Critical Mineral Mining Inflicts Water and Health Costs on Global South Communities

A United Nations University report warns that meeting global climate targets will require a nine-fold increase in lithium demand and a doubling of cobalt and nickel demand by 2040, with extraction concentrated in regions where communities already lack clean water and where environmental regulation is weak. The report describes this dynamic as a potential reproduction of colonial-era extractive patterns, with the Global South bearing costs while wealthy nations capture clean technology benefits.

The UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health report estimates that 2024 global lithium output of roughly 240,000 tonnes consumed approximately 456 billion litres of water, equivalent to the annual domestic water needs of 62 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. In Chile's Salar de Atacama, lithium mining accounts for up to 65 per cent of regional water usage, intensifying competition with agriculture and domestic supply in one of the world's driest environments. About 16 per cent of critical mineral reserves are located in high water-stress regions, while 54 per cent sit on or near indigenous territories.

Health impacts near mining sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies a significant share of global cobalt, are severe. Almost 72 per cent of people living near mining sites report skin diseases and 56 per cent of women and girls report gynaecological problems. Birth defect rates in maternal wards near DRC mining areas include neural tube defects at 10.9 per 10,000 births and lower limb defects at 8.8 per 10,000 births. Around 30 per cent of mining sites in the DRC employ children, and over 70 per cent of the DRC's population lives on less than US$2.15 per day despite the country's mineral wealth.

The report calls for mandatory international due diligence standards replacing voluntary compliance, legally binding mechanisms for ethical sourcing, strict pollution and wastewater controls, and independent monitoring of water use and heavy metal contamination. Investment in circular economy solutions including advanced battery recycling is recommended to reduce pressure on primary extraction. The authors connect the issues directly to progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals 6, 3, 1, 7 and 10, arguing that a transition cannot be called green or just if it moves environmental harm from wealthy to poor communities.

Key figure — 456 billion litres of water consumed by 2024 global lithium output