According to the UN, global water stress, which is the proportion of water withdrawn for industrial, agricultural or private household use relative to available water, was managed at 18.2 per cent in 2020, bne IntelliNews reported.
It is impossible to determine exactly how high the rate would be by 2050 due to multiple factors, such as the world’s population or economic and political events in developing and transition countries. Despite this, experts note that demand for water will steadily increase and that many countries are already consuming more than they have.
A forecast by the World Resources Institute (WRI) showed that 51 of the 164 countries and territories analysed, corresponding to 31% of the population, were expected to suffer from high or extremely high water shortages by 2050.
If current trends regarding environmental protection continue, with a temperature increase of 2.8-4.6 degrees Celsius by 2100, regions such as Iran, India and North Africa are expected to consume at least 80 per cent of available water by 2050.
Experts point out that the problem of water stress will spread beyond developing countries. Southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy are already experiencing severe water shortages. By 2050, the situation in Spain will worsen significantly.
WRI assumes that France and Poland will also begin to experience medium to high water scarcity, equal to consuming 20-40% of available resources.
