- Water Scarcity
- Impacts of Water Scarcity
- Water Crisis and Climate Change
- The “Commodification” of a Natural Resource
- Water Privatisation – Boon or Bane?
- Water : Human Right or Human Need?
- Water Crisis : The Solutions
Water is essential to our survival. Yet the day is creeping up on us when fresh water supplies will be in such dire shortage that our very existence will be threatened, simply because we’ve turned a blind eye to warning signs and continued with our destructive ways of living.
According to the World Water Council, during the 20th century the world’s population tripled leading to use of renewable water resources which has grown six-fold. “Within the next fifty years,” it asserts, “the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 percent. With the population increasing day by day coupled with urbanization and industrialization, it will result in an increase demand for water and this will have serious consequences on the environment.”
Already, there is more waste water generated and disposed in this age than any other time in the history of the earth.
Facts and Figures on Water Scarcity
- 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe clean water
- 2.6 billion people do not have access to sanitation
- 1 out of every 4 deaths under the age of five is due to water-borne diseases
- 1.5 million children die every year due to diarrhea, which is the leading killer disease (than AIDS, malaria and measles combined)
- Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
