According to a recent study, published in Environmental Research Letters, Jordan, Yemen, and Djibouti are the most water-vulnerable and the vulnerability of water resources is a significant threat to the stability of any nation.
During the study, researchers examined freshwater vulnerability based on various categories including demand, endowment, infrastructure, and institutions.
“By evaluating 119 lower per capita income countries, we find that every nation experiences some form of vulnerability,†the study said. “Determining shared patterns of freshwater vulnerability provides insights into why water supply vulnerabilities are manifested in human-water systems at the national scale.â€
Some of the study highlights, which included researchers from Stanford University’s Global Freshwater Initiative, as per Stanford University:
- A lack of precipitation does not necessarily equate with water supply vulnerability.
- Institutional issues are the most common factors generating water supply vulnerability, affecting nearly 40 percent of the 119 low-income nations studied. The most prevalent issue was corruption, which can paralyze water development projects and regulation.
- Patterns of vulnerability are often similar in countries that would otherwise seem to have little in common.
According to one of the study’s co-authors, Barton Thompson, one of the main takeaways from this report is that an overlap exists in factors that create water vulnerability in fundamentally different nations.
“We have often incorrectly assumed that the lessons of water challenges in one country are not transferable to others,” he said.
South Asia and many of the African countries for instance face low volumes of renewable freshwater, poor or non-existent sanitation, high dependency on freshwater supplies from neighbouring countries and drought.
Guatemala, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka face other vulnerabilities such as a high numbers of species that need protection, high population densities, a lack of regulations and enforcement mechanisms for water regulation, and low governmental transparency.
Unless vulnerable nations do something drastic about facing up to and addressing their water vulnerabilities as much as possible, they are facing a very dry future without fresh drinking water.
Buy water dispensers online and hire water coolers from Living-Water. Get bottled water coolers and mains water coolers in London.
