World Water Scenario
Water is Life What is Sustainable Water Management Characteristics Advantages and Barriers Regional Initiatives Project Partners The purpose of this module is to:
  • Draw attention to a critical issue facing development in the world
  • Address the water sector in terms of intersectoral relationships and conflicts
  • Outline the key policy and institutional constraints that require attention and analysis
  • Provide a basis for discussions on water issues with bilateral and multilateral donors to further the mandate of the SDCN
  • Allow for the emergence of an intellectual leadership in the water sector

WATER FACTS
  • "Fresh water constitutes only 0.8 percent of the world’s supply… and nobody knows just what portion of this amount is contaminated"
  • "Only 30 per cent of the world’s people have a guaranteed supply of treated water.The remaining 70 per cent depend on wells, bore holes and other uncertain sources of water supply, all liable to contamination"
  • "About 80 per cent of all disease in the developing world is related to unsafe water supply and inadequate sanitation"
  • "Due to the absence of an adequate, reliable water supply and sanitation services, more than 15 million children aged 0 to 4 die each year"
  • "From the host of statistics compiled in preparation for the Water decade, it has been estimated that today, 100 million more people have to drink dirty water than in 1975, and 400 million more than five years ago have no sanitation"

Source: International Women’s Tribune Centre, New York

The earth is gasping as much for fresh air as it is for water, and as the most essential natural resource for life, it is likely to become a critical scarce resource in many regions of the world in the coming decades. The source of all water on earth is precipitation in one form or another be it solid, liquid or gaseous), and is constantly on the move along the paths of the hydrological cycle, but man has little control over these.

Assessment of the run off, along with precipitation, infiltration and evaporation, becomes a prerequisite for the use management of the water resource, which is fast becoming scarce. The growing global concern that very soon the demand for water will outpace its supply capability, largely because of the streamrolling universal impact of urbanisation and industrialization, necessitates an urgent need for a reliable assessment of this valuable resource - water, locationwise, regionwise, countrywise, and so on.

When viewed from space the world is really a globe of water. Oceans cover 71% of the earth's surface, and polar ice and mountain glaciers cover a further 3.18%. If we add the small proportion (0.4% or 2.058 million sq.km.) covered by continental lakes, this leaves only one quarter of the earth's surface as land, including rivers and marshes.

The volume of water in the world would be sufficient to enclose the entire globe in a layer of water 2,718m deep. In the course of the earth's history this was prevented only by the fact that high and low areas were irregularly arranged on the solid surface of our planet as a result of geophysical processes and tectonic movements of the earth's crust.

Growing a day's food for one adult takes about 1,700 gallons of water (National Geographic Society, 1993)