If current patterns of consumption continue unabated, two-thirds of the world's population will be facing water shortages as a daily reality by 2025.
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia (1)
Introduction to the problem and scale
- About 70% of the Earth’s surface is water. The volume of available freshwater is only a fraction of that total, at just 1%. (2)
- A third of the world’s biggest groundwater systems are already in distress (3) meaning water is extracted faster than it can be replenished.
- Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase, over the past 100 years (4), its usage has been driven by population growth, socio-economic development, and changes to consumption patterns. (5)
- Climate change could also have significant impacts on the water cycle, threatening rainfed agricultural production which currently supports 80% of global crop land and accounts for 60% of global food production. (6)
- Globally, water pollution is increasing and harming the ability of ecosystems to sustain themselves and meet human needs. (7)
- Over two billion people live in countries already experiencing high water stress (8) and this number is expected to increase with population growth and increasing urbanisation.
- By 2030, 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity (9) and the world could face a 40% global water deficit. (10)
- The challenges of water scarcity, unequal distribution, and contamination are all potential causes for future conflict.
- The total cost of water insecurity to the global economy is estimated at US$500 billion annually. (11)
Link to intensive animal farming
- “Agriculture (including irrigation, livestock and aquaculture) is by far the largest water consumer, accounting for 69% of annual water withdrawals globally.” (12)
- Industrial livestock production generally uses and pollutes more surface and ground water than grazing or mixed systems (13) due to industrial systems’ dependence on grain-based feed. Producing 1kg of animal protein requires 100 times more water than producing 1kg of grain protein. (14)
- The water footprint of any animal product is larger than the water footprint of crop products with equivalent nutritional value. (15)
- Less intensive outdoor livestock systems can utilise rainfed pasture, demanding far smaller volumes of water extracted from aquifers. (16)
- “Intensive livestock production is probably the largest sector-specific source of water pollution” UN World Economic social survey. (17) Large quantities of nitrogen fertilisers are used to grow feed, but only 30-60% of this nitrogen is taken up by feed crops; 40-70% is lost to water or the atmosphere. (18)
- Feed given to industrial livestock has high levels of nitrogen. Pigs and poultry assimilate less than half of the nitrogen in their feed; most is excreted in manure, which is the primary source of nitrogen and phosphorous to surface and groundwater and leads to hypoxic zones.(19)
Link to the relevant SDG(S)
- SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (20)
- SDG 14: Life below water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, sea and marine resources for sustainable development (21)
![SDG report 2023, infographics Goal 6](/media/7458545/sdg_report_2023_infographics_goal-6.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=730&height=0&&rnd=133679452010000000)
![SDG report 2023, infographics, Goal 14](/media/7458540/sdg_report_2023_infographics_goal-14.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=730&height=0&&rnd=133679392500000000)
- Water Scarcity – One of the greatest challenges of our time. Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/zhc/detail-events/en/c/880881/
- National Geographic – Freshwater crisis. Webpage. Accessed 5 November 2020. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/
- Richey, A.S., Thomas, B.F., Lo, Min-Hui., Reager, J.T. et al. 2015. Quantifying renewable groundwater stress with GRACE https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015WR017349
- Water Scarcity United Nations water facts https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/scarcity/
- UN WORLD WATER DEVELOPMENT REPORT 18 March 2019 https://www.unwater.org/publications/world-water-development-report-2019/
- World Water Assessment Programme Facts and Figures. Webpage Accessed 5 November 2020 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/facts-and-figures/all-facts-wwdr3/fact-24-irrigated-land/
- National Geographic – Water pollution is a rising global crisis. Webpage. Accessed 5 November 2020. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/freshwater-pollution
- United Nations – Water Scarcity Webpage. Accessed 5 November 2020. https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/scarcity/
- Global Water Institute. 2013
- The United Nations world water development report, 2016: Water and jobs: facts and figures https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000244041
- The United Nations world water development report, 2016: Water and jobs: facts and figures https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000244041
- The state of the world’s resources. WWAP (UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme). 2019. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2019: Leaving No One Behind.Paris, UNESCO.p13
- Mekonnen, M. and Hoekstra, A., 2012. A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products. Ecosystems.: DOI: 10.1007/s10021-011-9517-8
- Pimentel D, Pimentel M. Food, energy and society. Niwot, CO: Colorado University Press, 1996.
- Mekonnen M and Hoekstra A, 2012. A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products. Ecosystems.: DOI: 10.1007/s10021-011-9517-8
- Mekonnen M and Hoekstra A, 2012. A global assessment of the water footprint of farmanimal products. Ecosystems.: DOI: 10.1007/s10021-011-9517-8
- UN World Economic and Social Survey 2011. United Nations
- Eds. Sutton M.A., Howard C.M., Erisman J.W., Billen G., Bleeker A., Grennfelt P., van Grinsven H. and Grizzetti B., 2011. The European Nitrogen Assessment. Cambridge University Press
- FAO 2006 report Livestock’s Long Shadow http://www.fao.org/3/a-a0701e.pdf. See page 107“According to estimates by Van der Hoek (1998) global N efficiency is around 20 percent for pigs and 34 percent for poultry.”
- United Nations Department of Economic Social Affairs Sustainable Development https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6
- United Nations Department of Economic Social Affairs Sustainable Development https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal14