“The global water crisis is a tragedy but is also an opportunity to transform the economics of water — and to start by valuing water properly so as to recognize its scarcity,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization and one of the commission’s co-chairs in a statement. With nearly three billion people already in areas experiencing unstable water trends and several cities sinking due to the loss of below-ground water, densely populated areas such as northwestern India, northeastern China and southern and eastern Europe will bear the brunt of global water mismanagement, the report says. “The global water crisis is a ticking time bomb. Even so, a lack of public funds being devoted to water issues by lawmakers around the world will do little to solve the problem. Governments “can’t even react to the symptoms of the water problem, let alone solve the problems if they’re being fiscally strangled,” said UCL's Mazzucato.

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Persons: ”, Ngozi, Mariana Mazzucato, we’ve, Mazzucato, Tim Wainwright, “, they’re, UCL's Mazzucato Organizations: World Trade Organization, University College London Institute for Innovation, Purpose, NBC News, OECD, United Nations Locations: India, China, Europe, Netherlands