Water and Sustainability in 2025: An Evolving Global Landscape
With climate change accelerating, the global water crisis worsening
and new resilience strategies becoming an urgent priority,
2025 marked a turning point in global water management.
2025 has proven to be a watershed year for the management of water resources worldwide. Not only has water climbed higher on political, economic and climate agendas across the globe, but the data and trends recorded over the course of the year have made one thing unmistakably clear: the water crisis is among the most pressing and far-reaching challenges of our time. Figures from the Copernicus Climate Change Service indicate that 2025 resulted one among the hottest years ever recorded, with global average temperatures approximately 1.48°C above pre-industrial levels and several months reaching anomalies of 1.54°C above the reference threshold. This rise in temperatures is accelerating extreme weather events, with direct consequences for water cycles, disrupting rainfall patterns, increasing evaporation and exacerbating drought and water stress.
The water challenge: alarming figures
During World Water Week 2025, held in Stockholm last September, alarming data emerged on the global state of access to water resources. According to the joint report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), presented during the event, one in four people worldwide – around 2.1 billion individuals – still lacks access to safely managed drinking water, despite progress over the past decade. At the same time, 3.4 billion people are without safely managed sanitation services, and 1.7 billion lack basic hygiene facilities, including handwashing facilities within their homes.
These are not abstract statistics. They reflect deep and persistent disparities. The most vulnerable communities – including those in low-income countries, fragile contexts and rural areas – are more than twice as likely to lack access to essential water services, with a gap in safely managed water coverage of over 38 percentage points compared to less vulnerable settings.
Drought and Climate Change
This decade’s water crisis is also manifesting itself in increasingly severe and prolonged droughts across many regions of the world, affecting both high-income and low-income countries alike. International reports show that extreme drought events are impacting areas from Africa to South-East Asia, from the Mediterranean to Latin America, with widespread repercussions for agriculture, energy production, natural ecosystems and food security. These conditions are largely linked to ongoing climate change, which is making seasonal anomalies more frequent, alternating periods of intense rainfall with extended spells of water scarcity.
The International Response
In light of this growing emergency, the international community has begun to adopt more structured and strategic responses. The European Union has introduced the European Water Resilience Strategy, promoting the protection of water cycles, investment in innovation and digitalisation of systems, and policies designed to strengthen resilience to climate change. Central to this vision is the “Water Efficiency First” principle, which calls on Member States to reduce water demand before seeking to expand supply. The approach underscores the importance of managing water within a circular and sustainable framework. At the same time, significant investment from the European Investment Bank is supporting resilient technologies and infrastructure to improve water efficiency, reduce network losses and develop more advanced treatment and monitoring systems.
A Circular Approach to Water
The current crisis highlights the urgent need to rethink water management as a strategic resource. Not only for communities, but for entire economic and environmental systems. Traditional supply-driven models are no longer adequate in a world where millions still lack access to basic services. This is where advanced water management technologies come into play, including wastewater treatment, recycling and desalination systems. A notable example is the major rehabilitation of the Riachuelo Basin, delivered by Fisia Italimpianti and the Webuild Group: a complex infrastructure and water pre-treatment system capable of restoring one of the most polluted rivers in the world and improving the quality of life for more than four million people. Similarly, the Jebel Ali desalination plant, built by Fisia Italimpianti, has supported the development and growth of Dubai and continues to provide drinking water to over one million people.
2025: A Lesson to be Learned
With its alarming data and emerging responses, 2025 served as a powerful reminder that water is a vital resource to be safeguarded and valued. Not merely as a natural asset, but as a fundamental pillar of health, dignity and human development on a global scale. Only through coordinated action, forward-thinking policies and innovative technologies will it be possible to successfully face the water crisis of our time and ensure fair and sustainable access to water for all.
