8 Countries facing extreme water scarcity
Water scarcity is a global crisis that is affecting billions of people around the world in some shape or form. There are however many countries that are facing a more severe crisis than others and we will look at 8 of these later in this article. The numbers and statistics for water scarcity are staggering when broken down and in many cases largely avoidable if effective action is taken to ensure water security in affected countries and communities.
At a high level, there are currently 7 billion people on planet earth, and almost 30% of them are affected by water scarcity. A further 2 billion people lack access to water services and face an inadequate supply of water on a daily basis. Four billion people are directly affected by water scarcity in at least one month of the year. There are approximately 1.2 billion people who live in areas of physical scarcity and that number is expected to increase by a further 500 million people in the years to come.
If you turned on your tap this morning and fresh clean water came out, and this is your everyday experience, then you are one of the most fortunate people on planet earth. For 3 out of 10 people this is not the reality and their families often pay the price for this lack of water in a multitude of ways.
While climate change and drought play a huge part in the most water-stressed countries, in many countries facing scarcity, it is not a physical scarcity but rather an economic scarcity. Economic scarcity due to a lack of appropriate infrastructure currently affects 1.6 billion people. Another staggering statistic to bear in mind is that every year, water-borne diseases kill more people than all forms of violence combined (3.4 million people). Of these deaths, 43% are children under the age of 5. In the developing world, 80% of all illnesses are linked to water.
The causes of water scarcity or water stress are as varied as they are complex. While climate change and global warming are playing a huge part, particularly in the disruption of global weather patterns, human activities, are also taking their toll on the quality and reliability of natural water sources. Wastewater due to industrial activity and untreated sewage water pollute and contaminate naturally available water resources. In fact, 80% of the world’s wastewater is not currently treated and is simply dumped into water bodies around the world. This is something that urgently needs to be addressed.
Another reason for water scarcity is the overuse of water resources by agriculture. Agricultural withdrawals account for almost 70% of most countries' water withdrawals each year. In many countries, the water withdrawals are at a faster rate than they are being replenished and this leads to an increasingly large deficit.
Population growth specifically in urban areas further contributes to the problem, and the ability to meet the growing demand is severely restricted by insufficient water infrastructure, collapsed or poorly maintained water infrastructure, as well as reduced availability of water due to drought or contamination of water sources.
In some countries, like Syria, armed conflict severely affects available water supply as infrastructure is destroyed, usurped, and/or water sources poisoned in the process.
As a result of the above, water scarcity is common even in countries with adequate water resources. In fact, there are 17 countries according to Data from the World Resources Institute (WRI), aqueduct tools, that will face “extremely high” levels of baseline water stress in the immediate future. Extremely high water stress occurs when 80% of the available supply is withdrawn by the specific country on average per year. Nearly 1.8 billion people inhabit these seventeen countries, which represents a quarter of the world’s population.
These countries appear to be veering towards an increasing water crisis, with the potential of even more severe shortages in the next few years. While India is only 13th on a list published by the WRI, of countries facing extremely high water risk, it has 3 times the population of all the other countries facing a similar or worse situation. The impact therefore on the human population and life is therefore greater than all the other 16 countries combined.
It is also worth noting that there are a further 44 countries representing a third of the global population that are set to face a “high” level of stress which is defined as when more than 40% of available supply is withdrawn on average every year.
In this article, we will only focus on 8 countries that face extremely high levels of water scarcity and water stress. Many of these are directly affected by climate change.
India
India is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. With over 18 percent (1.3 billion) of the world’s population, India has just 4% of the overall freshwater resources in the world. Although India has made improvements in the past decades to water infrastructure, there remains a huge deficit and some major gaps. Many sources of water are contaminated with sewage and industrial chemical pollutants. Over 21% of the country’s diseases are water-related and only 33% of the country has access to traditional sanitation.
Pollution of India’s major water resources from raw sewage, chemicals, decaying matter, and other substances has led to a huge crisis of available clean water from these sources. There is not enough infrastructure to effectively process wastewater which is something that the government with the World Bank are currently working on in a project that aims to clean up the River Gange.
A huge reliance on groundwater, particularly in the North has seen a massive depletion of this resource with many communities running dry. The groundwater is not being replenished at an equal or faster rate than it is withdrawn and there is a fundamental need to manage this resource. India is also experiencing increasingly erratic monsoon rains, on which the country relies for most of its water requirements. Coupled with climate change the situation is likely to get much worse. From drought to floods, climate change is increasing the pressure on already stressed water resources.
Many cities in India are predicted to face day zero in the coming years, and Chennai became the first Indian city that went totally dry. Heat waves and delayed monsoon rains saw Chennai’s freshwater lakes dry up and unrest erupt throughout the city. For 200 days, the people of the city lived without a single drop of rain, before it finally arrived in June 2019. That rain was not nearly enough to bring the city back to a normal situation and much has to be done to better manage water resources and remedy the situation long-term.
India requires an implementation of a more comprehensive national water plan and collective buy-in from its people if it is to turn around the water situation in the country. You can read more about the efforts being made to change the situation here.
Qatar
Qatar averages just 82mm of rainfall each year which makes it a very arid country and highly vulnerable to extremely high levels of water stress. It’s no surprise that one of Qatar’s main strategic goals is to improve water security and to ensure that they are self-sustainable in the future.
The oil-rich country has seen massive socioeconomic change and fast growth in the population since the 1950s. This has resulted in rapid urbanization as well as a dramatic increase in the country’s water use and water demands. Water use has rocketed to 595 litres per capita per day which is on par with the United States.
When you take into account that over 98% of the country’s potable water supply is produced by desalination plants and that until recently, the country had just 3 days reserve supply, that per capita number is crazy.
The opening of the world’s largest potable water mega-reservoir in 2018, dramatically increased the country’s stored capacity by 155%. This mega-reservoir consists of 15 concrete reservoirs connected via 650km of pipes to the desalination plants. This project has ensured that the country now has 7 days reserve supply. The project cost a massive $4 billion dollars and there are plans to expand the project further to 40 reservoirs in the near future. Wastewater recycling has also increased year on year and now surpasses 25%. The country is targeting to increase wastewater recycling to above 70%. Most recycled water is used for agriculture and to refill aquifers.
Israel
Israel is located in the most water-scarce region of the world and since its inception as a country has faced a water crisis. Over the past 60 years, Israel has set about a national agenda that focuses on solving this problem. This has resulted in a comprehensive diverse modern water management system in which their water supply comes from a combination of fresh groundwater, surface water, desalinated seawater, brackish water, and treated wastewater.
Agriculture like most places in the world accounted for 80% of water withdrawals. In addition to innovation in agricultural watering practices (drip irrigation), the country now supplements the water needs of agriculture with recycled wastewater. Up to 86% of Israel’s wastewater is recycled, a fact that makes them a world leader in this regard. In recent years, Israel has been able to produce a 20% surplus of water however the resource still needs to be carefully managed to prevent a return to a deficit. Prolonged drought or other incidents can easily affect the balance.
Israel is leading the way in the development of innovative technologies that help to produce clean water. From pioneering desalination techniques to recycling 86% of their wastewater, they are at the forefront in this region and much can be learned from them by other countries facing a similar situation.
Jordan
Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world with a per capita water supply of 200 cubic metres per year. It is predicted that by the year 2025, the per capita water availability will decrease to 90 cubic metres. This will make the entire situation in Jordan even worse. Compounding the water crisis in Jordan is the large number of Syrian refugees who fled to the country during the civil war in Syria. This places additional strain due to increased water demand on an already constrained system.
The government plans to dig seven big large wells to reach a deep aquifer estimated to contain large reserves of water in order to solve this crisis. Replenishing groundwater reserves is critical, without this, groundwater is also not sustainable as a long-term water source in Jordan. On average, the country’s population is rising by approximately 3 percent annually and they are expected to face even more severe water scarcity in the coming decades.
Pakistan
Pakistan is facing a serious water crisis that can mostly be explained by rapid population growth, climate change, insufficient and inefficient water infrastructure, poor agricultural sector water management, and water pollution. The country is reliant primarily on the Indus River basin for its freshwater supplies as well as groundwater.
The Indus River Basin is reliant on glacial snowmelt and rainfall for its source, both of which have been increasingly disrupted by climate change. Only two-thirds of the country's available freshwater supply is utilized with one-third being discharged into the sea. The agricultural sector consumes 94% of all the annual water withdrawals and a mere 5.3% is used by households with the remainder being used by industry.
Another staggering statistic is that only 36% of the country’s population has access to safe drinking water and water-borne diseases are one of the leading causes of death and suffering in Pakistan. Overall, about 60 percent of the population is suffering from one or more of the main diseases associated with inadequate provision of drinking water and improved sanitation.
Only 1% of wastewater is recycled, a statistic that places the country with the lowest treatment rate in the world. Effective water management, stricter and more efficient agricultural water usage practices, as well as adequate water infrastructure, are just some of the greatest challenges and needs that Pakistan must tackle as a matter of urgency.
Morocco
Morocco is currently facing its worst drought in almost 40 years which is having a crippling effect on its available freshwater resources. Dams are drying up, groundwater supplies are diminishing and several areas are now without adequate water supply. This drought alongside the effects of climate change as well as poor water resource management in the country has greatly exacerbated the water crisis.
With a per capita water amount of 600 cubic metres per year per person, Morocco is well below the scarcity threshold of 1700 cubic metres as defined by the World Health Organisation. Over 80% of Morocco’s water supply is allocated to agriculture, and the water scarcity that they are experiencing is greatly linked to the way water is used in irrigation.
The combination of these factors is most likely to trigger a severe freshwater shortage in the country. In the short term, water restrictions and alternative agricultural watering practices like drip irrigation are being introduced along with plans in the longer-term, to build 20 seawater desalination plants by 2030, which should cover a large part of the country’s needs. Another area of focus is to fix aging pipes and water delivery infrastructure that currently accounts for a 35% loss of piped water each year.
One area that Morocco has drastically improved on is its wastewater recycling. Since 2006, the country has built 153 wastewater treatment plants and now recycles 56% of its wastewater compared to just 6% in 2006. The intention is to reach 80% by 2050.
United Arab Emirates
Every year for the past 30 years, the water table has dropped by 1 metre. At this rate, the United Arab Emirates is likely to deplete its natural freshwater resources in the next 50 years. The UAE also has the highest per capita consumption of water of all the Middle East and North African countries (MENA), which are all facing similar water issues.
They also currently consume 15% of the total desalinated water produced worldwide. Despite a large number of desalination plants in the UAE, the country still faces a water deficit that is only going to widen as groundwater depletes and the population increases. Such is the severity of the water crisis in UAE that it is among the top 10 most arid countries in the world. With the heavy reliance on desalinated water, groundwater, and treated wastewater, the UAE is one of the least water-secure countries in the world.
To try and overcome the crisis, the UAE has started investing in cloud seeding technology with the aim to increase rainfall.
Botswana
For almost a decade, Botswana has been experiencing severe droughts and varying degrees of water stress which can be attributed to a number of factors such as a rapidly increasing population which leads to a huge increase in water demand, low and variable rainfall mostly due to climate change, extended droughts, incredibly high rates of evaporation, and a huge economic cost to secure water resources that they can exploit.
The annual rainfall in Botswana is just 416mm per year and the evaporation rate can be as high as 2000mm per year. This results in extremely low levels of groundwater recharge which means that at the current rates of withdrawal, the lifetime of groundwater resources in the country is limited to just a few decades at most.
Although droughts in Botswana have been common, the impact of climate change has caused the severity of these to increase. The 2015–2017 drought brought on by El Nino saw dam levels drop below 20% and many groundwater sources dry up. These chronic droughts brought on by the changing climate resulted in decreased rainfall which further aggravated the already fragile water balance in the country.
Botswana has no water supply originating inside its borders. It shares four river basins with its neighboring countries which results in a situation where 94% of the freshwater resources which Botswana can theoretically access originate outside its borders, making water resource management highly complex.
The government of Botswana is looking to work with neighboring countries to secure new water sources before the predicted day zero in 2025. These solutions mostly involve water transfer projects that would see water being transported to Botswana via an extensive network of pipelines (600–700km). These projects are mostly still in the feasibility, design, and environmental impact studies stage although there is a strong commitment to implement a solution.
Conclusion
Climate change is having a major impact on global weather patterns which is directly resulting in increasing water scarcity in many countries around the world. Increased droughts, less rainfall in key catchment areas, pollution, population growth, and poor management of water resources in these countries have left nearly 1.8 billion people without access to water services and they now face an inadequate supply of water on a daily basis. Nearly a third of the world’s population resides in the 17 countries and without action, the crisis looks set to grow.
Climate change data estimates that between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people or more than 40% of the world’s population live in places or situations that are highly vulnerable to climate change. With a further 44 countries facing a high” level of stress, the risk potential is very high that another third of the world's population will be facing the same or a similar situation to the 1.8 billion people in these 17 countries in the near future.
Just by addressing poor water management practices, inadequate infrastructure, the overuse of water by agriculture, and people’s water consumption habits, a huge impact can be made on water scarcity in the short to medium term. Water is inextricably linked to climate change and cannot be tackled in isolation. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is crucial in stemming the tide of climate change and its impact on water and ecosystems. The water and climate crisis requires collective global action now in order to secure the future of humanity and life on this planet.
