A new report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNU-INWEH) suggested that the globe has entered a new era of “water bankruptcy.” For the past four decades, the phrase “global water crisis” has been widely used to describe the world’s water situation. However, the report finds that this term is no longer sufficient to explain the current hydrological state — the condition and movement of water in the environment, including rivers, groundwater and rainfall.
Whereas the “crisis” narrative implied that baseline conditions remain viable despite the shock of disaster, conditions in many parts of the world suggest that water baselines have irreparably shifted. The problem in mischaracterizing the water trends is that such description creates the illusion that “with more infrastructure, better coordination and stronger emergency responses, the world can ‘return’ to a desirable past state,” the report explained. This, however, is an impossibility for many water systems.
As humans continue to affect and reshape global water systems, what were once acute impacts have now become chronic hydrological conditions. While an earlier UN press release suggested that 77.6 per cent of the Earth’s land is now drier than it was in the 30-year period preceding 2020, drought is not the only threat the Earth’s water systems face.
Man-made pollution has damaged water systems, promoting “eutrophication, harmful algal blooms [and] pathogen contamination,” as described in the 2026 report. Because of this, reports of water quantities overstate the availability of safe drinking water.
The UNU-INWEH report revealed that while the era of crisis warnings has come and gone, we have entered the new era of diagnosis — water bankruptcy. According to the report, this diagnosis shows “an admission of failure and the first step toward a fresh start.” In a hydrological context, water bankruptcy operates similarly to financial bankruptcy. As is the case with bank accounts, humans can draw on annual income and long-term savings. Per annum, regions receive a yearly “income” of water through rain and snow to be spent throughout the year. When demand for water rises, “savings” — made up of aquifers, glaciers, wetlands and other natural resources — are accessed to compensate.
However, in many places of the world, “these accounts have been systematically overdrawn, with withdrawals exceeding renewable inflows and safe depletion limits for years or decades, degrading the natural capital that once underpinned resilience,” the report described. This has caused damage that is irreversible on human timescales, making reversion of previous water levels an unrealistic goal. Even though not every water basin has dried up, enough global critical systems have been fundamentally altered to accurately diagnose global water bankruptcy.
While humans focus on the big picture consequences of water bankruptcy, artificial intelligence (AI) companies silently contribute to the rising issue. In order to operate, AI servers require water to cool them and prevent them from overheating. Daily, ChatGPT alone uses 39.16 million gallons of water in order to operate. The water required to cool these AI servers is the same freshwater that humans use in our daily lives. However, fresh water makes up only three per cent of the world’s water supply, and only 0.5 per cent of all water is safe for human consumption. Our current reality requires humans to share this meager percentage with man’s new best friend, AI.
In the U.S., the water consumption of the 5,426 data centres across the nation have left noticeable impacts. In Northern Virginia, where 300 of these data centres reside, two billion gallons of water were consumed in 2023 alone. In certain counties in the region, this has led to a call for the use of potable water to cool data centres. In other states, residents attribute the water consumption of local data centres to increasingly discoloured, sediment-filled water flowing from their taps.
Despite the UNU-INWEH report’s strong stance that a just approach to water bankruptcy management is required to mitigate harmful effects, it is unclear how such interests can be balanced with the presence of large-scale AI consumers. The report indicated that affected communities “should have a voice in shaping reallocation plans, infrastructure choices and adaptation strategies.”
Meanwhile, AI companies seek to develop their data centres in Africa, with current sights set on Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt, areas traditionally affected by water stress. It is unclear what steps are being taken to mitigate further damage to the region and its inhabitants. In fact, many African AI strategies have failed to address climate and labour concerns. Continued failures to adhere to the report’s call for a new global water agenda may lead to greater geopolitical instabilities.
