Without major changes, by 2050 more than 2 billion people will be in water-scarce areas according to the World Water Report of 23 UN agencies. Today, water tables are falling on every continent, agricultural land is becoming brackish, groundwater aquifers are being polluted, 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation. About 80% of all diseases in the developing world are water-related; many are related to poor management of human excreta. Urbanization is increasing water demands faster than many systems can supply, which increases the potential for rich-poor and urban-rural conflicts. Agriculture accounts for 70% of all human usage of fresh water, and according to FAO, water for agriculture needs to increase 60% to feed an additional 2 billion people by 2030. About 40% of humanity lives in the 260 major international water basins shared by more than two countries; history shows that water-sharing agreements have occurred even among people in conflict and have led to cooperation in other areas.

Increased demand for water also poses severe threats to the ecosystem. More than 3,000 freshwater species are listed as threatened, endangered, or extinct, and the degrading ecosystem will undermine human welfare in the long run. Achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without safe drinking water by 2015 will require 342,000 more water connections and 460,000 sanitation connections every day from now until 2015. The World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure estimated that the $80 billion spent annually on water systems for developing and transition nations will have to reach $180 billion in 20-25 years to meet humane water standards. 

 

More empirical studies are needed to resolve the mixed reviews of privatization strategies for water supply. We have to produce more food with less water. Use the UN's 2005-15 Decade: Water for Life, the UN MDG goal on water, and the World Water Assessment Programme to focus knowledge and political will on addressing this challenge, and create an international water organization to finance and focus research on increasing water supply. Focus on changing agricultural practices to get more crop per drop of water: better manage rain-fed irrigation, selectively introduce water pricing, add drip irrigation and precision agriculture, invest in watershed management, integrate water management plans, and develop plants that are drought-hearty and more brackish-tolerant. Convert degraded farmlands to forest or grasslands. Water scarcity will be solved by increased energy to transport, desalinate, and improve water distribution. Other investments should go to household sanitation, wastewater treatment, reforestation, water storage, and treatment of industrial effluents in multipurpose water schemes. Construct eco-friendly dams, pipelines, and aqueducts to move water from areas of abundance to areas of scarcity. Water can also be conserved by using animal stem cells to produce meat tissue (without the need to create the animal) and by increasing vegetarianism around the world. Replicate successful community-scale projects around the world. Finally, countries need to continually update national and regional water plans.
 

 

Africa: About 38% of Africans do not have access to safe water and sanitation. One-third of Africa's fresh water flows through just one river, the Congo, while only about 10% of Africa's population lives within the Congo's drainage basin. Economic development of Sudan and Ethiopia will draw on the Nile, making water conflicts in this region seem inevitable without successful efforts such as the Africa Water Facility.

 

Asia and Oceania: One in three Asians lacks access to safe drinking water, and half the people living in the region do not have access to adequate sanitation. Forced migration due to water shortages has begun in China, and India should be next. In 10 years, even in the best-case scenario, the water situation in China will be worse and will not begin to improve for another 5-10 years. The average water resources per capita in China are only a quarter of the world average; some 400 cities face water shortage today, and the water supply situation in 100 cities is very serious.

The International Water Management Institute estimates that aquifer depletion could reduce India's grain harvest by one-fourth. Asia's rivers have 20 times the recommended level of suspended solids, and the region is responsible for over 60% of the world's ocean-damaging, ecosystem-destroying sediment flows. Polluted water causes more illness than people realize, increasing health costs and hindering development. Japan and UNDP have developed WaterShowcase, see <www.watershowcase.net>, to provide examples of best practices on this challenge.

 

Europe: Water scarcity is not a problem in Western Europe except in the south. Some water issues are managed through the EU. Water utilities in Germany pay farmers to switch to organic operations because it costs less than removing farm chemicals from water supplies. Current agricultural practice has to be improved to keep quality of both surface and groundwater. Much of the current water distribution infrastructure needs to be replaced. Land ownership is still not clear in many locations in the transitional economies, resulting in poor mining and timber management and affecting water quality, which was already polluted under previous administrations.

 

Latin America: The $27-million Guarani Aquifer System Project will help Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay implement a common framework for managing the 1.2 million-square-kilometer Guarani aquifer, South America's largest. Approximately 85% of the region has basic water supply and 78% has sanitation, yet more than 130 million people still do not have safe drinking water in their homes. The laws are not effective and there is no culture of water efficiency. Megacities such as Mexico, Bogotá, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires will implode in 20 years if legal and financial actions are not implemented as planned. Moving people to middle-sized cities would provide a better quality of life and avoid conflicts. International and national treaties are beginning to have positive effects on water conflict trends in Mexico. Water purification is a problem in most urban systems. Biotechnology and applied sciences will provide a new approach to problem solving: food, health, and environment.

 

North America: Although per capita water consumption has been lowered over 20 years, 16 million people face water rationing in the United States. Agricultural water subsidies under current government regulation encourage waste. Water could become a class problem; poor people will be the first victims in free market distribution. Drugs, hormones, and pesticides are beginning to show up in some water supplies, with unknown impacts.