As water systems move from stress to irreversible damage, resilience depends on how well risks are identified, managed, and mitigated. Our established water strategy and integrated water portfolio show how smart water management can support more resilient operations and infrastructure.
Water is a crucial resource for almost every part of human life. However, our water systems are already stressed, even becoming irreversibly damaged. Our ability to meet this crisis depends on how well we can identify, manage, and mitigate this threat.
For decades, water scarcity has been framed as a crisis by experts worldwide, an acute but temporary disruption that could be resolved through emergency responses and a return to historical norms. According to the United Nations Global Water Bankruptcy Report (2026), this framing is now dangerously outdated. Water systems are no longer merely stressed but irreversibly damaged: a condition the UN defines as water bankruptcy.
Water bankruptcy has two defining characteristics.
These dynamics are closely linked to climate change and now operate at a scale and intensity that exceed adaptive capacity: chronic groundwater depletion, river over-allocation, widespread pollution, land and soil degradation, and deforestation.
The consequences are profound. Three-quarters of the global population live in water-insecure countries, and around four billion people face severe water scarcity at least one month per year. Water scarcity is increasingly linked to rising food and energy insecurity, major economic losses, migration pressures, and geopolitical tension. Through global markets and supply chains, even water-secure countries and companies are exposed.
The UN Global Water Bankruptcy Report signals that water scarcity is no longer a future concern or a temporary disruption. It is a defining condition of the coming decades. For Siemens, we treat water as a strategic priority – both internally and for our customers.
We have systematically assessed our own water-related risks since 2014. Water scarcity increasingly threatens industrial core processes like power generation, cooling systems and urban infrastructure, areas in which many of our customers also operate within. We address these risks through targeted measures. Today, 94% of our sites have fully implemented our water strategy. The strategy integrates site-level, AI-supported water risk and impact assessments into project environmental management and supports resilient operations. We are committed to further reducing municipal water withdrawals and have already reduced them by 45% since 2021. This ensures that the solutions we deliver are both sustainable and reliable.
Water stewardship is embedded in our broader approach to resource efficiency. Within our Eco Efficiency framework, we aim to preserve water resources by implementing a conservation program at 100% of relevant sites. Our Water Target helps identify, monitor, and manage water-related operational and business risks. It enables us to systematically track and improve water efficiency, like how we manage energy consumption or emissions. This approach helps identify emerging risks such as infrastructure deterioration, process inefficiencies, or exposure to local water scarcity before they lead to operational or financial impacts, even in watersheds not yet affected.
Despite the severity of the global water situation, the path forward lies in structured recovery. As governments prepare for the 2026 and 2028 UN Water Conferences and the 2030 SDG deadline, investment priorities are expected to shift toward smart water management. In a world where water scarcity is reshaping economic and societal realities, the ability to design resilient, efficient, and transparent infrastructure makes us a core partner in systematic sustainability transformation.
Our expert colleagues with vast experience within water management illustrate how digital solutions support more resilient water management. In Spain, together with the municipal public utility company EMAYA, AI-driven Siemens Water Applications (SIWA) are helping EMAYA detect leaks, identify consumption anomalies, and reduce non-revenue water by analyzing data from conventional and smart meters. In Palma de Mallorca the municipal utility uses SIWA Meter Data Analytics within a smart metering initiative to better understand consumption patterns and support sustainable water management.
In Thessaloniki, Greece, we supported the local water and wastewater utility EYATH with AI-based monitoring in the city’s sewage system to help prevent sewer overflow and environmental pollution.
