Water Limitations

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource and ensuring an adequate supply is a key concern.

With the world's population projected to increase by about 50% by the year 2050, the stresses on available water supply are growing, both for agricultural production and human consumption.

Substantial amounts of agricultural production are reliant on underground aquifers which are depleting fast. As an example, China currently mines around 40 billion tonnes of fossil water from the aquifer beneath the Hai Basin. When the aquifer runs dry, the grain harvest in the basin will drop by 40 million tonnes – enough to feed 120 million people*.

Similarly, some 175 million Indians are fed with grain produced with water from wells that will soon go dry**.

Water consumption is compounded by a global shift in diet. towards more water-intensive commodities. Growing demand for meat, particularly beef and dairy products, require disproportionately quantities of water to produce.

Go to Supply Driver - Climate Change

*Data from the a World Bank study cited in Brown, L Black, B and Hussein, G (2007), “Aquifer depletion”
**L Brown – Earth Policy Institute