economists, reveals that round 700 million people in 43 countries, including Pakistan, suffer from water scarcity today.
Global water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, hence leading to an increase in the number of regions that are chronically short of water.
By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions. The United Nations has estimated that with the existing climate change scenario, 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.
And in addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places would displace between 24 million and 700 million people. Currently, around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world’s population, live in areas of physical scarcity, and 500 million people are approaching this situation.
Moreover, another 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world’s population, face economic water shortage, especially in countries that lack the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers.
However, lessons can be learnt from extremely water-stressed countries like Singapore, which invests heavily in technology, international agreements, and responsible management, allowing it to meet its freshwater needs. Advanced rainwater capture systems contribute 20 percent of Singapore’s water supply, 40 percent is imported from Malaysia, grey water reuse adds 30 percent, and desalination produces the remaining 10 percent of the supply to meet the country’s total demand.
These innovative management plans have provided a stable water supply for Singapore’s industrial, agricultural, and domestic users-even in the face of significant baseline water stress.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 1.8 billion people worldwide are estimated to drink contaminated water.
Research tells that nowhere on Earth is the critical inter-relationship between water and energy more evident than in the Asia-Pacific region, home to 61 per cent of the world’s people and with its population expected to reach five billion by 2050. The Asian Development Bank forecasts a massive rise in energy consumption in the Asia-Pacific region: from barely 33 per cent of global consumption to 51-56 per cent by 2035.