World’s $70tr GDP vulnerable to high water stress: WRI

Recent findings from the World Resource Institute’s (WRI) ‘Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas’ have shed light on a concerning global trend. According to the updated framework, Pakistan has been classified under the ‘high’ water stress category. This categorisation is part of a broader revelation that by 2050, an estimated $70 trillion in GDP, equivalent to 31 per cent of the global GDP, will be vulnerable to high water stress. This marks a significant increase from the $15tr recorded in 2010. Notably, a substantial portion of this exposed GDP is concentrated in just four countries: India, Mexico, Egypt, and Turkiye, collectively accounting for more than half of the projected economic risk by 2050. The data shows the world is facing an unprecedented water crisis, and the Water Risk Atlas finds that 25 countries — one quarter of the world’s population — are currently exposed to extremely high water stress annually. Globally four billion people, half of the world’s population are exposed to water stress for at least one month a year. By 2050 that number could be closer to 60pc, it says.