According to the most detailed water scarcity assessment to date, entitled Four Billion People Facing Severe Water Scarcity, published in the Journal Science Advances, previous global water scarcity assessments have sorely underestimated the amount of water scarcity because they filed to capture seasonal fluctuations in water availability and consumption.
This study, conducted by researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, looked closely at various details, including:
- Using monthly averages of water availability;
- Analysing water supply and consumption at a scale that included municipal, industrial, and agriculture data; and
- Apportioning water to maintain ecosystem health
The study defined water scarcity as the consumption of more fresh groundwater and surface water than is available after upstream use and water required for ecosystems, estimated at between 60- 80% of natural runoff, was deducted.
This led them to the conclusion that more people than previously thought live with extreme water scarcity at least part of the year.
According to the report, an approximate 4 billion people, or two-thirds of the global population, live under extreme water scarcity at least one month of every year; around half of these live in China and India. Previous studies estimated that this figure was between 1.7 billion and 3.1 billion. Half a billion people face year-round severe water scarcity.
Other countries where there is widespread water scarcity include Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Mexico. In the US, California, Florida, Texas and other western and southern states are most affected by severe water scarcity. Around half a billion individuals, most of who live in India and Pakistan, suffer water scarcity year-round. The entire population in Saudi Arabia and Yemen have year-round water scarcity.
While the study was far more in-depth than similar previous studies, some feel that it still did not go deep enough; it did not look at manmade alterations to water flows, which include desalination, reservoirs, and transfers of water between river basins, all of which affect water scarcity.
The study concluded that increasing water-use efficiencies, better sharing of the limited freshwater resources, and putting a cap on water consumption by river basin will greatly help reduce the threat to human welfare and biodiversity from water scarcity.
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