United Nations warns of looming worldwide water crisis
United Nations warns of looming worldwide water crisis
The United Nations issued a report stating that two in three people will face water shortages by 2025. It reports that more than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by the year 2025 if the world continues consuming water at the same rate. The new report says that another 2.5 billion people will live in areas where it will be difficult to find sufficient fresh water to meet their needs. It warns that fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict. The looming crisis is being blamed on mismanagement of existing water resources,population growth and changing weather patterns. The areas most at risk from the growing water scarcity are in semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. But according to new figures from the UN Economic Commission for Europe at least 120 million people living in Europe – one in seven of the population –still do not have access to clean water and sanitation. The commission is calling for greater effort to be made in the developed world to conserve and protect water resources. The people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are most at risk.
The UN body says wasted water is costing Europe around US$10 billion a year. According to the report, by the International Atomic Energy Agency, an estimated 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation and more than five million people die from waterborne diseases each year – 10 times the number of casualties killed in wars around the globe. Less than 3 per cent of the Earth's water is fresh and most of it is in the form of polar ice or too deep underground to reach. The amount of fresh water that is accessible in lakes, rivers and reservoirs is less than a quarter of 1 per cent of the total. "Even where supplies are sufficient or plentiful, they are increasingly at risk from pollution and rising demand",UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said. There are fears that future competition for water could spark conflicts. People will be forced from their homes to seek water. "Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict", Mr Annan said.
