Water scarcity blog

Surface water storage by dams can bring many benefits, such as energy, drinking water supply and water for irrigation – but these benefits can come at great social and environmental cost due to population displacement and ecosystem impact from changes in flow regimes and breaking the continuity of the river.
Over 48,000 large dams are in operation worldwide. For a time, dam building slowed, as decision-makers learned of their harmful impacts, but in recent years, the number of new dam proposals [...]

If you are interested in water efficiency topics and how they affect multi-national PLCs, consider visiting – BrightTalk. They offers a range of webcasts on this, presented by water professionals.

Irrigation accounts for 69% of water withdrawals worldwide, industry and energy 23% and domestic consumption only 8%. Global food demand is projected to increase by upwards of 70% by 2050 and the importance of water for agriculture cannot be underestimated. Although irrigation today covers only about 20 percent of the world’s cropland, it contributes 40 percent of total food production. The pressures on irrigated agriculture are apparent.  However population and economic growth and urbanization will generally increase the demand for [...]

Global food demand is projected to increase by upwards of 70% by 2050 and the importance of water for agriculture cannot be underestimated.
Population and economic growth and urbanization is expected to  increase the demand for water resources in the future, which will tend to shift water out of agriculture and into higher-valued industrial and domestic uses (Ringler et al, 2010).
Continued increases in crop productivity are needed to feed the ever increasing number of mouths, given that land and particularly water availability [...]

Mexico City lies within a basin surrounded by high mountains, which makes it one of the most environmentally fraught urban regions on earth.  From an Aztec capital built on land fill in a lake, it has grown to one of the largest cities in the world.  The mountains trap the smog from millions of cars, extracting potable water from the ground is causing the city to buckle and sink, disposing of stormwater is a monumental task that has required the [...]

Water related risks to corporations can take a wide variety of forms (see below), ranging from:

risks that are explicit and direct – e.g. exposure to water shortages (in a physical sense) or to water scarcity ; to
risks that are implicit and indirect – e.g. high levels of embedded (virtual) water in a supply chain that originates from a geographic area that is water stressed.

Water-related risks can be grouped into three main categories:

Physical risks. Physical water risks mostly affect sectors in [...]

The Alliance for Water Stewardship aims to establish a global water stewardship program that will recognize and reward responsible water managers and users by creating opportunities for enhanced community standing and competitive advantage.
Over the next three years the Alliance will work with water authorities, companies, local communities and environmentalists to establish a voluntary certification program for water managers and users based on the following:

International standards developed through an equitable, transparent, science-based, multi-stakeholder process.
Verification to determine whether these standards have been [...]

Experts on world water resources have warned of the explosive potential for armed conflict that is presented by the increasing scarcity of fresh water.  The situation is exacerbated by rapid population growth in some locations.  Often, the sense is that this sort of thing happens far from the industrialized centers of western civilization, but it has not always been so.  The California Water Wars of the early 20th century illustrate how easily allocation of this precious resource can lead to [...]

Although we often talk as though the recent focus on water scarcity in human society is a relatively new phenomenon, the result of our industrial civilization’s unsustainable approach to resources, the fact is that water scarcity has dogged humanity for most of its existence.  Certainly, it was no stranger to Europe before the Industrial Revolution, and it affected all classes.  Louis XIV, the Sun King, may have lived at the height of whatever luxury was available in his day, but [...]

… and as one wit has said, “The thought of a water shortage is enough to drive a beer lover to drink.”  Joking aside, everyone knows that the quality of the water used to brew a beer is critical, and that some brands tout their source in their advertising text and images.  But the quantity of water used to make a litre of beer is significant – the ratio is about 1:300 by one estimate – and that raises the [...]