Xu Wang at the Harbin Institute of Technology notes that global water accounting has a fundamental problem. Water moves across borders through rain, rivers, and underground flow, but each country reports its own water use separately. This creates gaps in the global water budget.
When a country cannot measure its water usage, that water disappears from international accounting. The result is an unreliable global picture of how much water is being used worldwide. Countries that fail to report their water use lose any ability to claim a fair share in global water discussions.
Wang writes that the water cycle operates globally, yet the accounting systems remain fragmented by national borders. The reliability of the world's total water usage budget depends on every country's ability to measure and report its consumption accurately.