Sustainability

The consumption of fresh water

The various climate and hydro-geological conditions make water availability very different from one region to another. It is possible to talk about water shortage when the annual per capita water availability is below 500 cubic meters, and below 1000 cubic meters for those countries with a weak socio-economic organization. During the last century the global consumption of fresh water increased by 10 times, and around 68% of the water is now used in the agricultural sector. This percentage is decreasing as the consumption of water for industrial (24%) and household (8%) reasons is increasing. In less developed regions the percentage of water used for agriculture is higher, differently from more developed regions, where the percentage of water used for industrial and household reasons is higher.
The average per capital annual consumption changes from the more developed regions (1200 cubic meters) to Sahel African regions (120 cubic meters). This situation is explained by saying that a wealthier life requires a higher consumption of water, although the opposite is not always true: in fact, in less developed regions agriculture absorbs most of available water, but due to the inefficient irrigation systems around 60% of it is lost. And always due to an unsuitable distribution, 36% of industrial and urban water is lost. Other problems that have to be added to the already-mentioned ones are: drought, climate change, deforestation and pollution of aquifers.