- The World Resource Institute (WRI) has released Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas. It has ranked water stress, drought risk and riverine flood risk countries.
- According to the atlas, 1/4 of world’s population is facing huge water stress.
- WRI has provided a list of 17 most water stress countries. Qatar has been ranked as the most water stress country followed by Israel, Lebanon, Iran, and Jordan.
- India has been ranked 13th. The WRI has noted that India has more than three times the population of the other 16 water stressed countries.
- The WRI report has also highlighted that agriculture, industry, and municipalities are using 80% of available surface and groundwater in an average year in these 17 countries.
- 12 out of the 17 most water-stressed countries are in the Middle East and North Africa and climate change will worsen water scarcity in the region.
- The World Bank has had noted that this region has the greatest expected economic losses from climate-related water scarcity, estimated at 6%-14% of GDP by 2050.
