Report examines the status and consequences.
An excerpt.
Water Is Running Out:
How Inevitable Are International Conflicts?
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), United Nations, October 23, 2006
"The world is running out of water." Many countries have been declared to be in a state of water stress or water scarcity, and some experts believe that in the future wars will be fought over water not oil. (Photo: Arko Datta / AFP-Getty Images)
The world's population is growing and water consumption is increasing, but water resources are decreasing. "The world is running out of water," stated Tony Clarke and Maude Barlow, activists and experts on water issues, in their article "Water Wars," published by the Polaris Institute in 2003. They said that by 2025, world population would increase to 2.6 billion more than the present day and water demands would exceed availability by 56 percent. People will live in water-scarcity areas, and disputes over resources are inevitable.
There are currently 263 rivers and countless aquifers that either cross or demarcate international political boundaries, according to the Atlas of International Freshwater Agreement, and 90 percent of countries in the world must share these water basins with at least one or two other states.
The Global Policy Forum, a United States-based nonprofit organization with consultative status at the United Nations, uses the term "water stress" to describe situations in which each person in a country has access to less than 1,500 cubic meters of water each year. The term "water scarcity" refers to situations in which each person in a country has access to less than 1,000 cubic meters of water per year. It is estimated that two-thirds of the world's population will live in areas of acute water stress or water scarcity by 2025.
Nowadays, tensions and disputes between countries are rising due to increasing problems of water scarcity, rapid population growth, degradation in water quality, and uneven economic growth.
"If current trends continue, we could be faced with a very grave situation," said former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, who is now president of the Green Cross International, an organization that provides analysis and expertise in environmental and economic issues.
