Population and Fresh Water

Population and water resources are closely connected. The availability of fresh water limits how many people an area can support, while population growth, urbanization, and migration all affect the availability and quality of water resources. Population growth increases demand for water for food production, household consumption, and industrial uses. At some point, however, this increased demand becomes overuse, leading to depletion and pollution of surface and groundwater supplies that can cause chronic water shortages.

Scarce and degraded water supplies also often cause critical health problems. Polluted water, water shortages, and unsanitary living conditions kill over 12 million people a year (WHO, 1997) and cause a great deal of illness such as cholera, hepatitis A, amoebic dysentery, schistosomiasis, and dengue and malaria fevers. And this increasing competition for limited water supplies also causes social and political tensions. River basins and other water bodies do not respect national borders: one country’s use of upstream water often removes that water from use by downstream countries. There remains a real risk across the globe of escalating tension and perhaps conflict over access to freshwater supplies. Slowing population growth, conserving water. In less than 30 years, 50 countries could face serious water shortages, affecting more than 3.3 billion people—40 percent of the projected global population (Gardner-Outlaw & Engleman, 1997). The world, especially water-scarce countries (those with less than 1,000 cubic meters per person per year) that are afflicted with rapid population growth, must slow the growth in demand for water by slowing population growth as soon as possible. Family-planning services will empower millions of couples to space and limit their births if they so desire.

At the same time, the world’s “water profligacy” must end as soon as possible.

Throughout the world, enormous amounts of water are wasted due to inappropriate agricultural subsidies, inefficient irrigation systems, imprudent pricing of municipal water, poor watershed management, pollution, and other practices. The world can no longer afford to waste its precious supplies of fresh water.