Assessments of water resources and their management

2. What is of particular concern regarding water resources?

Estimates indicate that 40% of the world population live in water scarce areas, and approximately ¼ of world’s GDP is exposed to this challenge. By 2025, about 1.8 billion people will be living in regions or countries with absolute water scarcity.

Already some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed drinking water services, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic handwashing facilities. Gaps in access to water supply and sanitation, growing populations, more water-intensive patterns of growth, increasing rainfall variability, and pollution are combining in many places to make water one of the greatest risks to economic progress, poverty eradication and sustainable development.

The consequences of such stress are local, national, transboundary, regional, and global in today’s interconnected and rapidly changing world. Consequences will be disproportionately felt by the poorest and most vulnerable.

As underlined by the World Bank⁵, lack of access to water supply and sanitation (WSS) constitutes a public health, economic, and environmental emergency across the developing world. Regarding the availability of water resources, of particular concern are:

1. the effective use of rainwater for direct consumption, for productive purposes and for recharging surface and ground-water supplies;
2. the reduced water quality through pollution, salinization and overexploitation by domestic, agricultural, forest and industrial uses;
3. the reduced water quantity / availability for consumption (human and animals) and other uses because of drought or over-exploitation of water sources;
4. the maintenance of the hydrological regime (i.e. recharge of groundwater, flood control – in catchments and watersheds) which is an important ecosystem service;
5. the extent and performance of water resources management alongside soil, land use and vegetation management for mitigating effects of desertification, drought, and climate change.

Urgent action is thus needed to provide sustainable urban and rural water supply and sanitation services to all and contribute to job creation and economic recovery.

Climate change and population growth are expected to put additional pressure on water resources. The World Bank Group works thus to:

• (i) Enhance economic growth by improving bulk water supplies for health, sanitation, and the economy; and by encouraging associated job creation; and
• (ii) Promote more sustainable management and use of water resources in economic stimulus packages and other relief efforts through improvements in water governance⁶. This in particular to support the Coronavirus (COVID-19) response and recovery.

Also, according to a WHO/UNICEF technical brief on Safely Managed Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)⁷, by improving facilities and using proven behavior change techniques, WASH services should enable more frequent and regular hand hygiene, one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus. Many co-benefits will be realized by safely managing WASH services and applying good hygiene practices. Such efforts would prevent other infectious diseases, which cause millions of deaths each year.

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