Coming Soon: World Drinking Water Shortage

November 30, 2017

Coming Soon: World Drinking Water Shortage

The water shortage is coming. Today, 70% of the Earth’s surface is water but the shortage is possible due to the fact that 97.5% of this water is seawater, unfit for human consumption. Add to this that human populations and temperatures are both rising our supply scarcity is real.

In the state of California from 2011 to 2016, the state suffered its worst drought in 1,200 years. Its major aquifers receded at a combined rate of 16 million acre-feet per year, and roughly 1,900 wells ran dry. According to Nasa, it would take four years of above average rainfall in California to refill these aquifers.

Already in the year 2017, Mexico City built on ancient lake beds, is now sinking in some areas at a rate of nine inches a year. Due to the shortage, the city now imports 40% of its water.

Water demand globally is projected to increase by 55% between 2000 and 2050. The large majority of this demand is driven by agriculture, which accounts for 70% of global freshwater use. Food production will need to grow by 69% by 2035 to feed the the worlds ever-growing population. This, combined with other factors will lead to 1.8 billion people having to deal with water scarcity by by the year 2025.

So who will take the lead? Who holds this crucial responsibility of water sustainability and preservation? Currently less than 10 countries possess 60% of the world's available freshwater supply. We may see this as a valuable world trade commodity sooner than we may think. These top ten countries are:

10. Myanmar: 1,003 billion cubic meters

9. India: 1,446 billion cubic meters

8. Peru: 1,641 billion cubic meters

7. Indonesia: 2,019 billion cubic meters

6. Colombia: 2,145 billion cubic meters

5. China: 2,813 billion cubic meters

4. United States: 2,818 billion cubic meters

3. Canada: 2,850 billion cubic meters

2. Russia: 4,312 billion cubic meters

1. Brazil: 5,661 billion cubic meters