Prospects are not encouraging

New research from Utrecht University, recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, highlights the urgent need to address water quantity and quality issues in future water management strategies. This is particularly true for countries in the Global South where the impact will be felt disproportionately stronger.

People need clean water for drinking and sanitation, as well as for the production of food, energy and industrial goods. As communities and policymakers grapple with water scarcity in the region, scientists are trying to shed light on the causes, consequences, and possible ways to combat this crisis.

The authors predict current and future global scarcity using simulations based on a state-of-the-art model of water quantity and quality.

Climate change and socio-economic development have multifaceted impacts on the availability and quality of water resources and the future demand for these resources. Changes in these three aspects are critical to assessing future water scarcity.
says lead author Dr. Edward Jones.

Geography plays a big role

Although global water scarcity is predicted to increase in the future, the changes and their consequences will not be the same in every region of the world. For example, the future growth of water scarcity in Western Europe and North America is concentrated in only a few months of the year, which is mainly due to the quantitative aspects of water resources. In contrast, increases in water scarcity in developing countries tend to be more spatially widespread and persist throughout much of the year.

“The increase in future impacts is greatest in the Global South. This is often driven by a combination of rapid population and economic growth, climate change and water quality degradation,” Jones added.

Water quality is also an important point in the overall picture, but for some reasons, scientists often ignore this issue, which is actually very important for safe water use. Previous estimates still mostly focused solely on water quantity.

Therefore it is key The aim of this study was also to normalize the inclusion of water quality. in deficiency assessment.

Jones concludes that lack of clean water poses a systemic risk to both people and ecosystems, and this is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. “Our study highlights that in order to turn the tide of the global water crisis, we need to focus less on eliminating water pollution as well as significantly reducing our water needs,” he says.