World
The quiet collapse of the global water compact
Three years after nations pledged binding targets at Geneva, not one signatory has met its reduction benchmarks — and the agencies tasked with enforcement have gone silent.
Three years ago, beneath the vaulted ceilings of the Geneva convention centre, 193 nations signed what was hailed as the most ambitious water-sharing accord in human history.
Today, the compact is quietly disintegrating. Not one signatory has met the reduction benchmarks it set for itself. The agencies tasked with enforcement have, in the words of one leaked memo, "transitioned to an advisory posture."
This is the story of how a binding global agreement becomes, through bureaucratic erosion and quiet neglect, little more than a press release.
