National News

ISLAMABAD, (APP): Former Ambassador to United States ,
Senator Sherry Rehman Monday expressed her concern over water
shortage and crisis.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report
2016, water crises are one of the three biggest challenges we face.
A new study has backed up these findings, estimating that 4 billion
people, two-thirds of the global population are facing water scarcity.
” Pakistan is surely deep in the water stress zone” , she said
in a statement.
This figure is bigger than previously thought. In the past,
studies looked at water scarcity on an annual basis.
They concluded that between 1.7 billion and 3.1 billion people were
affected.
This latest study instead examined water scarcity on a monthly level,
which gives a more accurate reflection of just how severe the
problem has become: “Water scarcity has become a global problem
affecting us all,” the authors pointed out.
Nearly half of the people suffering from water scarcity live
in India and China; around the world, close to half a billion people
face water scarcity throughout the year.
The study also focuses on other regions, such as parts of the
US, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.
Already, 500 million people live in places where water
consumption is double the amount replenished by rain for the whole
year, creating very difficult living conditions as underground
aquifers are drained. But according to the researchers, the problem
will become even more acute as populations grow and water use
continues to rise.