WATER CRISES

GLOBAL WATER CRYSIS

One of the biggest problems in the world is water scarcity. Almost all countries suffer from it and many of them cannot find the most effective solution to avoid this difficulty. The meaning of the world water crisis is very easy to understand, but solving it is very difficult. The amount of world water is limited, as the population is growing fast; the necessity of water use is growing even faster. When there is not enough potable water for a given population, the threat of a water crisis is realized. The United Nations and other world organizations consider a variety of regions to have water crises of global concern. The notion that water is plentiful – it covers 70% of the planet – is false, as only 3% of all water is freshwater. This limited resource will need to support a projected population of 9.7 billion in 2050; and by that date, an estimated 3.9 billion – or over 40% of the world’s population - will live in severely water-stressed river basins.

   It is not just population that is pressuring water resources. Excessive use is also evident: the global population tripled in the 20th century, but the use of water increased six-fold.

Between now and 2050, water demands are expected to increase by 400% from manufacturing, and by 130% from household use.

As water availability decreases, competition for access to this limited resource will increase. 60% of all surface fresh water comes from internationally shared river basins and there are an estimated 592 Trans boundary aquifers. Continuing cooperation and coordination between nations is crucial to ensuring water is available for human, economic and environmental needs. Although hundreds of international water agreements have been signed over time, how countries will cooperatively manage growing resource pressures so that they do not lead to more conflicts over water is not often clear.

Water insecurity can be exacerbated by drought. More people are affected by drought than any other disaster type. In 2016, 411 million people in total were affected by disasters and 94% of those were drought affected. Droughts are also the costliest disasters, with significant impacts on agriculture in particular; droughts cause an average US$6–8 billion worth of losses in agriculture in the USA annually. In China, drought has resulted in an annual grain production loss of more than 27 million tons over the last two decades; and from the 1950s to the beginning of this century, the annual average crop area suffering from drought has expanded from 11.6 million hectares to 25.1 million hectares, an increase of 116%.

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