World Water Development Report 2022

On the eve of World Water Day (22^nd March), UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water released the United Nations World Water Development Report 2022 titled “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible”.

• The report describes the challenges and opportunities associated with the development, management and governance of groundwater across the world.

Importance of Groundwater: Groundwater accounts for 99% of liquid freshwater on Earth and is the source of one-quarter of all the water used by humans.

• It has the potential to provide societies with tremendous social, economic and environmental benefits and opportunities.
• Groundwater is central to the fight against poverty and achieving food and water security and even the creation of jobs and socio-economic development.

Water Demand & Scarcity: An estimated four billion people live in areas that suffer from severe physical water scarcity for at least one month per year.

• Global demand for water has increased six-fold over the past 100 years and continues to grow at the rate of 1% each year.
• Demand for water is projected to rise faster in developing countries.
• More than 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050.

Largest Groundwater User: The Asia-Pacific region is the largest groundwater abstractor in the world, containing seven out of the ten countries that extract most groundwater (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey).

• These countries alone account for roughly 60% of the world’s total groundwater withdrawal.
• India is the largest groundwater user globally, followed by China and Pakistan.