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Title
UNFPA - Global Population and Water: Access and Sustainability
Abstract
Global population numbered 6.1 billion in 2000 and is currently growing
by a net increment of some 77 million people per year. By 2025, the
United Nations Population Division, in its 2000 Revision of the world’s
population prospects, estimates that total world population will be of
the order of 7.9 billion. The impact of this growth will be focused mainly
in less developed countries, where currently some 1.2 billion people,
the majority of whom are women and children, are living in extreme
poverty. The bulk of the population growth will accrue in the regions of
the world least able to absorb large increments of people, increasing
migration, threatening sustainable development and the quality of life.
The central role of water is evident in any systematic appraisal of lifesustaining
requirements. Even at the most fundamental level of human
survival and sustainable development, water not only has life sustaining
qualities, but strongly influences economic activity (both production
and consumption) and social roles. Fresh water is distributed
unevenly, with nearly 500 million people suffering water stress or serious
water scarcity. Under current trends, two-thirds of the world’s population
may be subject to moderate to high water stress in 2025. In the period
to 2025, it is expected that the world will need 17 per cent more water to
grow food for the increasing populations in developing countries, and
that total water use will increase by some 40 per cent. Both the shortage
and the uncontrolled excess of water can be life threatening, and
the essential balance in-between must look to achieve appropriate priorities,
equity and economy in the dispensing of this most vital resource.
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