Contents


Preface

Well over 40% of the world's population is affected by water scarcity. The World Bank works with the majority of nations to ensure that water use is sustainable, that climate resilience is built, and that integrated management is strengthened. Some countries are currently putting an unprecedented amount of strain on their water supplies. Water exists in various forms, such as lakes and rivers, glaciers and ice sheets, oceans and seas, subversive aquifers, and fog in air and clouds. The water cycle refers to how water enters and leaves the atmosphere; it evaporates from the Earth's surface and falls back as precipitation. Like waterfalls, it accumulates in

The world's population is rapidly growing with forecasts estimating that, if current systems continue, the Earth will confront a 40% gap between estimated demand and accessible water supply by 2030. Recurring water scarcity, hydrological

unpredictability, and extreme weather events (floods and droughts) are significant global prosperity and stability challenges. The importance of water scarcity and drought in exacerbating fragility and conflict is becoming better recognized.

By 2050, providing for nine billion individuals will demand a 60% increase in food production (which presently uses 70% of the resource) and a 15% increase in water extraction. Separately from this increasing demand, water is at present in short supply in many world regions. According to statistics, 40% of the world's population lives in water-scarce regions, and this dilemma affects about 14% of global GDP. By 2025, around 1.8 billion individuals will be living in water-scarce areas or countries. For several nations today, water security is a critical issue.

Climate change will aggravate conditions through changing hydrological cycles, resulting in inconsistent global water supplies, while floods and droughts are expected to be more frequent, erratic, and intense. These events will put roughly one billion residents in monsoonal basins and 500 million in deltas at serious risk. Historically, an estimated \$120 billion per year is accrued just from property damage. Droughts pose potential subsistence limitations to poor countryside

The fragmentation of water further hampers water security. A total of 276 transboundary basins are divided by 148 nations, accounting for 60% of the world's freshwater flow. From this, 300 aquifer systems are transboundary, meaning around two billion people depend on global groundwater. Fragmentation concerns are commonly mirrored at the national level, requiring teamwork to ensure adequate water resource management and development schemes for all riparian areas. Nations will need to enhance the way they manage their water resources and related components

Investors will need to invest in institutional consolidation, information management, and (natural and non-natural) infrastructure development to increase water security in the face of rising demand, water scarcity, growing unpredictability, more significant extremes, and fragmentation concerns. Institutional mechanisms such as legal

demographics, which are at the mercy of unpredictable rainfall.

to handle these complex and interrelated water concerns.

bodies of water and replenishes the groundwater level.
