Water bankruptcy era dawns; Why green building must be part of Zimbabwe’s solution

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Mike E. Juru                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

AS a nation, we could have missed the event of January 20, 2026, where the United Nations (UN) made a declaration that changes how we must think about water. The United Nations University Institute for Water, En­vironment and Health (UNUIN­WEH), the UN’s “think tank on water”, launched its flagship report Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era at UN head­quarters in New York. Its conclu­sion is stark: the world has entered an “era of global water bankruptcy”.

This is not another “water crisis” alert. The UN argues that terms like “water stress” and “water crisis” im­plied temporary shocks followed by recovery. Water bankruptcy is dif­ferent. It is defined as a post-crisis condition where two things are true: long-term human withdrawals from rivers and aquifers exceed renew­able inflows and safe limits, and the resulting depletion causes irrevers­ible or prohibitively costly damage to water-related natural capital.

In plain terms, we have over­spent our annual water “income” from rivers, rainfall and snowpack, and we have drained our long-term “savings” in aquifers, glaciers, wet­lands and soils. Lead author and di­rector Prof Kaveh Madani states the uncomfortable truth: “Many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water sys­tems are already bankrupt”.

The scale is global,

the impact is local

The UN report finds that 75 per­cent of the global population now lives in countries classified as “wa­ter insecure” or “critically water insecure”. Four billion people face severe water scarcity for at least one month each year. Nearly 70 percent of major aquifers show long-term declines. The world has lost 410 million hectares of wetlands ― an area almost the size of the European Union ― and 30 percent of global glacier mass since 1970.

Economic damage from land degradation, groundwater deple­tion and climate change exceeds US$300 billion annually.

For Zimbabwe, this is not a dis­tant headline. We share the Limpo­po and Zambezi basins. Cities like Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare rely heavily on groundwater and sur­face reservoirs that are increasingly stressed. “Day Zero” scenarios have moved from Cape Town’s 2018 warning to a planning reality across Southern Africa. The UN report notes that droughts and pollution incidents that once looked like tem­porary shocks are becoming chron­ic in many places. If we continue to live beyond our hydrological means, we risk compacted aquifers, land subsidence in deltas and cities, vanished wetlands, and water sys­tems that cannot return to historical baselines.

Buildings: Part of the problem, essential to the solution

The built environment is deeply connected to this crisis. Globally, buildings account for roughly 30 percent of freshwater withdrawals and generate significant wastewater. Traditional construction treats water as an unlimited input and an unlim­ited waste sink. In a bankruptcy era, that model fails.

Green building invert the equa­tion. They shift buildings from wa­ter consumers to water managers. For Zimbabwe, three pathways are urgent:

1. Demand reduction through design

Green building standards like Green Star, EDGE and LEED mandate low-flow fixtures, smart metering, efficient cooling towers and water-wise landscaping. A cer­tified commercial building in Hara­re would cut potable water use by 30-50 percent compared to a con­ventional building. That is not just cost-saving. It is water left in Lake Chivero, the Manyame catchment and local aquifers. As the UN report urges, we must move from reacting to emergencies to “bankruptcy man­agement” with enforceable limits and transparent water accounting.

2. On-site water capture and re­use

Rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling for flushing and irriga­tion, and stormwater management systems reduce reliance on stressed municipal supply. In Harare, where supply intermittency is common, buildings with these systems build resilience for tenants and reduce peak demand on Zinwa. Stormwa­ter capture also protects wetlands and groundwater recharge zones instead of channelling runoff into flood channels. This aligns with the UN’s call to protect the natural cap­ital that produces and stores water.

3. Water-positive and regenera­tive design

The next generation of green buildings goes further: treating and returning cleaner water than they withdraw. On-site treatment, con­structed wetlands and water-sensi­tive urban design can mean a devel­opment adds net water value to its catchment. For valuers and finan­ciers, this shifts ESG from compli­ance to competitive advantage.

The valuer’s lens: pricing water risk under IVS

Under International Valuation Standards, ESG factors that affect cash flows, risk and obsolescence must be considered. Water is now a primary ESG risk. A building with poor water performance faces higher operating costs, regulatory risk as municipalities would tight­en bylaws, and reduced bankabili­ty as banks apply IFC and Equator Principles screens. Conversely, wa­ter-efficient assets show lower va­cancy, premium rents and reduced cap rates.

The UN report frames water not only as risk but as “a strategic op­portunity in a fragmented world”. For Zimbabwe’s property sector, that opportunity is green building. As valuers, we must now ask clients: What is your building’s water inten­sity per m²? What is the source risk of your borehole? What happens to value if Harare’s water tariffs dou­ble or supply is rationed? Those are IVS questions, not activism.

From acknowledgement to action

Prof Madani concludes: “By acknowledging the reality of water bankruptcy, we can finally make the hard choices that will protect peo­ple, economies and ecosystems”. For Zimbabwe, the hard choices are clear:

a). Policy: Enforce water effi­ciency in national building codes and municipal bylaws. Mandate wa­ter sub-metering and disclosure for commercial and public buildings.

b). Finance: Banks and DFIs should require water performance data for lending, just as they now require energy data. Green building certification should unlock better loan terms.

c). Industry: Developers must design for the climate and water reality of 2030, not 1990. Quantity surveyors, architects and engineers must price water efficiency upfront. It is cheaper than retrofitting during a drought.

d). Profession: Valuers must inte­grate water metrics into ESG report­ing and market analysis. Public trust in valuations depends on credibility that includes resource reality.

Conclusion

The UN has declared bankruptcy not to induce despair, but to force honest adaptation. We cannot build our way out of water bankruptcy with 20th-century buildings. We must build as if water were capital ― because in the bankruptcy era, it is the most valuable capital we have.

Green buildings are no longer a luxury or a marketing label. They are water infrastructure. They are risk mitigation. They are Zimba­bwe’s contribution to living within our hydrological means.

As valuers, developers and cit­izens, let us make Zimbabwean property part of the solution. Let us design, finance and value buildings so credible that we earn public trust and unlock capital for a water-se­cure future. The bankruptcy era de­mands it. Our children will judge us by what we build next.

l Juru is an accomplished business leader who is the current chair­man of the Green Building Coun­cil Zimbabwe, Valuers Council of Zimbabwe and CEO of Integrat­ed Properties. Previous national leadership roles include chair­man of Institute of Directors Zim­babwe, president of Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe, inaugural chairman of REITs Association, vice president ZNCC. He has sat on several boards in the private and public sector. He passionately leads the transformation of Zim­babwe’s built environment to sus­tainability.