Why is the world today confronted with a crisis of availability of and access to freshwater resources? (Answer in 150 words)

Freshwater scarcity is both a physical problem of uneven supply and a governance problem of unequal access.

Drivers

• Population growth, urbanisation and rising incomes increase domestic, industrial and irrigation demand.
• Groundwater over-extraction, pollution, salinisation and inefficient irrigation reduce usable supplies.
• Climate change intensifies droughts, floods, glacier loss and rainfall variability.
• Freshwater is geographically uneven; infrastructure deficits leave poor and remote communities underserved even where water exists.
• Transboundary basins generate competing claims, while privatisation and weak regulation may deepen exclusion.

Response

Integrated basin management, demand pricing with lifeline protection, wastewater reuse, rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge and cooperative river governance are essential.

geography, water resources, water stress, governance