WASHINGTON – Citizens of Lahore are among more than one billion urban residents who will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanisation, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday. The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world’s fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found that under current urbanisation trends, by mid-century some 993 million city dwellers would live with less than 100 litres each day of water each – roughly the amount that fills a personal bathtub – which authors considered the daily minimum.
Adding on the impact of climate change, an additional 100 million people would lack what they need for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing and toilet use, the study said. “Don’t take the numbers as destiny. They’re a sign of a challenge,” said lead author Rob McDonald of The Nature Conservancy, a private environmental group based near Washington. “There are solutions to getting those billion people water. It’s just a sign that a lot more investment is going to be needed, either in infrastructure or in water use efficiency,” he said. Currently, around 150 million people fall below the 100-litre threshold for daily water use.
India’s six biggest cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad – are among those most affected by water shortages. The study warned of threats to ecosystems if developing nations take water from elsewhere. “If cities are essentially drinking rivers dry, that has really bad effects on the fish and the reptiles and everything else in the river,” McDonald said. Instead, the study recommended reforms to agriculture and improved efficiency, as nearly half of the water in some poor countries is wasted because of leaks.
