Quarter of world at risk of ‘Day Zero’ where water runs out altogether, experts warn

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Updated
Cape Town is experiencing severe drought the main dam at Theewaterskloof is only at 10% capacity, on April 03, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Diminishing water supplies may lead to the taps being turned off for the four millions inhabitants of Cape Town on April 12 2018, known locally as Day Zero. Water will be restricted from 87 litres per day to 50 litres as temperatures reach 28 degrees later this week. Politicians are blaming each other and residents for the deepening crisis.
Cape Town is experiencing severe drought the main dam at Theewaterskloof is only at 10% capacity (Getty)

Millions of people - up to a quarter of the world’s population - are just a few dry spells away from potentially deadly water shortages, a U.S. think-tank has warned.

Such shortages could lead to countdowns to water 'Day Zero', such as in South Africa's Cape Town last year and Brazil's Sao Paulo in 2015, World Resources Institute (WRI) said

Seventeen countries face 'extremely high water stress' because they consume 80 percent of their available water annually.

Many of those affected live in India, and the crisis is being exacerbated by climate change, the WRI warned.

‘We're currently facing a global water crisis,’ said Betsy Otto, director of WRI's global water program.

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'We're likely to see more of these kinds of “Day Zeros” in the future.’

New data in WRI's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas showed the lion's share of the most thirsty countries are located in the largely arid Middle East and North Africa region.

Qatar is the most water-stressed country, followed by Israel and Lebanon.

Sand blows across a normally submerged area at Theewaterskloof dam near Cape Town, South Africa, January 20, 2018. The dam, which supplies most of Cape Town's potable water, is currently dangerously low as the city faces "Day Zero", the point at which taps will be shut down accross the city. Picture taken January 20, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
Sand blows across a normally submerged area at Theewaterskloof dam near Cape Town (Reuters)

India ranked 13th among 'extremely high' water-stressed nations. But with a population of more than 1.3 billion, it has over three times more people than the other 16 countries combined whose agriculture, industry and municipalities depend on avoiding water 'bankruptcy'.

In recent weeks, India's sixth-largest city, Chennai, was the latest metropolis worldwide to warn its taps could run dry, as reservoir levels plunged.

The world's water supplies are threatened by many factors, from climate change to mismanagement in the form of water waste and pollution, Washington-based WRI said.

A high reliance on depleting groundwater supplies - difficult to measure and manage because they are buried deep - is an additional concern, Paul Reig, who leads work on the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, told journalists.

Nearly a third of the world's fresh water is groundwater, according to the United States Geological Survey.

'Because we don't understand (groundwater), and don't see it, we manage it very poorly,' Reig said.

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