Ballooning global population adding to water crisis - UN

The surging growth in global population, climate change, widespread mismanagement and increasing demand for energy have tightened the grip on the world’ s evaporating water supplies, warned a new United Nations report released recently.

As the world’s population has swollen to well over 6 billion people, some countries have already reached the limits of their water resources, according to the report compiled by 24 UN agencies.

“Climate change is going to make this situation worse,” said William Cosgrove, content coordinator for the UN World Water Development Report.

“Not just because it’s going to increase climate variability but because generally it’s going to increase the stresses (on water resources) in the places where they already exist,” Cosgrove told a news conference at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The ‘Water in a Changing World’ report, a comprehensive triennial assessment of freshwater resources, was launched at the UN Headquarters ahead of the Fifth World Water Forum to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 16-22.

Due to climate change the report estimated that almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030, including between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa. In addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people.

There is a strong link between poverty and water resources, the report noted, with the number of people living on less than 1.25 U.S. dollars a day approximately coinciding with the number of those without access to safe drinking water.

The report highlighted the major impact this situation has on health as almost 80 per cent of diseases in developing countries are associated with water, causing some 3 million early deaths. For example, 5,000 children die every day from diarrhea, and roughly 10 per cent of all illnesses worldwide could be avoided by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources.

“Demand is increasing. It’s creating competition and what we need are improved water management, better legislation and more effective and more transparent allocation of water,” said Cosgrove.

He noted that the strain on water resources increases dramatically as living standards improve, urban areas grow and consumption levels increase and consequently the demand for energy spikes.

Dramatic increases in the production of biofuels, including the tripling of ethanol between 2000 and 2007, and the need for 1,000 to 4,000 liters of water to create a single liter of biofuel, have also added to the pressure put on worldwide water resources.

UNITED NATIONS, Xinhua