The Earth is facing a global crisis, as water quantity and quality is projected to get worse, a new study has found.
The study, published in Nature Climate Change by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, used global water models to estimate how much of a crisis we will see by the end of the century.
Climate change is causing a range of serious issues across the world, but a main one is a lack of water. From accelerating water evaporation, to weather patterns becoming more predictable, it seems the globe is using more water than is being replenished. There are also other factors contributing to a lack of water including pollution and quality. In fact, this is the first study to consider both water quantity and quality in their research.
"Water scarcity is projected to get worse in the future, with an increase in the number of people potentially exposed," lead author and water expert Edward Jones told Newsweek. The author said in a statement that it is essential attention is turned to this "global water crisis."
"Studies like this are important for quantifying the impact of large-scale global change, be that societal or climate change, on humans," Jones added. "We hope to raise awareness of the water issues that will face humanity in the future, and motivate action.
"In this study, we show that water scarcity is driven by a combination of climate change, increasing water demands and water pollution. By extension, tackling the issue requires a combination of climate-change action, increased water-use efficiencies and reductions in anthropogenic pollution."
Using a water quantity and quality model, the researchers initiated simulations that told them more about the challenges of the present day and the future.
They found that 55 percent of the global population live in an area with a lack of clean water in one month per year, the study reported. The authors are concerned this could move up to 66 percent by the end of the century as conditions worsen.
Although water scarcity was an issue everywhere, the severity did vary by region. The researchers added that the U.S., for example, experiences a lack of water for a few months of the year. The same goes for Western Europe, they said.
A lack of water, however, was more serious in developing countries and persisted for a much longer period over the course of a year.
"Future increases will particularly impact populations living in the Global South, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. These are consistent results across the three combined climate and societal change scenarios we considered, albeit the degree of the increases change," Jones said.
"Under the worst case scenario considered, two-thirds of the population will face clean water scarcity at least one month per year. Under more optimistic assumptions, while the absolute increase in the proportion of people exposed rises to a lesser degree, the strong increase in developing countries is still extremely prevalent."
The authors also said that the water quality greatly contributes to water scarcity across the world. Until now, this has not always been represented in previous water-scarcity assessments.
"Specific to this study, a key aim of ours was to normalize the inclusion of water quality in water scarcity assessments," Jones said. "Compared to water availability, water quality is still somewhat an 'invisible' component, yet ensuring safe water for human use is as important as ensuring there is an adequate amount of water physically available."
Jones added that there is more work to be done in this area. In future, the researchers will aim to expand their approach to consider more water-quality constituents, he said. They will also need to consider this under more-extreme conditions, as climate change worsens.
"We know climate change is going to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme events (droughts, heat waves and floods). And we also know that water quality is sensitive to these events," Jones said. "More work should therefore be done to quantify water quality under extreme conditions, together with further exploring how sectoral water use and availability also change under these events."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about water? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
