Telegraph

World to run out of water in 50 years By Charles Clover, Environment Editor (Filed: 08/11/2001)

THE world will begin to run out of fresh water by 2050 because of the expected population growth to 9.3 billion, the UN Population Fund said yesterday.

All of the projected growth, from the present population of 6.1 billion, will be in developing countries already straining to feed and provide basic services to their people. Populations of the 49 least developed countries will triple in size, from 668 million to 1.86 billion.

Water supplies are already stretched in the poorest countries and water use has grown six-fold in 70 years. Worldwide, some 54 per cent of the annual available fresh water is being used, two-thirds for agriculture.

By 2025, it could be 70 per cent because of population growth. If consumption everywhere reached the level of developed countries, it would be 90 per cent. The fund's report, State of the World's Population 2001, said the Earth's resources were being used at a greater intensity than at any time in history. Since 1960, world population had doubled.

Last year 508 million people lived in 31 water-stressed countries but, by 2025, three billion will be in 48 such countries. By 2050, 4.2 billion will be in countries unable to meet the UN daily requirement of 50 litres of water a person for drinking, washing and cooking.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001