The world is facing water stress

"Water scarcity is the biggest crisis nobody talks about," said Andrew Steer, CEO of the World Resource Institute in his recent publication. Because according to the latest study, 17 countries worldwide are already suffering from extremely high water stress and thus consume more than 80 percent of their available ground and surface water every year. These include, for example, Qatar, Israel, Lebanon and Iran. Accordingly, a quarter of the world's population already lives in regions with extremely high water stress. According to the WRI boss, the visible consequences are already food crises, migration and financial instability. In addition, according to WRI researchers, the situation will worsen in the coming decades due to the growing world population. 

European Water Scarcity 

The water stress atlas also shows 27 other high-risk countries, such as Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. This shows that water is also slowly becoming scarcer in Europe – according to the WRI, a total of seven EU countries are already suffering from high levels of water stress. From there, 40 to 80 percent of the available resources are extracted every year. And even if we in Germany can hardly imagine that water could become a luxury good, due to climate change and heat waves, the competition for the resource is also increasing in this country. Germany currently ranks 62nd in the middle category, but some regions in Germany are already suffering from high water stress - such as Bremen, Leipzig or Stuttgart. The data from 189 countries worldwide were evaluated. You can find out which areas are affected and how badly here .