Global warming will continue to increase the frequency and duration of droughts, while increased population and industrialization are lowering water tables worldwide. However, over 90% of the world now has access to improved drinking water, up from 76% in 1990. That is an improvement for 2.4 billion people in just over 20 years. Nevertheless, that still leaves 785 million people without access, an increase of 122 million since 2015. About 45% of the world (3.4 billion) lacks access to safe sanitation.
Water consumption for about 500 million people is twice what can be renewed by nature, the volume of untreated wastewater increases every year, and about 80% of all wastewater is discharged without treatment (UN World Water Development Report 2021) and 2 billion lack improved sanitation. Nearly half of humanity gets its water from sources controlled by two or more countries. A third of humanity does not have access to a proper toilet or latrine, and 892 million people still defecate in the open.
Humanity uses 70% of its water supply for agriculture, 20% for industry, and 10% for domestic uses; however, the more developed nations use 50‑80% of their water supply for industry. As the developing world expands its industries, agriculture, and population growth, and as GDP per capita income rises, water consumption per capita will increase, making it impossible to avoid serious water crises and migrations unless major changes occur.
As income increases, meat consumption increases. This increases water and land usage, causing potential rural/urban conflicts as the global population increases by 1.8 billion by 2050. It is also likely to increase meat prices, making it difficult for poorer populations to get sufficient iron and protein for the neural development of children. If we cut out the “middle man” (animals) in meat production and grow meat from genetic material directly to food, then water, land, and energy demand is reduced as well as GHG emissions. If saltwater/seawater agriculture is developed along the wasteland coastlines of the world, CO2 is sequestered from the air, freshwater demand is reduced, droughts are not a problem, and algae can be produced (among other things) which is a major feedstock for growing meat without animals.
World leaders have agreed to create universal access to safe water and sanitation and others related UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Actions to Address Global Challenge 2:
- Increase R&D for lower cost of desalination.
- Invest in the development of saltwater and wastewater products such as fertilizer, algae (for biofuel and feeding shrimp), and recovering nitrogen and phosphorus.
- Implement WHO and UNESCO plans for universal water and sanitation access.
- Manage all aspects of water resources to promote efficiency, equity, and sustainable development (integrated water management).
- Create and promote smartphone apps to show water used to make products.
- Produce animal products from genetic materials without growing animals.
- Invest in seawater/saltwater agricultural development.
- Promote Increased vegetarian diets.
- Mass-produce electrochemical wastewater treatment, solar power toilets.
- Develop point-of-use water-purification technology.
Figure Renewable internal freshwater resources per capita (cubic meters)
(Source: World Bank indicators, with Millennium Project compilation and forecast)
Short Overview and Regional Considerations
Over 2.3 billion more people have gained access to safe drinking water since 1990. About 2 billion people do not have safe water access in their homes; 844 million do not have access to safe drinking water services (of these, 263 million people spend over 30 minutes to collect water and 159 million drink untreated water from surface water sources). Because of falling water tables around the world, climate change, various forms of water pollution, and population growth, some of those with safe water today may not have it in the future unless significant changes are made. Some 1.8 billion people gained access to improved sanitation facilities since 1990, but 2.5 billion still lack access, missing the MDG goal by 1 billion people.
The World Economic Forum in 2015 highlighted the water crisis as the top global risk based on impact to society and the eighth global risk based on likelihood. The faster the recommendations in this report are implemented, the less suffering, disease, and conflict will occur; however, progress is not yet on the scale necessary to meet the water needs of humanity and nature. Although groundwater reminds the primary source of drinking water worldwide, it is being depleted; its use is growing twice as fast as human population growth over the past century. Water tables are falling in many areas around the world; for example, it is falling 1 meter per year in several areas of India. Aquifers are becoming increasingly polluted, and the salinity in some coastal areas is increasing.
About 27% of the people in developing-country cities do not have piped water at home. Global water withdrawals have tripled over the last 50 years. Global water demand for the manufacturing industry is expected to increase by 400% from 2000 to 2050. Energy production uses about 15% of the world’s water and is expected to increase by 20% through 2035. Water scarcity due to drought, land degradation, and desertification already affects 1.5 billion people in the world today and is closely associated with poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. By 2030 global water demand could be 40% more than the current supply. According to OECD trend projections, half the world could be living in areas with severe water stress by 2030. Nature also needs sufficient water to support all life forms. Hence, business as usual could lead to several billion people living in water-stressed areas by 2050. This could change with new agricultural practices, policy changes, intelligently applied new technologies, and changes in societal values and behavior. Although water-related conflicts are already taking place, water-sharing agreements have been reached even among people in conflict and have led to cooperation in other areas; however, these agreements seldom include how to improve the efficiency of water use. Nearly half the world (excluding Antarctica) gets its water from sources controlled by two or more countries; increasing water diplomacy will be needed to prevent future conflicts.
Approximately 80% of diseases in the developing world are water-related; most are due to poor management of human excreta. At least 1.8 million children under five dies every year due to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and a lack of hygiene. The number of children dying from diarrheal diseases, which are strongly associated with poor water, inadequate sanitation, and hygiene, has steadily fallen over the two last decades from approximately 1.5 million deaths in 1990 to just above 600,000 in 2012. Some 502,000 diarrheal deaths can be attributed to unhealthy and insufficient drinking water. Of these deaths, 88% occur in Africa and Southeast Asia. As a result of efforts put into meeting the MDG sanitation target—to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation—there has been an increase in the coverage of improved sanitation from 49% of the population in 1990 to 64% in 2012, with almost 2 billion people gaining access to an improved sanitation facility during that period. Despite these improvements, 2.5 billion people (67% of whom live in Asia) still use unimproved sanitation facilities, and 1.1 billion people practice open defecation.
Aquaculture produces about half of human-consumed fish, which could be dramatically increased in many locations around the world while being careful not to displace native fish and another aquatic biodiversity. Agriculture accounts for 70% of human usage of freshwater; the majority of which is used for livestock production. Such water demands will increase to feed growing populations with increasing incomes. Global demand for meat may increase by 50% by 2025 and double by 2050, further accelerating the demand for water per person (2,400 liters of water are used to produce one hamburger; 8,000 liters to produce one leather shoe). The UN estimates that $50–60 billion annually is needed between now and 2030 to avoid future water shortages. Some 30% of global cereal production could be lost in current production regions due to water scarcity, yet new areas in Russia and Canada could open due to climate change.
The exploitation of shale gas through fracking could contaminate groundwater, and some have reported it has even triggered earthquakes. Cooling systems for electric power plants require large amounts of water. One U.S. study showed that nuclear power plants withdrew nearly eight times more freshwater than natural gas plants do per unit of electricity generated. Energy demand may increase 40% in 20 years; coupled with increased food demands, dramatic changes in water management will be required. Power plants could reduce water use with once-through or recirculating water through on-site reservoirs, but electric utilities that switch to wind uses no water, and photovoltaics use relatively little water for cleaning compared with thermal plants. Breakthroughs in desalination, such as pressurization of seawater to produce vapor jets, filtration via graphene-oxide membranes and carbon nanotubes, and reverse osmosis, are needed along with less costly pollution treatment and better water catchments.
Future demand for freshwater could be reduced by:
- Saltwater agriculture on coastlines
- Hydroponics
- Aquaponics
- Vertical urban agriculture installations in buildings
- producing pure meat without growing animals
- increasing vegetarianism
- Fixing leaking pipes
- The reuse of treated water.
Water should be central to development and climate change strategies. If climate change results in significant sea-level rise, we may see 20% of the world’s coastal freshwater become saline. In a desperate attempt to cope, people might use massive amounts of diesel to produce desalinated water, contributing further to CO2 emissions. Though large-scale solar desalination is problematic, nanotechnology has the potential to make solar efficient enough to be a real solution.
(Source: World Bank indicators, with Millennium Project compilation and forecast)
Development planning should consider:
- The lessons learned from producing more food with less water via drip irrigation and precision farming
- Seawater greenhouse agriculture
- improved rainwater management
- Irrigation watershed management
- Selective introduction of water pricing without repeating previously failed privatization programs
- Successful community-scale projects around the world
- Conversion of degraded or abandoned farmlands to forest or grasslands
- Household sanitation
- Reforestation
- Water storage and evaporation protection
- Treatment of industrial effluents in multipurpose water schemes
- use of wastewater (gray water) from washing on-site for toilet flushing and watering gardens
- Construction of eco-friendly dams, pipelines, and aqueducts to move water from areas of abundance to those of scarcity.
And why not develop decentralized methods for final purification of water at the point of tap water for drinking, instead of total and expensive purification at the central water plant, since most water is not used for drinking? Just as it has become popular to calculate someone’s carbon footprint, people are beginning to calculate their water footprint.
In the past 15 years, more than 180 cities and communities in 35 countries, including Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Paris, Accra, Berlin, La Paz, Maputo, and Kuala Lumpur, have taken back their control of water services due to disappointing levels of investment and increases in water tariff. Out of $75 billion invested since 1990 in purchasing power parity (PPP) water and sewer projects, 27% have been cancelled or are troubled. Return on investment in water and sanitation services in developing regions is estimated at $5 to $28 per every dollar invested. Providing universal access would imply a potential economic gain of $220 billion per year. Achieving post-2015 goals on water and sanitation development, and on maintenance and replacement of infrastructure, will cost up to dollar 2.4 trillion per year.
The UN General Assembly declared access to clean water and sanitation to be a human right. The Marseilles Ministerial Declaration, adopted at the 6th World Water Forum, called for accelerating the recognition of safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right and the implementation of obligations to ensure these rights.
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