New study: Four billion people facing severe water scarcity

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Our most recent research shows that more people face severe water scarcity than previously thought. Based on advanced assessment methods looking at variability of water footprints and water availability within the year we estimate that four billion people in the world face severe water scarcity during at least part of the year.

The study was published in Science Advances. Download the paper:

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/2/2/e1500323.full.pdf

The article received worldwide press coverage, including:

The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/12/four-billion-people-face-severe-water-scarcity-new-research-finds

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/science/two-thirds-of-the-world-faces-severe-water-shortages.html

Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/12/the-world-has-even-bigger-water-problems-than-we-thought/

Voice of America (video)

http://www.voanews.com/content/four-billion-people-lack-fresh-water/3188751.html

2 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this interesting read. This article has got a lot of attention in the past few days. I also read a different take here by my favorite environmental economist Dr. David Zetland on his blog Aguanomics: Four billion facing severe water scarcity? I think not. David Zetlandhttps://lnkd.in/eS5c764

  2. The very long but good document called " health aspects of water and sanitation" that Russ Chaney helped produce a couple yrs. back. This is a WHO document and intended to be world applied. This document is what will be a reference to the authorities having jurisdiction to follow as to not allow humanistic violations. Check it out, sorry I do not have the link now but it can be downloaded from online, it is about 500 pages.