When will the water run out?

When will the water run out?
Climate change, increased industrial demand and wanton wastefulness: is 'peak
water' upon us?

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Peak oil may be the least of our problems, scientists warned today. Growing
industrial demand for water in developing countries such as China, rapidly
expanding urban populations and the efficiency with which we use water have
increased the risk of "peak water" – a resource that most of us presume will
be infinite – entering a terminal decline.

Of course, we already knew one of the big eco-bummers of our modern lives is
that products from beer to microchips use inordinate amounts of water. Last
August, the WWF revealed that each Brit effectively uses 4,645 litres of water a
day to produce the food on our tables and the T-shirts on our backs; see our
world map for an idea of where Britain's "borrowed water" comes from.

Unsurprisingly, one of the solutions advocated by this new report is a better
use of the water we have. To that end, the authors have estimated the water
footprint of everyday food and drink, which encouragingly shows that one litre
of beer consumes less water (300 litres) than one litre of orange juice (850
litres). One kilogram of coffee is reportedly more thirsty (21,000 litres of
water) than one kilogram of hamburger (16,000 litres). Take a look at our image
gallery to see the hidden water cost of everything from your daily cuppa to a
glass of wine.

According to the report, this is adding up to a global crisis. "We are facing a
crisis of running out of sustainably managed water," says Peter Gleick, the
author of the sixth edition of the World Water report by California's Pacific
Institute. Despite human demand accounting for over 50% of the world's
accessible freshwater, the report warns that billions of people still lack
access to basic water services. Developing countries, it notes, will suffer
worst from peak water because of supply problems exacerbated by flooding,
drought and water pollution. Developed countries won't be entirely spared
though, as Peter Preston discovered in Spain last year.

The World Water report continues by singling out China as a country in danger of
water stress because of its inefficient water use and large projects such as the
Three Gorges Dam scheme. "[Chinese] Rivers and lakes are dead and dying,
groundwater aquifers are overpumped, uncounted species of aquatic life have been
driven to extinction, and direct adverse impacts on both human and ecosystem
health are widespread and growing," warns Gleick.

His team also highlights how climate change is adversely affecting water global
supplies and its impact on food production.

"The stress on global food production from temperatures alone is going to be
huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher
temperatures," said David Battisti, the lead author of another study published
earlier this month.

Gleick's report is keen to stress that the concept of peak water, or more
specifically "peak ecological water", isn't completely analogous to peak oil.
Unlike oil, some water supplies are infinitely renewable. But even those regions
with a water supply that could be exhausted are only likely to suffer peak water
locally – whereas peak oil will be a global issue.