One Water Committee at the Green&Blue Festival in Milan: “Not a Water Crisis, but a Cycle to Restore”

On the final day of the Green&Blue Festival, La Repubblica's editorial project on sustainability and climate held in Milan from 4 to 6 June, the One Water Committee presented the Euro-Mediterranean Water Forum, scheduled to take place in Rome from 29 September to 2 October, with an address by Director General Emilio Ciarlo. It was an opportunity to take stock of the most strategic challenge of our century — water security — and to outline the vision driving the Forum: not merely an event, but the engine of concrete change in the management of water resources across the Mediterranean.

Not Scarcity, but Imbalance

The starting point is a shift in perspective: this is not a water crisis, but a disrupted natural cycle that must be restored. The issue is not the physical scarcity of water, but its geographical and temporal distribution — an imbalance that, through appropriate policies and technological innovation, can be rebuilt.
This is the idea underpinning the “Blue U-turn” promoted by the Forum, supported by concrete data: by 2030, water demand in the Mediterranean will exceed available resources by 40%. An alarming figure, but not a sentence: demand can be regulated, usage optimised, and existing resources managed more effectively.

A Growing Source of Conflict

Water is increasingly becoming a source of geopolitical tension. According to Pacific Institute data cited during the discussion, 420 violent water-related conflicts were recorded worldwide in 2024, a rise of around 20% compared to 2023 — a record that confirms a steadily accelerating trend. 153 countries depend on shared water resources, yet only one third of transboundary basins are currently governed by operational cooperation agreements.

The Turning Point

The real turning point, according to the Forum's vision, will be bringing attention and investment in water to the same level as those currently dedicated to renewables and the energy transition. Water has — and will have — the same strategic importance as oil, yet the sector remains decades behind the energy sector, both in terms of investment and political priority on the international agenda. The problem is not physical scarcity, but distribution across space and time: an imbalance that can be addressed.