SRINAGAR, India, April 30 (IPS) – A recently released UN report raises urgent concerns that the world’s push towards clean energy and digital technologies is sparking a hidden crisis in some of the planet’s most vulnerable areas, where mining for critical minerals is depleting water supplies, harming health and deepening inequality.
Report, Critical Minerals, Water Insecurity and InjusticeIssued by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-Inveh)Warns that the race for minerals needed for electric vehicles, renewable energy and artificial intelligence could repeat the injustices of the fossil fuel era.
The demand for these minerals is expected to increase dramatically in the coming decades. According to the report, global demand could quadruple by 2050, with lithium, cobalt and graphite seeing growth of up to 500 percent. These materials are indispensable for batteries, solar panels and digital infrastructure.
UNU-INWEH Director Professor Kaveh Madani, who led the investigation team, told IPS News in an exclusive interview that the world lacks an enforceable governance model for critical minerals.
He said that without binding international agreements, laws and policies, environmental and health costs – particularly water scarcity and pollution – are pushed into mining areas, leaving affected communities without effective accountability or recourse.
Madani said, “Climate, energy, sustainability and so-called “green” policies are narrowly carbon-focused. Demand projections are driven by decarbonization targets, but water security, health and WASH impacts are not hard constraints in transition planning. As a result, mineral extraction expands even in extremely water-stressed areas.”
He said trade and industrial policies reinforce structural inequalities and high-income economies retain control over refining, manufacturing, finance and intellectual property, while mineral-rich countries are locked into crude extraction with weak profit-sharing. “Taken together, these failures perpetuate inequality rather than drive equitable change,” Madani told IPS.
The report highlights water as the most immediate and serious casualty of this global infection. Mining operations require large amounts of water and often contaminate local sources.
To produce just one ton of lithium it requires approximately 1.9 million liters of water. In 2024 alone, global lithium production could consume an estimated 456 billion litres, equivalent to the annual domestic water needs of approximately 62 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, home to one of the world’s richest lithium deposits, up to 65 percent of regional water use is due to mining, increasing shortages for local communities and farmers.
In the so-called Lithium Triangle, spanning Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, groundwater levels are falling. The report cites evidence of declining water levels and disrupted ecosystems as saltwater extraction alters groundwater systems.
“Everyone needs money. But everyone also needs basic things like water,” the report quoted a resident of Bolivia’s Uyuni region as saying.
Cases of birth defects, miscarriage and chronic diseases
Toxic chemicals and heavy metals released during extraction often leach into rivers, soil and groundwater.
The report documents widespread pollution in mining areas such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where cobalt extraction is concentrated. In some areas, rivers have become highly acidic, with pH levels below 4.5, making the water unsafe for drinking and agriculture.
The health effects are serious. In communities near mining sites, 72 percent of respondents reported skin diseases, while more than half of the women reported gynecological problems. Long-term exposure to contaminated water has also been linked to cases of birth defects, miscarriages and chronic diseases.
Children are especially vulnerable. Studies cited in the report show higher rates of congenital abnormalities as well as an increased risk of developmental disorders in areas near mining activity.
“These are not isolated cases. They reflect systemic health disparities driven by environmental exposures,” the report said.
Who benefits and who pays?
Beyond health, water scarcity and pollution are undermining traditional livelihoods. Farming, fishing and livestock rearing are becoming difficult in mining areas.
in bolivia, Lithium extraction has reduced water availability for quinoa cultivation, a major crop. In parts of Africa, fish populations have declined due to river pollution, cutting off a major source of food and income.
In some cases, mining operations displace entire communities. Indigenous populations, whose lands often contain mineral deposits, are most affected.
The report estimates that more than half of significant mineral projects are located on or near indigenous territories.
The main finding of the report is the imbalance between who benefits and who has to pay the costs.
While extraction occurs largely in the global South, economic and technological benefits are concentrated in rich countries. Countries rich in minerals often lack the infrastructure and capacity to process them, limiting their role to low-value extraction.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which produces more than 60 percent of the world’s cobalt, more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day.
Meanwhile, profits flow to multinational corporations and industrial economies dominated by refining and manufacturing.
The report describes this dynamic as the “structural sustainability paradox”, where environmental gains achieved in developed countries are effectively subsidized by ecological and social harms in poorer regions.
Experts warn that the current trajectory could repeat patterns seen in the fossil fuel industry.
“The clean energy transition is not automatic. Without deliberate policy intervention, it could reproduce extractive colonialism under a new label,” the report said.
Communities in mining areas are increasingly being described as “sacrifice zones”, areas where environmental degradation and human suffering are accepted as the price of global progress.
The report recommends stronger international regulations, mandatory environmental standards and greater transparency in supply chains. It also urges investment in recycling and circular economy models, as well as the adoption of technologies that use less water, to reduce reliance on new mining.
Importantly, it emphasizes the need to involve local communities in decision making and ensure they benefit from resource extraction. “Achieving climate goals should not come at the expense of those least able to afford the costs,” the report says.
need for strategic policy
Dr. Abraham NunboguA practical step forward to move up the value chain and retain greater economic benefits is a strategic industrial policy: using export conditions, licensing or joint venture requirements to promote local refining, processing and manufacturing, UNU-INWEH scientist and lead author of the report told Inter Press Service.
“Second, benefit-sharing and reinvestment mandates: legally allocating a portion of mineral revenues to water infrastructure, health systems, skills training and downstream industrial capacity. Third, regional value-chain cooperation: pooling resources across neighboring countries to achieve economies of scale in processing and manufacturing that individual countries cannot access alone,” Nanbogu said.
He said the final step would be to address power imbalances by linking mineral access to ethical sourcing standards and technology transfer obligations in trade agreements.
IPS UN Bureau Report
© Inter Press Service (20260430085529) – All rights reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
