UNITED NATIONS: Half of the world’s two-third population that live in areas that experience water scarcity at least one month a year are from India and China, a UN report said today.
The 2017 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report, entitled “Wastewater: The Untapped Resource”, said that two-thirds of the world’s population currently live in areas that experience water scarcity for at least one month a year.
“Noteworthy is that about 50 per cent of the people facing this level of water scarcity live in China and India,” it said.
The report also noted that about 500 million people live in areas where water consumption exceeds the locally renewable water resources by a factor of two. This includes parts of India, China, the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, Central Asia, arid parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, Central and Western South America, and Central and Western North America.
In several areas, from the western US and southern Europe through Northern Africa and the Middle East to parts of China and India, freshwater resources are already severely stressed and service providers are struggling to meet the ever-increasing demand for freshwater.
“Reusing water enhances freshwater availability for meeting human and environmental needs and is indeed already happening in several places. Depending on its level of treatment, wastewater can be – and is being – used for multiple purposes, ranging from irrigation and landscaping to industrial uses, and even as a source of potable drinking water,” the report said.
Another report issued by UNICEF on World Water Day said some 600 million children – or one in four children worldwide – will be living in areas with extremely limited water resources by 2040. (AGENCIES)
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