Has the world entered an era of ‘water bankruptcy’?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.2 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

Last week, a UN report declared that the world has entered an era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ with many human water systems past the point at which they can be restored to former levels. To find out what this could look like, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, who has been reporting on Iran’s severe water crisis. And Mohammad Shamsudduha, professor of water crisis and risk reduction in the department of risk and disaster reduction at University College London, explains how the present situation arose and what can be done to bring water supplies back from the brink. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:12.0	Among Iran's many natural wonders is Lake Ermia.
0:16.9	Lake Armenia was the Middle East largest lake. It was a huge tourist attraction.
0:23.0	Very, very beautiful.
0:24.1	I've only obviously seen the photos of what it used to be like.
0:27.6	The turquoise green waters once spanned an area twice as large as Luxembourg
0:33.0	and supported migratory birds, shrimp and nearby agriculture.
0:38.2	But the reason that Patrick Wintour, the Guardian's diplomatic editor,
0:42.3	has only seen pictures of this scene,
0:45.0	is because over the past few decades, it's been disappearing.
0:50.0	It's just slowly but steadily evaporated,
0:59.5	and the pictures of it becoming smaller and smaller are totally tragic.
1:10.0	Today, Lake Hermia is only half a metre deep. What's left often turns red from algae blooms, but mostly it's gone.
1:15.6	It's just a miserable, miserable sight. It's just a salt desert rather than a salt lake.
1:22.6	Some of the experts spoke to said that one of the problems is that there's going to be these salt desert storms, which means the salt itself will then move into other agricultural land and make it impossible to grow.
1:29.3	The transformation of Lake Ermia into a salt desert
1:33.3	is having wide-ranging effects on the environment and the economy,
1:37.3	as well as impacting health and warming regional weather.
1:41.3	Some experts believe the lake has reached a point of no return.
1:45.7	It isn't a lack of thought about this crisis. It's an inability to act on it.
1:54.7	What's happened to Ermia reflects a wider water crisis facing Iran, but it's not alone.
2:01.0	According to a report published by the UN last week,
	...

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