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Where is the most fresh water? (ranking of countries in the world)

The size of the freshwater area is one of the most obvious indicators of a country's natural resource wealth. In the future, it is water that will become one of the most expensive and demanded resources on the world market, because even now in grocery stores a bottle of mineral water often costs more than a liter of gasoline! At the same time, it should be noted that many countries do not have their own freshwater areas at all, which puts them on the brink of an ecological disaster! Some futurists predict an increase in instability in the world and even war precisely because of and for this valuable, but very underestimated resource - water! The FOX-calculator project decided to figure out which countries in the world have the largest freshwater area. To put it simply, which countries in the world have the largest reserves of fresh water.

Fresh water is the most valuable resource of the second half of the 21st century!

List of countries by fresh water reserves (size of freshwater area):

Serial number of the country by the size of freshwater area No.	State	Freshwater area, thousand square kilometers
The first place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Canada	891 thousand square kilometers
The second place in terms of fresh water reserves is taken by:	the Russian Federation	720 thousand square kilometers
The third place in terms of fresh water reserves is taken by:	United States of America	664 thousand square kilometers
The fourth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	India	314 thousand square kilometers
The fifth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Iran	116 thousand square kilometers
The seventh place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Ethiopia	104 thousand square kilometers
The eighth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Colombia	100 thousand square kilometers
The ninth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Indonesia	93 thousand square kilometers
The tenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Congo (Kinshasa)	77 thousand square kilometers
The eleventh place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Tanzania	61 thousand square kilometers
The twelfth place in terms of fresh water reserves is:	Australia	58 thousand square kilometers
The thirteenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Brazil	55 thousand square kilometers
The fourteenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is:	Uganda	43 thousand square kilometers
The fifteenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Argentina	42 thousand square kilometers
The sixteenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Sweden	40 thousand square kilometers
The seventeenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Finland	34 thousand square kilometers
The eighteenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Venezuela	30 thousand square kilometers
The nineteenth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	China	27 thousand square kilometers
The twentieth place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Pakistan	25 thousand square kilometers
Twenty-first place in terms of fresh water reserves is occupied by:	Kazakhstan	24 thousand square kilometers

Until relatively recently, water, like air, was considered one of the free gifts of nature, only in areas of artificial irrigation it always had a high price. Recently, the attitude towards the water resources of the land has changed.

Over the past century, the consumption of fresh water in the world has doubled, and the planet's hydro resources do not meet such a rapid increase in human needs. According to the World Commission on Water, today each person needs 40 (20 to 50) liters of water every day for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene.

However, about a billion people in 28 countries around the world do not have access to so many vital resources. More than 40% of the world's population (about 2.5 billion people) lives in areas with moderate or severe water shortages.

It is assumed that by 2025 this number will increase to 5.5 billion and will make up two-thirds of the world's population.

The overwhelming part of fresh water is, as it were, conserved in the glaciers of Antarctica, Greenland, in the ice of the Arctic, in mountain glaciers and forms a kind of "emergency reserve" that is not yet available for use.

Different countries differ greatly in terms of fresh water supplies. Below is a ranking of the countries with the largest freshwater resources in the world. However, this ranking is based on absolute rates and does not match the per capita rates.

10. Myanmar

Resources - 1080 cubic meters km

Per capita- 23.3 thousand cubic meters m

Rivers of Myanmar - Burma are subject to the country's monsoon climate. They originate in the mountains, but feed not on glaciers, but on precipitation.

More than 80% of the annual river supply is rain. In winter, the rivers become shallow, some of them, especially in central Burma, dry up.

There are few lakes in Myanmar; the largest of them is the Indoji tectonic lake in the north of the country with an area of ​​210 sq. km.

Despite the relatively high absolute figures, people in some areas of Myanmar suffer from a lack of fresh water.

9. Venezuela

Resources - 1320 cubic meters km

Per capita- 60.3 thousand cubic meters m

Nearly half of Venezuela's 1,000-plus rivers run off the Andes and the Guiana Highlands into the Orinoco, Latin America's third-largest river. Its pool covers an area of ​​about 1 million square meters. km. The Orinoco drainage basin covers approximately four-fifths of Venezuela's territory.

8. India

Resources- 2085 cc km

Per capita - 2.2 thousand cubic meters m

India has a large amount of water resources: rivers, glaciers, seas and oceans. The most significant rivers are the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Godavari, Krishna, Narbada, Mahanadi, Kaveri. Many of them are important as sources of irrigation.

Eternal snows and glaciers in India occupy about 40 thousand square meters. km of territory.

However, given the huge population in India, the availability of fresh water per capita is quite low here.

7. Bangladesh

Resources - 2360 cubic meters km

Per capita- 19.6 thousand cubic meters m

Bangladesh is one of the countries with the highest population density in the world. This is largely due to the extraordinary fertility of the Ganges delta and the regular flooding caused by monsoon rains. However, overpopulation and poverty have become a real disaster for Bangladesh.

There are many rivers flowing in Bangladesh, and large rivers can flood for weeks. Bangladesh has 58 transboundary rivers, and the issues arising from the use of water resources are very acute in discussions with India.

However, despite the relatively high level of water availability, the country faces a problem: Bangladesh's water resources are often exposed to arsenic poisoning due to its high content in the soil. Up to 77 million people are exposed to arsenic poisoning through drinking contaminated water.

6. USA

Resources - 2480 cubic meters km

Per capita- 2.4 thousand cubic meters m

The United States occupies a vast territory with many rivers and lakes.

However, despite the fact that the United States has such fresh water resources, this does not save California from the worst drought in history.

In addition, given the country's high population, the per capita supply of fresh water is not that high.

5. Indonesia

Resources - 2530 cubic meters km

Per capita- 12.2 thousand cubic meters m

The special relief of the territories of Indonesia, combined with a favorable climate, at one time contributed to the formation of a dense river network in these lands.

On the territories of Indonesia, a fairly large amount of precipitation falls all year round, because of this, the rivers are always full-flowing and play an essential role in the irrigation system.

Almost all of them flow from the Maoke Mountains north to the Pacific Ocean.

4. China

Resources - 2800 cubic meters km

Per capita- 2.3 thousand cubic meters m

China possesses 5-6% of the world's water reserves. But China is the most populous country in the world, and its water distribution is extremely uneven.

The south of the country has struggled for thousands of years and is still struggling with floods, building and is building dams to save crops and people's lives.

The north of the country and the central regions are suffering from lack of water.

3. Canada

Resources - 2900 cubic meters km

Per capita- 98.5 thousand cubic meters m

Canada has 7% of the world's renewable fresh water resources and less than 1% of the world's population. Accordingly, per capita security in Canada is one of the highest in the world.

Most of the rivers in Canada belong to the basin of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, significantly fewer rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Canada is one of the richest countries in the world with lakes. The Great Lakes (Upper, Huron, Erie, Ontario) are located on the border with the United States, connected by small rivers into a huge basin with an area of ​​more than 240 thousand square meters. km.

Less significant lakes lie on the territory of the Canadian Shield (Big Bear, Big Slave, Athabasca, Winnipeg, Winnipegosis), etc.

2. Russia

Resources- 4500 cubic meters km

Per capita - 30.5 thousand cubic meters m

In terms of reserves, Russia accounts for more than 20% of the world's fresh water resources (excluding glaciers and groundwater). In calculating the volume of fresh water per inhabitant of Russia, there are about 30 thousand cubic meters. m of river flow per year.

Russia is washed by the waters of 12 seas belonging to three oceans, as well as the inland Caspian Sea. On the territory of Russia, there are over 2.5 million large and small rivers, more than 2 million lakes, hundreds of thousands of swamps and other water resources.

1. Brazil

Resources - 6950 cubic meters km

Per capita- 43.0 thousand cubic meters m

Brazil's water resources are represented by a huge number of rivers, the main of which is the Amazon (the greatest river in the world).

Almost a third of this large country is occupied by the Amazon River basin, which includes the Amazon itself and more than two hundred of its tributaries.

This gigantic system contains a fifth of all river waters in the world.

Rivers and their tributaries flow slowly, during rainy seasons they often overflow their banks and flood huge areas of rainforest.

The rivers of the Brazilian Highlands have significant hydropower potential. The largest lakes in the country are Mirim and Patos. Main rivers: Amazon, Madeira, Rio Negro, Parana, São Francisco.

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Being a native of Uzbekistan and having lived there for 41 years, apparently, I have a reverent attitude towards fresh water.

, streams, fresh lakes, as well as in the clouds. According to various estimates, the share of fresh water in the total amount of water on Earth is 2.5-3%.

About 85-90% of fresh water reserves are contained in the form of ice.

In connection with the expanding pollution of water sources, population growth, and the development of new territories, the task of artificially obtaining fresh water arises. This is achieved by:

• desalination of sea water, including solar desalination
• condensation of water vapor from the air using deep sea water;
• condensation of water vapor in daily cold accumulators, in particular - of natural origin, such as caves in coastal rocks.

The latter method creates huge natural reserves of fresh water in the coastal regions of a number of countries, which were recently discovered. Strata with fresh water sometimes go under the seabed, and fresh springs gush through cracks in impermeable layers.

The cost of fresh water is becoming so high that the production of refrigeration units, which receive water from humid air by the condensation method, has begun.

The distribution of fresh water across the globe is extremely uneven. In Europe and Asia, where 70% of the world's population lives, only 39% of river waters are concentrated. Russia takes the leading place in the world in terms of surface water resources. The unique Lake Baikal alone contains about 1/5 of the world's fresh water reserves and more than 4/5 of Russia's reserves. With a total volume of 23.6 thousand km 3, about 60 km 3 of rare natural water is reproduced in the lake every year.

According to the UN, already now more than 1.2 billion people live in conditions of constant shortage of fresh water, about 2 billion suffer from it regularly, and by the middle of the XXI century. the number of people living with constant water shortages will exceed 4 billion people. Thus, we can talk about an impending global water crisis. In such conditions, it is likely that the main advantage of Russia in the "post-oil" period is water resources, and the production of water-intensive products may become the dominant direction of development of the Russian economy.

see also

Notes (edit)

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See what "Fresh water" is in other dictionaries:

Water - get an up-to-date promotional code for the Crossroads discount at Akademika or buy water at a discount at the Crossroads sale

fresh water- Natural water with mineralization up to 1 mg / l ... Geography Dictionary

fresh water- - EN freshwater Water having a relatively low mineral content, generally less than 500 mg / l of dissolved solids. (Source: LANDY) EN bathing freshwater Freshwater in which bathing is explicitly authorized or in which bathing is not prohibited and is traditionally practiced by a large number of bathers. Water ... Technical translator's guide

Evaporators, desalination plants. P. water has always been a basic necessity on ships in sea navigation, but mainly only for drinking. At present, the consumption of P. water on new ships has increased, thanks to the realized in practice ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

This term has other meanings, see Water (disambiguation). Water ... Wikipedia

Books

• Imagine this. A new look at gigantic numbers and immense magnitudes, Smith David J. If the entire history of our planet is compressed to 1 hour, then dinosaurs lived on Earth for only 3 minutes. If all the money in the world is a bunch of 100 coins, then Africa will only get 3 coins. If the Sun is ...

Fresh water makes up no more than 2.5-3% of the total water supply of the Earth. Most of it is frozen in glaciers and snow cover of Antarctica and Greenland. Another part is numerous fresh water bodies: rivers and lakes. One third of fresh water reserves are concentrated in underground reservoirs, deeper and closer to the surface.

At the beginning of the new millennium, scientists started talking seriously about the shortage of drinking water in many countries of the world. Every inhabitant of the Earth should spend from 20 to water per day on food and personal hygiene. However, there are countries in which there is not enough drinking water even to support life. The inhabitants of Africa are experiencing an acute shortage of water.

Reason one: an increase in the world's population and the development of new territories

According to the UN, in 2011, the world's population has grown to 7 billion people. The number of people will reach 9.6 billion by 2050. The growth of the population is accompanied by the development of industry and agriculture.

Enterprises use fresh water for all production needs, while returning water that is often already unfit for drinking back to nature. It falls into rivers and lakes. The level of their pollution has recently become critical for the ecology of the planet.

Agricultural development in Asia, India and China has depleted the largest rivers in these regions. The development of new lands leads to the shallowing of water bodies and forces people to develop underground wells and deep-water horizons.

Reason two: irrational use of fresh water sources

Most natural freshwater sources are replenished naturally. Moisture gets into rivers and lakes with precipitation, some of which goes into underground reservoirs. Deep-sea horizons are irreplaceable reserves.

The barbaric use of pure fresh water by man deprives rivers and lakes of the future. Rains do not have time to fill shallow water bodies, and water is often wasted.

Some of the water used goes underground through leaks in city water supplies. When opening a faucet in the kitchen or in the shower, people rarely think about how much water is wasted. The habit of saving resources has not yet become relevant for most of the inhabitants of the Earth.

Extraction of water from deep wells can also be a big mistake, depriving future generations of the main reserves of fresh natural water, and irreparably disrupt the ecology of the planet.

Modern scientists see a way out in saving water resources, tightening control over waste processing and desalination of sea salt water. If humanity now thinks and takes action in time, our planet will forever remain an excellent source of moisture for all species of life existing on it.

Few facts about water

• Water covers over 70% of the world's population, but only 3% of fresh water.
• Most natural fresh water is in ice form; less than 1% are readily available for human consumption. This means that less than 0.007% of the water on earth is ready to drink.
• More than 1.4 billion people lack access to clean, safe water worldwide.
• The gap between water supply and demand is constantly growing, and is expected to reach 40% by 2030.
• By 2025, a third of the world's population will be dependent on water scarcity.
• By 2050, more than 70% of the world's population will live in cities.
• In many developing countries, the percentage of water losses is over 30%, reaching even 80% in some extreme cases.
• More than 32 billion cubic meters of drinking water - water leaks from urban water supply systems around the world, only 10% of the leak is visible, the rest of the leaks quietly and imperceptibly disappear underground.

The development of humanity is accompanied by an increase in the world's population, as well as growing demands for resources from the economy. One of these resources is fresh water, the shortage of which is quite acute in a number of regions of the Earth. In particular, more than a third of the world's population, that is, more than 2 billion people, does not have permanent access to a drinking resource. It is expected that in 2020 water scarcity will act as one of the obstacles to the further development of humankind. This is especially true for developing countries, where:

• Intensive population growth,
• High level of industrialization, accompanied by pollution of the environment and water in particular,
• Lack of water treatment infrastructure,
• Substantial water demand from the agricultural sector,
• Average or low level of social stability, authoritarian structure of society.

World water resources

The earth is rich in water, because 70% of the Earth's surface is covered with water (approx. 1.4 billion km 3). However, most of the water is saline and only about 2.5% of the world's water reserves (approx. 35 million km 3) is fresh water (see Figure World Water Sources, UNESCO, 2003).

Only fresh water can be used for drinking, but 69% of it falls on snow cover (mainly Antarctica and Greenland), about 30% (10.5 million km 3) - groundwater, and lakes, artificial lakes and rivers account for less than 0.5% of all fresh water.

In the water cycle, 79% of the total amount of precipitation falling on the Earth falls on the ocean, 2% on lakes and only 19% on the land surface. Only 2,200 km 3 penetrates underground reservoirs per year.

Many experts call the "water issue" one of the most serious challenges to humanity in the future. The period 2005-2015 has been declared by the UN General Assembly as an international decade for action " Water for life».

Drawing. World freshwater sources: sources of distribution of about 35 million km3 of fresh water (UNESCO 2003)

According to UN experts, in the 21st century, water will become a more important strategic resource than oil and gas, since a ton of clean water in an arid climate is already more expensive than oil (the Sahara Desert and North Africa, the center of Australia, South Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia).

Globally, about 2/3 of all precipitation is returned to the atmosphere. In terms of water resources, the region of Latin America is the most abundant, accounting for a third of the world's drainage, followed by Asia with its quarter of the world's drainage. Then there are the OECD countries (20%), sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union, each with 10%. The most limited are the water resources of the countries of the Middle East and North America (1% each).

Sub-Saharan Africa (Tropical / Black Africa) is most severely deficient in drinking water.

After several decades of rapid industrialization, large Chinese cities are among the most environmentally unfavorable.

The construction of the world's largest hydropower complex, the Three Gorges, on the Yangtze River in China has also posed major environmental problems. In addition to erosion and collapse of the banks, the construction of the dam and the giant reservoir led to siltation and, according to Chinese and foreign experts, dangerous changes in the entire ecosystem of the country's largest river.

SOUTH ASIA

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

India is home to 16% of the world's population, while only 4% of the planet's fresh water is available there.

The water reserves of India and Pakistan are in inaccessible places - these are the glaciers of the Pamirs and the Himalayas, which cover the mountains at an altitude of over 4000 m.But the water shortage in Pakistan is already so high that the government is seriously considering the issue of melting these glaciers forcibly.

The idea is to spray harmless coal dust over them, which will cause the ice to actively melt in the sun. But, most likely, the melted glacier will look like a muddy mudflow, 60% of the water will not reach the valleys, but will be absorbed into the soil near the foot of the mountains, environmental prospects are unclear

CENTRAL (CENTRAL) ASIA

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

central Asia(as defined by UNESCO): Mongolia, Western China, Punjab, Northern India, Northern Pakistan, northeastern Iran, Afghanistan, regions of Asian Russia south of the taiga zone, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

According to the World Resources Institute, fresh water reserves in the countries of Central Asia (excluding Tajikistan) and in Kazakhstan per capita are almost 5 times lower than the same indicator for Russia.

Russia

Over the past ten years, in Russia, as in all middle latitudes, temperatures have been growing faster than the average on Earth and in the tropics. By 2050, temperatures will rise by 2-3 ° C. Redistribution of precipitation will be one of the consequences of warming. In the south of the Russian Federation there will not be enough precipitation and there will be problems with drinking water, some rivers may have problems with navigation, the permafrost area will decrease, the soil temperature will rise, in the northern regions the yield will increase, although due to dry conditions there may be losses (Roshydromet) ...

AMERICA

Mexico

Mexico City is experiencing problems with the supply of drinking water to the population. The demand for bottled water today exceeds the supply, so the country's leadership calls on residents to learn how to save water.

The issue of drinking water consumption has been facing the leaders of the capital of Mexico for a long time, since the city, in which almost a quarter of the country lives, is located far from water sources, so today water is extracted from wells with a depth of at least 150 meters. The results of the analysis of water quality revealed an increased content of permissible concentrations of heavy metals and other chemical elements and substances harmful to human health.

Half of the water consumed daily in the United States comes from non-renewable underground sources. At the moment, 36 states are on the brink of a serious problem, some of them on the brink of a water crisis. Water scarcity in California, Arizona, Nevada, Las Vegas.

Water has become a key security strategy and a foreign policy priority for the US administration. Currently, the Pentagon and other structures concerned about the security of the United States have come to the conclusion that in order to preserve the existing military and economic strength of the United States, they must protect not only energy sources, but also water resources.

Peru

In the Peruvian capital Lima, there is practically no rain, and water is supplied mainly from the lakes of the Andes, located quite far away. From time to time, they turn off the water altogether for several days. There is a constant lack of water. Once a week, water is delivered by truck, but it costs the poor ten times more than residents whose houses are connected to the central water supply system.

Drinking water consumption

About 1 billion people on Earth do not have access to an improved drinking water source. Over half of the world's households have running water in or near their homes.

8 out of 10 people without access to an improved drinking water source live in rural areas.

884 million people in the world, i.e. almost half of the people living in Asia still use unimproved drinking water sources. Most of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa, South, East and Southeast Asia.

Countries in which bottled water is the main source of drinking water: Dominican Republic (67% of the urban population drink exclusively bottled water), the People's Democratic Republic of LAO and Thailand (for half of the urban population, bottled water is the main source of drinking water). There is also a serious situation in Guatemala, Guinea, Turkey, Yemen.

Drinking water treatment practices vary considerably across countries. In Mongolia and Vietnam, water is almost always boiled, a little less often in the People's Democratic Republic of Lao and Cambodia, and even less often in Uganda and Jamaica. In Guinea, it is filtered through a cloth. And in Jamaica, in Guinea, Honduras, in Haiti, bleach or other disinfectants are simply added to the water to purify it.

Households in rural Africa spend an average of 26% of their time just getting water (mostly women) (UK DFID). Every year it takes approx. 40 billion hours worked (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 1998). The Tibetan highlands are still inhabited by people who have to spend up to three hours a day walking to fetch water on foot.

Main drivers of water consumption growth

1.: improving sanitation

Access to basic water supply services (drinking water, food production, sanitation, sanitation) remains limited in most developing countries. It is possible that by 2030, more than 5 billion people (67% of the world's population) still lack modern sanitation(OECD, 2008).

Some 340 million Africans lack safe drinking water and nearly 500 million lack modern sanitation.

The importance of ensuring the purity of the water consumed: several billion people today do not have access to clean water(The World Conference of The Future of Science, 2008, Venice).

80% of diseases in developing countries are water-related causing about 1.7 million deaths annually.

According to some estimates, every year in developing countries waterborne diseases kill about 3 million prematurely.

Diarrhea, a major cause of illness and death, is largely due to lack of sanitation and hygiene and unsafe drinking water. 5,000 children die from diarrhea every day. one child every 17 seconds.

In South Africa, 12% of the health budget goes to treating diarrhea: more than half of the patients with this diagnosis in local hospitals every day.

Annually 1.4 million diarrhea deaths could have been prevented... Almost 1/10 of the total number of diseases could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and water resources management.

2. Development of agriculture for food production

Water is an essential ingredient in food and Agriculture- the largest consumer of water: falls on it up to 70% of total water consumption(for comparison: 20% of water use - industry, 10% - household use). The area of ​​irrigated land has doubled over the past decades, and water withdrawal has increased 3 times.

Without further improvement of water use in agriculture, the need for water in this sector will increase by 70-90% by 2050, and this despite the fact that already now some countries have reached the limit in the use of their water resources.

On average, 70% of fresh water consumed is used by agriculture, 22% - by industry, and the remaining 8% is used for domestic needs. This ratio varies depending on the country's income: in low- and middle-income countries, 82% is used for agriculture, 10% for industry, and 8% for domestic needs; in high-income countries the figures are 30, 59 and 11%.

Due to inefficient irrigation systems, especially in developing countries, 60% of the water used for agriculture evaporates or returns to water bodies.

3. Change in food consumption

In recent years, there have been changes in the way of life of people and their eating habits, the consumption of meat and dairy products in countries with economies in transition has increased disproportionately.Today, one person in the world consumes on average 2 times more water than in 1900, and this trend will continue in due to changes in consumption patterns in emerging economies.

In the modern world, 1.4 billion people are deprived of access to clean water, and another 864 million do not have the opportunity to receive the daily caloric intake of food. And the situation continues to deteriorate.

A person needs only 2-4 liters of water per day per day to drink, but producing food for one person requires 2000-5000 liters daily.

The question “how much water do people drink” (on average, in developed countries - from two to five liters per day) is not as important as “how much water do people eat” (according to some estimates, in developed countries this figure is 3,000 liters per day ).

For production 1 kg of wheat needs from 800 to 4,000 liters of water, and 1 kg of beef - from 2,000 to 16,000 liters, 1 kg of rice - 3450 liters.

Increase in meat consumption in the most developed countries: in 2002, Sweden consumed 76 kg of meat per person, and the United States - 125 kg per person.

According to some estimates, a Chinese consumer who ate 20 kg of meat in 1985 will eat 50 kg in 2009. This increase in consumption will increase the demand for grain. One kilogram of grain requires 1,000 kg (1,000 liters) of water. This means that an additional 390 km 3 of water per year will be required to meet the demand.

4. Demographic growth

Water scarcity will increase due to population growth. The total number of inhabitants of the planet, which is currently 6.6 billion people, annually increasing by about 80 million... Hence the growing demand for drinking water, amounting to about 64 billion cubic meters per year.

By 2025, the world's population will exceed 8 billion people. (EPE). 90% of the 3 billion people who will increase the world's population by 2050 will be from developing countries, many of which are located in areas where the current population does not have adequate access to clean water and sanitation (UN).

More than 60% of the global population growth that will occur between 2008 and 2100 will occur in sub-Saharan Africa (32%) and South Asia (30%), which together will account for 50% of the world's population 2100.

5. Urban population growth

Urbanization will continue - relocation to cities, whose residents are much more sensitive to water shortages. In the 20th century, there was a very sharp increase in the urban population (from 220 million to 2.8 billion). Over the next several decades, we will witness its unprecedented growth in developing countries.

The number of urban dwellers is expected to grow by 1.8 billion (compared to 2005) and will account for 60% of the world's population (UN). About 95% of this growth will come from developing countries.

According to EPE, by 2025 there will be 5.2 billion people. will live in cities. This level of urbanization will require the creation of a broad infrastructure for the distribution of water, as well as the collection and treatment of used water, which is impossible without large-scale investments.

6. Migration

Currently, there are about 192 million migrants in the world (in 2000 there were 176 million). The lack of water in desert and semi-desert regions will cause intensive migration of the population. This is expected to affect from 24 to 700 million people... The relationship between water resources and migration is a two-way process: water scarcity leads to migration, and migration, in turn, contributes to water stress. According to some estimates, in the future, coastal regions, where 15 of the 20 megacities of the world are located, will feel the greatest pressure from the influx of migrants. In the world of the next century, more and more people will live in vulnerable urban and coastal areas.

7. Climate change

In 2007, the Bali United Nations Climate Change Conference recognized that even the smallest predictable climate change in the 21st century, at twice the 0.6 ° C rise since 1900, would have severely destructive consequences.

Scientists agree that global warming will intensify and accelerate global hydrological cycles. In other words, intensification can be expressed in an increase in the rate of evaporation and the amount of precipitation. It is not yet known what impact this will have on water resources, but it is expected that lack of water will affect its quality and frequency of extreme situations such as droughts and floods.

It is estimated that by 2025 the warming will be 1.6 ° C compared to the pre-industrial period (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Groupe d'experts Intergouvernemental sur l'Evolution du Climat).

Now 85% of the world's population lives in the arid part of our planet. In 2030 47% of the world's population will live in areas with high water stress.

Only in Africa by 2020 from 75 to 250 million people may find themselves in conditions of increased pressure on water resources caused by climate change. Along with the growing demand for water; this can affect the livelihoods of the population and exacerbate water supply problems (IPCC 2007).

The impact of climate warming on water resources: an increase in temperature by 1 ° C will entail the complete disappearance of small glaciers in the Andes, which could lead to problems in the supply of water to 50 million people; an increase in temperature by 2 ° C will cause a 20-30% reduction in water resources in "unprotected" regions (southern Africa, the Mediterranean).

Global climate change and strong anthropogenic impact are causing the processes of desertification and deforestation.

According to the 2006 World Human Development Report, by 2025, the number of people experiencing water shortages will reach 3 billion, whereas today their number is 700 million... This problem will be especially acute in southern Africa, China and India.

8. Consumption growth. Improving living standards

9. Intensification of economic activity

The development of the economy and the service sector will lead to additional growth in water consumption, with most of the responsibility resting with industry rather than agriculture (EPE).

10. Growth in energy consumption

According to the calculations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global demand for electricity should grow by 55% by 2030. Only the share of China and India will be 45% in it. Developing countries will account for 74%.

It is assumed that the amount of energy generated by hydropower plants for the period from 2004 to 2030. will grow annually by 1.7%. Its overall growth over this period will be 60%.

Dams, criticized for their serious environmental impacts and the displacement of large numbers of people, are today, however, viewed by many as a possible solution to the water problem in the face of reduced fossil energy supplies, the need to switch to cleaner energy sources, the need to adapt to different hydrological conditions and the instability caused by climate change.

11. Biofuel production

Biofuels are used to meet the growing energy needs. However, the widespread production of biofuels further reduces the acreage for growing plant foods.

Bioethanol production has tripled over the 2000-2007 period. and in 2008 amounted to about 77 billion liters. The largest producers of this type of biofuel are Brazil and the USA - their share in world production is 77%. Production of biodiesel from oilseeds, 2000-2007 increased 11 times. 67% of it is produced in the countries of the European Union (OECD-FAO, 2008)

In 2007, 23% of the maize produced in the United States was used to make ethanol, and 54% of the sugarcane crop went to Brazil. 47% of the vegetable oil produced in the countries of the European Union was used for the production of biodiesel.

However, despite the increased use of biofuels, its share in total energy production remains small. In 2008, the share of ethanol in the transport fuel market was estimated in the USA - 4.5%, in Brazil - 40%, in the EU - 2.2%. While biofuels can reduce dependence on fossil energy sources, they can place disproportionate pressure on biodiversity and the environment. The main problem is the need for a large amount of water and fertilizers to ensure the harvest. For the production of 1 liter of ethanol, 1000 to 4000 liters of water are required. In 2017, global ethanol production is projected to reach 127 billion liters.

About 1/5 of the US maize crop was used in 2006/2007. for ethanol production, replacing about 3% of the country's gasoline fuel (World Development Report 2008, World Bank).

It takes about 2,500 liters of water to produce one liter of ethanol. According to the World Energy Outlook 2006, biofuel production is increasing by 7% over the year. Its production, perhaps, does not create real problems in heavy rainfall. A different situation is developing in China, and in the near future in India.

12. Tourism

Tourism has become one of the factors behind the growth in water consumption. In Israel, water use by hotels along the Jordan River is believed to be the cause of the drying up of the Dead Sea, where water levels have dropped by 16.4 meters since 1977. eighteen holes can consume over 2.3 million liters of water per day. In the Philippines, the use of water for tourism threatens rice cultivation. Tourists in Grenada, Spain, typically use seven times more water than locals, and this figure is considered common in many developing tourist areas.

In Great Britain, improved sanitation and water treatment in the 1880s. contributed to a 15-year increase in life expectancy over the next four decades. (HDR, 2006)

Lack of water and sanitation costs South Africa approximately 5% of the country's GDP annually (UNDP).

Every inhabitant of developed countries uses on average 500-800 liters of water per day (300 m 3 per year); in developing countries this figure is 60-150 liters per day (20 m 3 per year).

443 million school days are missed each year due to water-related illnesses.

Water market development

Resolving the water crisis

In the Millennium Declaration adopted by the United Nations in 2000, the international community committed itself by 2015 to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and to end the unsustainable use of water resources.

The relationship between poverty and water is clear: the number of people living on less than $ 1.25 a day is roughly the same as the number of those without access to safe drinking water.

Since 2001, water has been a major priority for the Natural Sciences Sector of UNESCO.

The water problem is one of the most acute, though not the only one, for developing countries.

Benefits of Investing in Water Resources

By some estimates, every dollar invested in improving water supply and sanitation generates an income of $ 3 to $ 34.

The total loss incurred in Africa alone due to lack of access to safe water and lack of sanitation is about $ US 28.4 billion per year or about 5% of GDP(WHO, 2006)

A survey of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region found that depletion of groundwater resources appears to have led to a decline in GDP in some countries (Jordan 2.1%, Yemen 1.5% , Egypt - by 1.3%, Tunisia - by 1.2%).

Storage of water supplies

The reservoirs provide reliable sources of water for irrigation, water supply and hydropower, and for flood control. For developing countries, it is no exception when 70 to 90% of the annual runoff is accumulated in reservoirs. However, in African countries, only 4% of the renewable flow is retained.

Virtual water

All countries import and export water in the form of its equivalents, i.e. in the form of agricultural and industrial products. The used water counting is defined by the concept of "virtual water".

The theory of "virtual water" in 1993 marked the beginning of a new era in the definition of agricultural and water policy in water-stressed regions and campaigns aimed at saving water resources.

About 80% of virtual water flows are associated with agricultural trade. Approximately 16% of the world's water depletion and pollution problems are related to production for export. The prices of the goods sold rarely reflect the costs of water use in the producing countries.

For example, Mexico imports from the US wheat, maize and sorghum, for which 7.1 Gm 3 of water is consumed in the US. If Mexico produced them at home, it would take 15.6 gm 3. The total water savings generated by international trade in virtual water in the form of agricultural products is equivalent to 6% of the total water used in agriculture.

Water recycling

The use of urban wastewater in agriculture remains limited, with the exception of a few countries with very poor water resources (40% of drainage water is reused in the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip, 15% in Israel and 16% in Egypt).

Water demineralization is becoming more and more accessible. It is used mainly for the production of drinking water (24%) and meeting the needs of industry (9%) in countries that have exhausted the limits of their renewable water sources (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Cyprus, etc.).

Water resources management projects

Approaches to tackling water scarcity:

• Breeding crops resistant to drought and saline soils,
• Desalination of water,
• Water storage.

Today there are political solutions aimed at reducing water losses, improving water resources management, and reducing the need for them. Many countries have already passed laws on the conservation and efficient use of water, however, these reforms have not yet yielded tangible results.

The participants of the Venice Forum (The World Conference of The Future of Science, 2008) invite the leaders of the largest international organizations and governments of the leading countries of the world to begin large-scale investments in research work related to solving the specific problems of developing countries in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. In particular, they consider it necessary to start a large-scale project as soon as possible. desalination of sea water for irrigation of deserts, primarily in tropical countries and create a special fund to support agriculture.

The structure of water consumption with a predominance of its agricultural use determines that the search for ways to solve water shortages should be carried out through the introduction of agricultural technologies that make it possible to use precipitation more fully, to achieve a reduction in losses during irrigation and an increase in field productivity.

It is in agriculture that the unproductive water consumption is highest and it is estimated that about half of it is wasted. This represents 30% of the world's total freshwater resources, which represents a huge savings potential. There are many ways to help you reduce your water use. Traditional irrigation is ineffective. In developing countries, mainly surface irrigation is used, for which dams are built. This method, simple and cheap, is used, for example, in rice growing, but a significant part of the water used (about half) is lost due to infiltration and evaporation.

It is quite easy to achieve savings if you use drip irrigation: a small amount of water is delivered directly to the plants using tubes laid above the ground (or even better - underground). This method is economical, but expensive to install.

Judging by the volume of water losses, the existing water supply and irrigation systems are considered extremely ineffective. It is estimated that in the Mediterranean region, water losses in urban water pipes are 25% and in irrigation canals 20%. At least in part, these losses can be avoided. Cities such as Tunisia (Tunisia) and Rabat (Morocco) have reduced water losses by up to 10%. Water loss control programs are under way in Bangkok (Thailand) and Manila (Philippines).

With growing deficits, some countries have already begun to include water resource management strategy in your development plans. In Zambia, such an integrated water resources management policy covers all sectors of the economy. The result of this water management, linked to national development plans, was not long in coming - many donors began to include investments in the water sector in Zambia's overall aid portfolio.

Although this experience remains limited, some countries are already using treated wastewater for agricultural needs: 40% is reused in the Gaza Strip in the Palestinian Territories, 15% in Israel and 16% in Egypt.

In desert regions, it is also used seawater desalination method... It is used to obtain drinking and industrial water in countries that have reached the maximum potential for the use of renewable water resources (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Cyprus, etc.).

Thanks to the use of modern membrane technology the cost of desalination of water has dropped to 50 cents per 1000 liters, but it is still very expensive given the amount of water required for the production of food raw materials. Therefore, desalination is more suitable for the production of drinking water or for use in the food industry, where the added value is quite high. If the cost of water desalination can be further reduced, the severity of water problems could be significantly reduced.

The Desertec Foundation has developed designs to combine desalination plants and solar thermal power plants into one system, capable of producing cheap electricity on the coast of North Africa and the Middle East. For these areas, considered the driest in the world, such a solution would be the way out of water problems.

Southeastern Anatolia Development Project in Turkey(GAP) is a multi-sectoral socio-economic development plan aimed at increasing the income of the population in this least developed region of the country. Its total estimated cost is $ 32 million, of which 17 million have already been invested by 2008. With the development of irrigation here, per capita income has tripled. The electrification of rural areas and the availability of electricity have reached 90%, the literacy of the population has increased, the infant mortality rate has decreased, business activity has increased, and the system of land tenure has become more equitable on irrigated land. The number of cities with running water has quadrupled. This region is no longer one of the least developed in the country.

Australia also made changes to its policy through a range of measures. Restrictions have been made regarding watering gardens, washing cars, filling swimming pools, etc. in the largest cities of the country. In 2008, Sydney introduced double water supply system - drinking water and purified (technical) water for other needs... A desalination station is under construction by 2011. Investment in the water sector in Australia has doubled over the past 6 years from A $ 2 billion per year to A $ 4 billion per year.

UAE... In the Emirates, it was decided to invest over $ 20 billion over 8 years in the construction and launch of desalination plants. At the moment, 6 such factories have already been launched, the remaining 5 will be built within the above period of time. Thanks to these plants, it is planned to more than triple the amount of potable water. The need for investment in the construction of new factories is associated with the growth of the population in the UAE.

An ambitious project is planned in the UAE Sahara Forest to transform part of the desert into an artificial forest capable of feeding and watering thousands of people by creating extensive super greenhouses. The combination of thermal solar power plants and original desalination plants would enable Sahara Forest to literally produce food, fuel, electricity and drinking water out of nothing, transforming the entire region.

The cost of the "Sahara Forest" is estimated at 80 million euros for a complex of greenhouses with an area of ​​20 hectares, combined with solar installations with a total capacity of 10 megawatts. Greening the world's greatest desert is still a project. But pilot projects, built in the image and likeness of Sahara Forest, may well appear in several places in the coming years at once: groups of businessmen in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait have already expressed interest in funding these unusual experiments.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is an ambitious program (since 2002) for the construction of dams and galleries that transport water from the highlands of Lesotho, an enclave country located inside South Africa and equal in size to Belgium, to the arid regions of Gauteng province, located near Johannesburg.

Ethiopia: large investments are being made in infrastructure (construction of dams, provision of borehole water to rural areas. Throughout the country, an increase in the number of tenders for projects to improve access to drinking water, large infrastructure projects (boreholes).

In Pakistan, the government is seriously considering forcibly melting the glaciers of the Pamir and Himalayas.

Iran is considering projects to manage rain clouds.

In 2006, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, biologists launched a project to create an irrigation system that collects water from fog. Large-scale construction is needed to create a structure for another "fog tower" project on the Chilean coast.

Based on the materials of marketing research on water (extracts),

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