Our Scans · Capital Under Constraint: Resilience, Scarcity & Systemic Risk · Weekly Summary

• [New] Most rural areas in Djibouti face significant hardships, with water scarcity disrupting pastoralist livelihoods and widespread food insecurity threatening socioeconomic stability. BTI 2026
• [New] Water-saving and irrigation technology: In response to water scarcity, Kazakhstan introduced water-saving systems on over 158,000 hectares in 2024, with subsidies and targets to expand coverage to 1.3 million hectares by 2030. itaadmin
• [New] Water scarcity could cost the UK economy £25bn over the next five years because of halted building development. Yahoo News
• [New] Growing water scarcity could hamper the expansion of lithium mining in the U.S., deepening its reliance on foreign imports over the coming decades, a new study finds. Live Science
• [New] Asia Pacific is anticipated to lead in 2026 with a share of nearly 38.2%, as it combines high population pressure, water scarcity, and rising government spending. Persistence Market Research
• [New] For Greek and Mediterranean farms, the climate risk story for 2026-27 is dominated by other factors: ongoing drought trends, summer heat extremes, and water scarcity. Wikifarmer
• [New] Supply scarcity: By 2028, the next Bitcoin halving will reduce block rewards to 1.5625 BTC. Phemex
• An extreme but plausible one-in - 25-year drought would put nearly 15% of economic output at risk, given that over a third of corporate loans (more than €1.3 trillion) go to sectors exposed to high risk of water scarcity. Bruegel | The Brussels-based economic think tank
• Worker scarcity will continue worldwide, with the global labour shortage reaching an estimated 85 million by 2030. Market Data Forecast
• Balancing concerns about rapid population growth with addressing future labour scarcity will be central to Canadian immigration policy over the next decade. RBC Economics
• As per the report 'Economics of Water Scarcity in MENA: Institutional Solutions' by the end of this decade, the amount of water available per capita annually will fall below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic meters per person, per year. IMARC Group
• Around 700 million people worldwide suffer from water scarcity, a number that is predicted to rapidly increase in coming decades. ClimateCheck
• The World Resources Institute data indicates that 83% of the Middle Eastern population already faces severe water scarcity, projected to escalate to 100% by 2050. / USA Nature
• Europe's ambitious artificial intelligence strategy is at risk of colliding with an often overlooked but critically important environmental issue: water scarcity. CNBC
• Climate change is forecasted to worsen both pollution and water scarcity in Shanghai, and highlights the urgent need for resilient and sustainable water management approaches. SpringerLink
• Under climate change, many regions in the EU - especially southern European Member States - and globally are expected to face severe water scarcity. EU Blue Economy Observatory
• SpaceX specifically cited droughts, water scarcity, local competition for resources, and regulatory restrictions as potential threats to future growth. IMFOUNDER
• Water scarcity driven by climate change could cost India $2.5 trillion by 2050 if irrigation infrastructure is not overhauled. The New Indian Express

Last updated: 16 July 2026