The next time you say there won’t be any global water crisis as the Earth is a water planet, think again. Be-cause, water scarcity is fast emerging as a major threat worldwide. ‘Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink,’Coleridge had once said in his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. How right he was in today’s context. Though we may still have some water left to use, the day isn’t far off when there won’t be a single drop left. Terrified are you, but that is the truth. Though approximately 70 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only 2.5 per cent of it is fit for drinking. The rest is all salty water, which fills up the vast expanse of the oceans and seas — unfit for human consumption.

What we need is fresh water, which we find in rivers, lakes and aquifers (ground water) throughout the world. But, of whatever little bit of fresh water we have, the vast majority is frozen in glaciers and icecaps. Less than three-tenths of the 1 per cent of the planet’s fresh water is in the lakes and rivers.

So, to make it simple, if we imagine that the entire volume of water the earth has is 1 litre, then we just have a tablespoon left for us to drink. And, much of that is either getting dried up or becoming spoiled. Growing population, urbanisation, deforestation, global warming, climatic changes, pollution, rapid industrialisation, droughts and floods are some reasons of the increased pressure on the existing water bodies. Then, there are other factors like poor management of water supply, unending exploitation of resources, massive wastage etc. aggravating the situation. Population expansion is the single biggest reason behind the increased pressure on fresh water resources. Water consumption has almost doubled in the last fifty years and, naturally, per capita availability of water has steadily decreased. Though birth rates are slowing down, the population boom continues. Industrial and agriculture-related pollution is another prime driver. Millions of tons of waste are being added everyday into the lakes, rivers and streams polluting whatever little water we have, rendering them unfit for human consumption. The growing urbanisation has also increased the pressure on our towns and cities, in which around 48 per cent of the world’s population lives, amounting to almost half of the world’s total water consumption. A recently released UN report echoes the gravity of the situation — it says the world’s limited reserves of clean, fresh water are dwindling fast, posing a serious threat to public health, political stability and the environment. The report predicts that around 7 billion people in 60 countries could face water scarcity by the middle of this century and in just 20 years, the average supply of water per person will have dropped by one-third, affecting almost every nation and especially those already on the economic edge.

Today, countries in the Middle East and North Africa are classified as having absolute water scarcity. By 2025, Pakistan, South Africa, and large parts of India and China will join the list of these wa ter-scarce countries.

India’s population at that time is expected to exceed 1.4 billion under the UN’s projection, and the chronic water scarcity that already exists is all but certain to intensify. Presently, around 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean water and 2.4 billion lack access to proper sanitation, nearly all of them in developing countries. And if the situation worsens, as the UN report predicts, one can well imagine the plight of the vast majority of the people staying in these countries. Increasing the pressure on water supply will be climatic change, which, UN scientists say, would account for about one-fifth of the increase in water scarcity. Rainfall in drought-prone countries and some tropical regions is predicted to decrease further.

Water quality will also worsen with rising pollution levels and water temperatures. The report ranks 122 countries according to the quality of their water as well as their ability and commitment to improve the situation. Belgium is considered the worst because of the low quantity and quality of its groundwater combined with heavy industrial pollution and poor treatment of wastewater. It is followed by Morocco, India, Jordan, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic and Rwanda. The list of countries with the best quality is headed by Finland followed by Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, Sweden and France.

The increased demand for fresh water is also augmenting the pressure on the environment and threatening the animal and fish species that thrive there. The depleting reserves have forced scientists to looking downward for new sources of the life-giving resource — the world of deep underground aquifers: huge rivers and lakes far beneath the surface. But that will take time and proper study. Then, there is the proposal to link up all major rivers in India. in, this is a hotly debated issue. There are arguments for and arguments against. Environmentalists say, it is not bright idea to meddle with nature, for it may alter the cological balance. Others say plan is not practicable at all for it would entail an enormous cost - some estimates say over Rs. 5,70,00,000 crore would have to be spent. In other words, each year for the next 25 years, at least one per cent of the gross domestic product would have to be spent for the project. Whatever be the case, such projects, if implemented, will take time and is a long-term solution.

But, what we need now is immediate and effective steps. This unprecedented situation that we are likely to soon face calls for effective measures to deal with the situation, right from this moment. As the report says, if the right policies are followed the scarcity may be scaled down to 2 billion people in 48 nations.

Rainwater harvesting is one method by which we can meet the crisis to a large extent. Then, proper upkeep of the natural and traditional water bodies that we have is necessary. Wastage of water has to be checked. The governments concerned have to undertake water-development projects and at the same time take steps to curb pollution of rivers and lakes. The International Water Management Institute says while the world must continue investing in water development projects to meet future food demands, investments in research to improve crop water productivity could be a cost-effective means to limit the requirement for new dams, which ,reports and environmentalists say, interrupt the free flow 60 per cent of the world’s largest rivers.