A January 2026 report by the United Nations University (UNU-INWEH), 'Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era', says many water systems can no longer recover to past levels, a state marked by insolvency and irreversibility. Over half the world's large lakes have shrunk since the early 1990s, about 35% of natural wetlands (some 410 million hectares) have been lost since 1970, and nearly four billion people face severe scarcity at least a month a year. India holds only 4% of global freshwater, and its per capita availability has fallen 73% since 1951.