Background

Awareness of the world’s water crisis is growing. Yet for the more than 1 billion people who do not have access to safe water and the 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation, action cannot come soon enough. Lack of access to safe water and sanitation is not merely inconvenient or limiting. It defines human existence in stark terms, determining whether babies live or whether girls go to school. It is a key factor in whether a family will be able to grow enough food or if women will be able to break from an exhausting cycle of searching for scarce water and have time to earn money or educate their children.

Effective action starts with understanding the problem. Even under the best of circumstances, fresh water is a limited resource. Less than one percent of the world’s fresh water, which is water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers shallow enough to be tapped economically, is available for direct human use. Most of the rest is frozen in the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland.

But the world is overtaxing its available freshwater resources by depleting them faster than they can be replenished through the hydrological cycle. Environmental degradation, population expansion, pollution, and inequitable allocation of water are to blame. As they often lack the technological resources to extract groundwater, poor countries, especially those with arid climates, are hit hardest.

The problem is global and rapidly growing. Currently, 31 countries are facing water shortages; that number is expected to increase to 48 countries by 2025 and reach 55 countries by mid-century 2050. The World Bank estimates that by 2035, 3 billion people living in water-stressed areas will not have access to safe (clean) water. Just as is the case when precious resources become scarcer, the potential for conflict will increase, especially since about 90 percent of countries in the world share their rivers or aquifers with other countries.

Given the serious nature of the world’s water crisis, bold, effective and concerted action is the only viable option. Yet rather than simply ameliorate a crisis, GWI sees opportunities for dramatic and lasting change in people’s lives. Examples of successful intervention from around the world confirm that access to safe water and sanitation can be the springboard for individuals and communities to transform their lives. Furthermore, experience on the ground can provide the evidence for shaping policies that affect the water access of millions.