Water may soon be one of our most valuable commodities. The growing demands made on a finite resource by an increasing number of people adopting urban lifestyles and western diets, coupled with a changing and less predictable climate, are putting pressure on the planet’s freshwater supply as never before.
By 2025, 4 billion people may be living in conditions of water stress. And even where water is plentiful, the poor are unlikely to have ready access to a safe, cheap supply.
The new edition of this timely atlas — forthcoming in September 2016 — analyzes the latest thinking and emerging issues. Completely updated, it maps the competing claims on limited water resources—made by farmers, industrialists and householders—and investigates the nature of the resource, its uses and abuses, as well as the vexed question of how it can be managed equitably.
Topics include: water shortages ● excessive demands ● basin stresses ● climate impacts ● water footprints ● competition and co-operation ● dam construction ● pollution ● fragile ecosystems ● access to water and sanitation ● water pricing and privatization ● integrated water management