he added.
According to a UN report on January 20, many water systems can no longer realistically return to their historical conditions, marking a shift from a temporary “water crisis” toward persistent shortages.
The report highlights the growing strain on water resources worldwide. More than half of the world’s large lakes have declined since the early 1990s, while about 35 percent of natural wetlands have been lost since 1970. Nearly three-quarters of the global population now live in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure.
The UN says the burden of water insecurity falls disproportionately on vulnerable groups, including smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples, low-income urban residents, women and young people, while the benefits of water overuse have often gone to more powerful actors.
It is defined as a condition in which water is withdrawn or polluted beyond sustainable limits and damage to ecosystems such as wetlands and lakes makes a return to their previous state difficult or impossible.
Despite the warning, the UN says water bankruptcy is not the end of the response. It calls for a shift from treating water problems as temporary crises toward long-term recovery, including protecting remaining water resources, addressing unsustainable water use and adopting policies based on current hydrological realities.
Read: Are AI Data Centers Depleting Earth's Water?
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