2023-08-17 12:43:58
Water scarcity is increasingly emerging as a danger to humanity. In an update from Aqueduct, the Water Risk Atlas of the World Ressources Institute (WRI), it appears that 25 countries, home to a quarter of humanity, are already exposed to particularly high water stress. The organization estimates that a country experiences an “extreme water risk” when it uses 80% of its annual water reserves.
Today, two billion people are at risk of water scarcity, that is a quarter of the world’s population. Without intervention, such as better governance or better water infrastructure, the situation is likely to get worse. According to the WRI, a billion additional people might be exposed to this risk in 2050, even if we manage to limit global warming to 2.4°C in 2100, “which is an optimistic scenario”. « The world is facing an unprecedented water crisis, exacerbated by climate change,” warns the WRI.
Read also Drought: how do we consume water on a daily basis? (infographics)
Among the countries exposed, we find Bahrain, Cyprus, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar (the five countries where the situation is most critical), but also Belgium, which ranks 18th. « Industrial demand, which accounts for nearly 90% of all water needs in Belgium, is the main cause of this”, specifies to our colleagues from Release Samantha Kuzma, Chief Data Officer of Aqueduct.
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