Less than 1% of the planet’s water is fit for human consumption: why water security is one of the greatest global challenges

By Manuel Sauri – CEO of Agua Segura

When we think about the importance of water for our lives and development, we surely imagine the rivers, seas, and lakes that feed us, provide energy, and recreation. If we go a bit further, perhaps we reflect on the importance of wetlands and ecosystems that work to mitigate the effects of climate change. But there is a place where practically all the planet’s liquid fresh water is concentrated: beneath the earth.

Groundwater has enormous significance for human society. Its sustainable management and protection are essential to guarantee water security, food production, drinking water supply, and the health of ecosystems.

Groundwater: the invisible resource that sustains life

Access to safe water is a fundamental human right. We only need to remember the “water cycle” we learned in school to understand that what we do on the surface directly affects what happens beneath it. If the water circulation process is interrupted, terrestrial ecosystems lose their balance, and with them, aquifers deteriorate.

According to UNESCO data, over 95% of the world’s available liquid freshwater is groundwater, and it is estimated that 50% of the world’s population depends on it for domestic consumption.

These natural reservoirs supply not only our homes but also sanitation systems, industries, and, above all, the agricultural sector.

Agriculture and Aquifers: A Critical Relationship

Agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater on the planet. According to the FAO, about 40% of the water used for irrigation globally comes from aquifers. And it is estimated that to feed a global population of 9 billion by 2050, food production must increase by 60%.

However, the excessive use of groundwater for irrigation can lead to its depletion, reduced river flow, and loss of wetlands. Furthermore, if they become contaminated with agrochemicals, fertilizers, or other substances, their quality is jeopardized, and negative impacts on public health are generated.

Sustainable water management in agriculture is crucial. Adopting efficient irrigation technologies, improving soil infiltration, and reducing chemical use are key steps to protect this invisible resource.

Groundwater Conservation and Recharge of Aquifers

Aquifer recharge is the natural process by which rainwater or river water slowly penetrates the soil and reaches underground layers. But when areas are deforested, soils are compacted, or urbanization occurs without planning, this process is interrupted.

At Agua Segura, we promote nature-based solutions that allow us to recover this natural absorption capacity: soil restoration, reforestation of watersheds, wetland conservation, and rainwater harvesting systems.

These actions are part of integrated watershed management strategies aimed at strengthening the water resilience of territories.

Groundwater and Climate Change

Groundwater plays an important role in mitigating climate change. By maintaining stable river levels, they sustain ecosystems during droughts. They also prevent saltwater intrusion in coastal areas, protecting freshwater reserves against rising sea levels.

However, the water crisis has exacerbated aridity in regions where the only source of supply is groundwater. There, sustainable management is not an option; it is a vital necessity.

Water Quality: A Silent Challenge

In addition to depletion, groundwater contamination is a serious challenge. Chemical substances such as nitrates, pesticides, heavy metals, or hydrocarbons can slowly infiltrate and remain for years, affecting water quality without being detected.

Implementing monitoring systems, improving land use planning, and promoting corporate water responsibility are necessary measures to prevent this deterioration.

Making the Invisible Visible

Groundwater knows no borders. Therefore, its preservation requires a global, collaborative, and long-term perspective. According to UN Water, we need public policies, investments, and citizen participation to face emerging challenges.

We also need education and communication. Because making the invisible visible means teaching that what happens beneath our feet sustains everything that happens on the surface. And that without groundwater, there is no agriculture, no industry, no health.

The Basis of All Sustainable Development

Groundwater is a hidden treasure that we must care for, monitor, and manage responsibly. They not only guarantee access to water and sanitation (WASH), but they are also the basis of any sustainable development strategy that aspires to be just, resilient, and lasting.

Conclusion

We are facing a key resource for life. Invisible for decades, it now demands to be at the center of policies, investments, and collective consciousness.

Making the invisible visible is recognizing the infinite value of our groundwater. And acting accordingly.

Every June 5th, the world pauses to acknowledge something that should be self-evident: the planet we inhabit has limits. World Environment Day, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is an opportunity to bring the most urgent environmental challenges onto the agenda and call for collective action.

This year, at Agua Segura, we want to address a connection that often goes unnoticed: the relationship between plastics and the water crisis. A relationship that is not metaphorical. It is chemical, ecosystemic and deeply territorial.

Plastic Does Not Disappear. It Fragments and Reaches Our Water

When plastic is not properly managed, it does not disappear. It breaks down into increasingly smaller particles — known as microplastics — which end up in rivers, watersheds, aquifers and oceans. According to UNEP data, between 9 and 14 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. But the problem does not begin or end at sea.

Microplastics have been found in drinking water sources, agricultural soils, fish tissue and human blood. They affect aquatic biodiversity, disrupt the natural cycles of ecosystems and compromise the water quality that entire communities depend on to live, produce and develop.

The plastic crisis and the water crisis are not two separate problems. They are two symptoms of the same model of production and consumption that ignores the natural limits of the planet.

Water Security and Biodiversity: An Interdependent System

At Agua Segura we work with this reality on the ground every day. We know that water security cannot be guaranteed by infrastructure alone. It depends on healthy ecosystems, functional watersheds, soils with strong infiltration capacity and communities with the ability to care for and manage the resource.

When ecosystems become contaminated — by plastics, agrochemicals or industrial waste — that chain breaks down. Wetlands lose their retention capacity. Degraded soils no longer filter as they once did. Communities that depend on surface or groundwater sources become vulnerable.

That is why talking about the environment on June 5th also means talking about water. And talking about water means talking about the natural systems that sustain it: forests, wetlands, soils, rivers and aquifers. All of them threatened, among other things, by plastic pollution.

What Can Companies Do?

Organizations have a role that cannot be delegated. Not only because plastic and water are part of their value chains, but because they have the capacity to scale solutions that reach far beyond their own operations.

This year, together with Unplastify, we developed a series of special proposals for corporate teams looking to engage with this agenda in a concrete, meaningful and transformative way:

Inspirational talk: a awareness session on the impact of plastics on water, nature and communities. Ideal for building internal awareness and opening sustainability conversations within teams.

Solutions design workshop: a participatory session to co-create concrete responses to plastic and water challenges. An activity that combines creativity, collaboration and purpose.

Clean-up day: a collective action experience in contact with urban nature. Because change is also built with your hands.

These proposals are not just team-building activities. They are opportunities for organizations to integrate the environmental agenda from within — with teams that understand the problem, commit to solutions and build a culture of sustainability.

June 5th Is a Date. The Commitment Is Permanent

World Environment Day serves an important purpose: it makes the crisis visible. But the environmental crisis has no expiration date and cannot be resolved with a single awareness event. It requires strategic decisions, sustained investment and the willingness to change production and consumption models that have decades of inertia behind them.

At Agua Segura we believe that companies that understand this have a real competitive advantage: they build resilience before scarcity forces them to. They design solutions before regulators require them. They generate value for their territory before social conflict demands it.

Plastic in water is not just an environmental problem. It is an indicator of how an organization relates to the ecosystem it depends on. And changing that is possible, measurable and necessary.

Does Your Company Want to Activate Environment Day With Real Impact?

Together with Unplastify we design tailored proposals for teams that want to go beyond communication and connect with concrete environmental action. Talks, workshops and clean-up days designed to generate awareness, creativity and commitment.

If you are interested in exploring how we can support your organization this June 5th — and beyond — reach out to coordinate a call. We are here to help you design a water and environmental impact strategy that makes sense for your company and your territory.

Contact us at aguasegura.com and let’s talk.