The world is becoming short of many things as a rising and more affluent population demands more of everything.
Water is in a class of it’s own when it comes to the things we can’t manage without. We need it for drinking, growing food, industry and household use.
An estimated 1 billion people do not have access to an adequate water supply while the developing world needs much more water per person as they move to a diet with more meat and as fast growing industry and urban development consume vast amounts of water.
At the same time as this is happening, many of the world’s great aquifers are becoming depleted. Water is being pumped from ever deeper levels. In places such as the High Plains in the U.S. and parts of India and China, this is starting to effect food production. But just as bad is the unreliability of rainfall due to climate change. Farmers plan their cropping according to the weather patterns they have come to expect but if rain comes at the wrong time or in quantities much greater or smaller then expected, yields suffer.
It is estimated that in twenty years time we will each have one third less water available than we do now. This will inevitably mean less food per person.