Why is it widely believed there is a looming global water crisis?

Did you know?
Nearly half the population of the developing world at any given time is suffering from a disease related to unsafe water or poor sanitation, ranging from diarrhea to a number of parasitic illnesses. Around the world, the human population is growing, per capita water consumption is increasing, while already strained water supplies are depleting rapidly. At current levels of consumption and under current water usage practices, we are already tapping 50 percent of the planet's accessible freshwater resources.

As a result, rivers and wetlands are drying up, water tables are dropping, and surface and groundwater sources of all kinds are increasingly polluted. Among major rivers that no longer consistently reach the sea are the Colorado River, the Rio Grande, and five of the most important rivers in Asia—the Ganges of India and Bangladesh, the Indus of India and Pakistan, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya in Central Asia, and the Yellow River of China.

All evidence indicates that humanity is quickly moving into a period of history in which water will represent a strongly limiting resource for human activities. As an increasingly contested key to economic and basic human well-being, water is likely to become a resource over which communities, nations, and even civilizations will find themselves in conflict.

Current policies and practices are not on track to meet these challenges. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme estimates that we will miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people without access to basic sanitation by 500 million people. Africa is lagging far behind in achieving MDG targets for access to safe drinking water. Funding gaps to meet these challenges across the world exist on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars. What are the costs of inaction?

Next

Why is it widely believed there is a looming global water crisis?

Why should policymakers adjust the current approach to solving this crisis?

Why should the United States engage on global water issues?