Coordinating the UN's work on water and sanitation

Water Scarcity

Water scarcity can mean scarcity in availability due to physical shortage, or scarcity in access due to the failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply or due to a lack of adequate infrastructure.

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.

Facts and Figures

Over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. (UN, 2018)
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. (UNESCO, 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).

Level of water stress

Water stress starts when the water available in a country drops below 1 700 m3/year or 4 600 litres/day per person. When the 1 000 m3/year or about 2 700 litres/day per person threshold is crossed, water scarcity is experienced. Absolute water scarcity is considered for countries with less 500 m3/year or roughly 1 400 litres/day per person. By this definition, 49 countries are water stressed, 9 of which experience water scarcity and 21 absolute water scarcity.

Water Scarcity

Challenges

Opportunities

Links