Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) (IMAGE)

City College of New York

Professor Kaveh Madani, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH)

Caption

Professor Kaveh Madani, the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, is globally known for coining the term "water bankruptcy".

He is the author of the landmark UN report that declared that the planet entered the era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’ as of January 2026 with many river basins and aquifer systems around the world having lost their ability to bounce back to their historical conditions. The report sparked intense international debate by declaring that the global water problem is no longer a temporary shock, but a state of systemic insolvency and irreversibility. By shifting the discourse to “bankruptcy management,” he has forced many policymakers to confront the reality that for many regions, the old hydrological “normal” is gone forever.

Credit

CUNY CREST Institute

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