Worldwide water demand too much for supply

Climate change, extreme poverty, poor water treatment -- all signs of a growing water crisis:

Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing populationgrowth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access toclean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In lessthan 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceedthe world's supply by over 50 percent.

The biggest drain on ourwater sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of thewater used worldwide -- much of which is subsidized in the industrialworld, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservationmeasures or less water-intensive crops.

This number is alsolikely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Populationis expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050.

Insufficient water treatment may have been the reason for the cholera outbreak in Iraq, according to Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA).

Comments

[granny]

WATER:GOOD SUNJECT!

The quote: "The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide"

I think it would have been a more revealing statistic to give the "agri-business" usage alone, which does indeed,demonstrate "little incentive ... to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops". And with that produces food that is not nutritious, often actively unhealthy, destroys the ability of the earth of produce food, and the capacity of the crops themselves to remain strong and repoductively various with the mono-culture mentality, kills the natural pollinators, fouls the environment, increasingly infringes on the freedom of small farmers to produce organic food, and manipulates the market place to increase their presence versus alternative foods.

A statistic on how much of what is grown is then fed to cattle, rather than humans, would be good, too.

There's probably a fairly nasty statistic somewhere, on golf courses in arid landscapes ... (perhaps a "drop in the bucket" compared to global numbers, but with water the drops are what count...)

And the hotel industry, catering to the "upper class" penchant for clean linen every day ...

This is not a criticism of the story. Just thoughts for further reading...further thinking.It's not only big story, but perhaps the only story in the long run (unless the wing-nuts blow us to kingdom-come first)