OECD-backed group calls for global pact to solve water crisis

Countries need a new international pact to fix a mounting water crisis that could cut economic growth by at least 8% and put half the world's food supplies at risk by 2050, an OECD-backed commission said on Thursday. Climate change, destructive land use and chronic mismanagement has put the global water cycle under "unprecedented stress", said the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), a two-year research initiative set up by the Netherlands in 2022.