We live in a time of paradoxes. We are fascinated by space exploration while ignoring a pressing problem here on Earth: the water crisis. Yes, you read that right. While some search for signs of life on Mars, millions of people on our own planet struggle every day to access a resource as basic as drinking water.
With a few honourable exceptions, the issue does not occupy the front pages or grab headlines. However, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water , one of those voices crying in the wilderness, warns us in its latest report about the seriousness of the problem. The climate crisis, with its cohort of droughts and meteorological unpredictability, is about to make water scarcity a daily reality for half the world's population in just 25 years. One generation. A breath in historical terms.
The consequences of this impending reality can be chilling. Food production, the basis of our survival, will be seriously threatened, opening the door to famines, mass migrations and geopolitical conflicts for control of this increasingly scarce resource.
And if that were not enough, the demand for water continues to grow. It is estimated that in the next decade, the planet's thirst will increase by 40%.
Do we see the problem? Two opposing forces, a growing demand and a dwindling supply, which are headed for a head-on collision. The Commission could not be clearer: we are underestimating the magnitude of the problem. Governments turn a deaf ear, more concerned with the next elections than with the next generations. They simply kick the ball forward, hoping that others will deal with this complicated puzzle in the future.
The sad reality is that, despite the fact that our very existence depends on water, in the developed world we take it for granted. We turn on the tap and it flows, almost by magic. But that comfort is nothing more than an illusion, a privileged bubble that prevents us from seeing the harsh reality of millions of people. While we waste liters without remorse, in developing countries, the lack of access to drinking water claims the lives of 1,000 children every day.
The situation worsens with the passage of time and the undeniable advance of global warming. Experts have been warning for years, but we remain inactive. Until when? Until the crisis is irreversible? Until the cost of the solution is exorbitant?
We are a short-sighted species, blinded by comfort and indifference. The water crisis is not a problem of the future, it is one of the most urgent challenges we face as a civilization. We cannot afford to continue ignoring it.
It is time to demand that our leaders take drastic measures, invest in sustainable infrastructure, promote responsible consumption and, once and for all, focus on the forgotten crisis: that of water that is slipping through our fingers.
Will we do it? Allow me to doubt it. We are that short-sighted and selfish.
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