Global Water Bankruptcy | Stakeholder Briefing and Dialogue with Prof. Kaveh Madani

Water underpins sustainable development, human well-being, and planetary integrity. As water systems deteriorate, risks cascade across food, energy, health, and urban stability. Water insecurity is therefore not a sectoral issue, but a systemic risk multiplier linking ecosystem loss, human mobility, and social and economic instability.

The recent flagship report Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), states that the world has entered the era of “water bankruptcy”, a persistent post-crisis condition in which long-term water use has exceeded renewable inflows and safe depletion limits, degrading water systems beyond realistic recovery. Decades of systematically over-drawing their freshwater “capital,” depleting groundwater reserves, reducing environmental flows, degrading water quality, and eroding natural storage in soils, glaciers, and wetlands, have pushed many river basins and aquifers beyond the point where they can be restored without disproportionate social, economic, or environmental costs.

Crucially, the report frames water not only as a growing source of risk, but also as a strategic opportunity in a fragmented world. It argues that serious investment in water can unlock progress across climate, biodiversity, land, food, and health, and serve as a practical platform for cooperation within and between societies.

The event will feature Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of UNU-INWEH and a distinguished environmental scientist, educator, and leader internationally recognized for integrating game theory and decision analysis into conventional water resources management models. His work challenged the assumption of perfect cooperation in human-water systems and showed why technically optimal solutions often fail when they do not reflect real-world incentives, competing interests and institutional constraints. By bringing human behaviour into water modelling, he helped open new pathways for understanding water conflict, improving governance and fostering cooperation in regions where trust is scarce.

Professor Kaveh Madani has been named the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate. The announcement was made at the World Water Day ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, on 18 March 2026. The prize will be formally presented by H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden during World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2026. Often described as the ‘Nobel Prize of Water’, the Stockholm Water Prize is the most prestigious water award and honours outstanding contributions to the sustainable use and protection of water resources. Professor Madani’s selection is also a historic milestone for the global water community: at 44, he is the youngest laureate in the prize’s history, as well as the first UN official and the first former politician to receive the honour. The official Stockholm Water Prize citation recognizes Professor Madani for his “unique combination of groundbreaking research on water resources management with policy, diplomacy and global outreach, often under personal risk and political complexity".

Leading experts and diplomats will also join this briefing and dialogue to present the key findings of the report and examine their implications for international policy and governance.

More information: https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/events/global-water-bankruptcy-stakeholder-briefing-and-dialogue-with-prof-kaveh-madani/

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