NEW YORK: A quarter of the world’s people are just a few dry spells away from facing dangerous water shortages, a US think tank warned on Tuesday, with India home to the bulk at risk of running dry.
Seventeen countries face “extremely high water stress” because they consume 80 per cent of their available water annually, a situation worsened by more frequent dry shocks tied to climate change, the World Resources Institute (WRI) said.
“We’re currently facing a global water crisis,” said Betsy Otto, director of WRI’s global water programme.
New data in WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas showed the lion’s share of the most thirsty countries are located in the largely arid Middle East and North Africa region. Qatar is the most water-stressed country, followed by Israel and Lebanon.
India ranked 13th among “extremely high” water-stressed nations. But with a population of more than 1.3 billion, it has over three times more people than the other 16 countries combined whose agriculture, industry and municipalities depend on avoiding water “bankruptcy”.
In recent weeks, India’s sixth-largest city, Chennai, was the latest metropolis worldwide to warn its taps could run dry, as reservoir levels plunged. That followed similar countdowns to water “Day Zero” in South Africa’s Cape Town last year and Brazil’s Sao Paulo in 2015, WRI said. — Reuters
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