Human Wrongs Watch
World Water Day, 22 March 2021
Drought in Niger in 2011. Photo: WFP/Phil Behan
Water scarcity already affects every continent. Water use has been growing globally at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and an increasing number of regions are reaching the limit at which water services can be sustainably delivered, especially in arid regions.
Aerial shots of Ricefields near Baucau, Timor Leste. UN Photo/Martine Perret
FACTS AND FIGURES
- 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high water shortages or scarcity, of whom 1.2 billion people – roughly one-sixth of the world’s population – live in severely water-constrained agricultural areas. (FAO, 2020)
- Over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. (UN, 2018)
- It is estimated that by 2040, one in four of the world’s children under 18 – some 600 million in all – will be living in areas of extremely high water stress. (UNICEF, 2017)
- 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030. (Global Water Institute, 2013)
- About 4 billion people, representing nearly two-thirds of the world population, experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016)
- With the existing climate change scenario, by 2030, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people. (UN, 2009).
- A third of the world’s biggest groundwater systems are already in distress (Richey et al., 2015).
- Nearly half the global population are already living in potential waterscarce areas at least one month per year and this could increase to some 4.8–5.7 billion in 2050. About 73% of the affected people live in Asia (69% by 2050) (Burek et al., 2016).
Baher Kamal
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
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