The World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct project evaluated, mapped and scored water risks in 100 river basins, ranked by area and population, and 181 nations—the first such country-level water assessment of its kind.
The project found that 37 countries face "extremely high" levels of water stress, meaning more than 80% of the water available to agricultural, domesti, and industrial users is withdrawn annually—leaving businesses, farms and communities vulnerable to scarcity.
Some other findings: Singapore, often held up as one of the world's best water managers, is at the very top of the list; the U.S. and China are on par at numbers 70 and 72; and even some countries with abundant water can be water-stressed depending on resource competition and geography.
Five of the water-quantity risk indicators for all countries and major river basins worldwide include:
- Baseline water stress: The ratio of total annual water withdrawals to total available annual renewable supply;
- Inter-annual variability: The variation in water supply between years;
- Seasonal variability: The variation in water supply between months of the year;
- Flood occurrence: The number of floods recorded from 1985 to 2011; and
- Drought severity: The average length of droughts times the dryness of the droughts from 1901 to 2008.
As water continues to become scarcer, reports like this can help us prepare for the future and protect this important resource.
