Water Scarcity and

Stress
◼ Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of
the world's population, live in areas of physical
scarcity, and 500 million people are approaching
this situation.
◼ Another 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter
of the world's population, face economic water
shortage (where countries lack the necessary
infrastructure to take water from rivers and
aquifers).
◼ Water scarcity is both a natural and a
human-made phenomenon. There is
enough freshwater on the planet for seven
billion people but it is distributed unevenly
and too much of it is wasted, polluted and
unsustainably managed.
Sources:
Human Development Report 2006. UNDP, 2006
Coping with water scarcity. Challenge of the twenty-first century. UN-Water,
FAO, 2007
Water scarcity and the MDGs
◼ The way water scarcity issues are
addressed impacts upon the successful
achievement of most of the Millennium
Development Goals:
 MDG 1: Access to water for domestic and
productive uses (agriculture, industry, and
other economic activities) has a direct impact
on poverty and food security.
 MDG 2: Incidence of catastrophic but often
recurrent events, such as droughts, interrupts
educational attainment.
 MDG 3: Access to water, in particular in
conditions of scarce resources, has important
gender related implications, which affects the
social and economic capital of women in
terms of leadership, earnings and networking
opportunities.
 MDGs 4 and 5: Equitable, reliable water
resources management programmes reduce
poor people's vulnerability to shocks, which in
turn gives them more secure and fruitful
livelihoods to draw upon in caring for their
children.
 MDG 6: Access to water, and improved water
and wastewater management in human
settlements, reduce transmission risks of
mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria
and dengue fever.
 MDG 7: Adequate treatment of wastewater
contributes to less pressure on freshwater
resources, helping to protect human and
environmental health.
 MDG 8: Water scarcity increasingly calls for
strengthened international cooperation in the
fields of technologies for enhanced water
productivity, financing opportunities, and an
improved environment to share the benefits of
scarce water management
Water scarcity
A video from Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
July 2009

https://youtu.be/XGgYTcPzexE
Water stress versus water
scarcity
◼ Hydrologists typically assess scarcity by looking
at the population-water equation.
◼ An area is experiencing water stress when
annual water supplies drop below 1,700 m3 per
person. When annual water supplies drop below
1,000 m3 per person, the population faces water
scarcity, and below 500 cubic meters "absolute
scarcity".
Source: World Water Development Report 4. World Water Assessment
Programme (WWAP), March 2012
◼ Water scarcity is defined as the point at
which the aggregate impact of all users
impinges on the supply or quality of water
under prevailing institutional arrangements
to the extent that the demand by all
sectors, including the environment, cannot
be satisfied fully.
◼ Water scarcity is a relative concept and
can occur at any level of supply or
demand.
◼ Scarcity may be a social construct (a
product of affluence, expectations and
customary behaviour) or the consequence
of altered supply patterns - stemming from
climate change for example.
Facts
◼ Around 700 million people in 43 countries
suffer today from water scarcity.
◼ By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in
countries or regions with absolute water
scarcity, and two-thirds of the world's
population could be living under water
stressed conditions.
◼ With the existing climate change scenario,
almost half the world's population will be
living in areas of high water stress by
2030, including between 75 million and
250 million people in Africa.
◼ In addition, water scarcity in some arid and
semi-arid places will displace between 24
million and 700 million people.
Relations of water scarcity,
stress and risks
◼ “Water scarcity” refers to the volumetric
abundance, or lack thereof, of water
supply.
◼ This is typically calculated as a ratio of
human water consumption to available
water supply in a given area. Water
scarcity is a physical, objective reality that
can be measured consistently across
regions and over time.
◼ “Water stress” refers to the ability, or lack
thereof, to meet human and ecological demand
for water.
◼ Compared to scarcity, “water stress” is a more
inclusive and broader concept. It considers
several physical aspects related to water
resources, including water scarcity, but also
water quality, environmental flows, and the
accessibility of water.
◼ “Water risk” refers to the probability of an
entity experiencing a deleterious water-
related event.
◼ Water risk is felt differently by every sector
of society and the organizations within
them and thus is defined and interpreted
differently (even when they experience the
same degree of water scarcity or water
stress).
◼ That notwithstanding, many water-related
conditions, such as water scarcity,
pollution, poor governance, inadequate
infrastructure, climate change, and others,
create risk for many different sectors and
organizations simultaneously.
 Fig. Relations of water scarcity, stress and risks

Source: Pacific Insitute Insights, 2014

◼ “Water scarcity” is one aspect of many that
contributes to and informs “water stress.”
An area could conceivably be highly water
stressed, but not water scarce, if, for
example, it had egregious water pollution,
but plentiful supplies of contaminated
water.
◼ “Scarcity” and “stress” both directly inform one’s
understanding of “risks due to basin conditions.”
◼ Companies and organizations cannot gain
robust insight into water risk unless they have a
firm understanding of the various components of
water stress (i.e., water scarcity, accessibility,
environmental flows, and water quality), as well
as additional factors, such as water governance.
UN initiatives that are helping to
raise the issue...
◼ World Water Day 2007: Coping with water
scarcity
 Ithighlighted the increasing significance of
water scarcity worldwide and the need for
increased integration and cooperation to
ensure sustainable, efficient and equitable
management of scarce water resources, both
at international and local levels.
◼ World Day to Combat Desertification 2013
 With the slogan, "Don't let our future dry up", it
calls for everyone to take action to promote
preparedness and resilience to water scarcity,
desertification and drought.
 The slogan embodies the message that we
are all responsible for water and land
conservation and sustainable use, and that
there are solutions to these serious natural
resource challenges.
Water Security
◼ Water security is defined as the capacity of a
population to safeguard sustainable access to
adequate quantities of acceptable quality water
for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and
socio-economic development, for ensuring
protection against water-borne pollution and
water-related disasters, and for preserving
ecosystems in a climate of peace and political
stability. (UN-Water, 2013)
◼ Water security encapsulates complex and
interconnected challenges and highlights
water’s centrality for achieving a larger
sense of security, sustainability,
development and human well-being.
◼ Many factors contribute to water security,
ranging from biophysical to infrastructural,
institutional, political, social and financial –
many of which lie outside the water realm.
In this respect, water security lies at the
centre of many security areas, each of
which is intricately linked to water.
◼ Addressing this goal therefore requires
interdisciplinary collaboration across
sectors, communities and political borders,
so that the competition or potential
conflicts.
◼ The post-2015 process must incorporate a
goal and related targets for achieving
water security, as this will address multiple
priority development areas under
consideration: conflict and fragility;
environmental sustainability; growth and
employment; health, hunger, food and
nutrition; inequities; energy; and of course,
water.
◼ It is safe to state that investment in water
security is a long-term pay-off for human
development and economic growth, with
immediate visible short-term gains.

Source: UN-Water Analytical Brief on Water Security and the Global Water
Agenda, 2013