Water Scarcity Across the Globe
During the 20th century, the population under water scarcity has increased by sixteenfold, from 0.24 billion in the 1900s to 3.8 billion in the 2000s. These people are also more susceptible to disease, crop failure, and death (especially infants). Therefore, water scarcity is a serious problem as nearly half of the global population is affected by it.
Areas Most Affected
Two prominent regions subject to water scarcity and contamination are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa due to their use of open defecation, economic instability, and harsh climates.
South Asia (Nepal)
South Asia has only 4% of the world's renewable water, and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe. For example, a study showed that 75% of drinking water samples from schools in Nepal contained fecal bacteria. Also, 20% of Nepal's population lives in poverty. In Indonesia, 18 million people are water insecure.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has a high risk for desertification (the rapid depletion of plant life often from drought). As a result, the availability of fresh water will decrease even more due to the arid climate. This is detrimental to the sub-Saharan African community as more than 25% of the population (primarily women and girls) must walk over 30 minutes already to collect water.
While the largest percentage of water scarcity is in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, many other developing and non-developing countries are affected by the water crisis. For example, the Arctic nations such as Russia and Greenland have areas that lack safe water despite being developed countries. Even the United States has poor water quality in parts of the country, such as Flint, Michigan, where the residents bathed in, cooked in, and drank water with toxic lead levels.
However, based on a 2022 study from the United Nations, researchers found that many countries in Africa—such as the Congo, Madagascar, and Ethiopia—and Asia—including Nepal, India, and Laos—have an extremely low number of safe drinking water services, as seen in the map above.
The graph above shows the percentage of the 5 levels of drinking water services in various regions around the world:
Safely managed - Readily available and accessible with chemical contamination
Basic - Improved source for which collection time is at most 30 minutes round trip
Limited - Improved source for which collection time exceeds 30 minutes roundtrip
Unimproved - Drinking water from an unprotected dug well spring
Surface water - Drinking water directly from a river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal or irrigation canal