World Bank identifies water shortage as key threat

A new report from the World Bank suggests that the most severe effect of climate change will be diminishing water supplies. Water shortage could reduce economic growth by 6% in some countries by 2050, "sending them into sustained negative growth." The areas most affected will be Africa, China, India and the Middle East. As well as environmental impacts, including both intense rain and droughts, water shortage has implications for food production – agriculture consumes huge amounts of water. The World Bank estimates that 1.6bn people already experience water scarcity and that this number could double. Increase in population combined with greater requirements for water in the electricity and agricultural sectors will intensify the problem. Rising sea levels may also mean that groundwater supplies become salinated and harder to use.

Washington: As India, the world's second-most populous country, reels from an intense drought, the World Bank has released a new report finding that the most severe impact of a changing climate will be the effect on water supplies.

The most startling finding? The High and Dry: Climate Change, Water and the Economy report suggests that a lack of water could knock down economic growth in some parts of the world by as much as 6 percent of GDP by the year 2050, "sending them into sustained negative growth."

A girl carries drinking water on her head as she walks back to her village after collecting it from an almost dried up well in Samba, India, last week. Credit: AP

Regions facing this risk - which can at least partly be averted by better water management - include not only much of Africa as expected but also India, China and the Middle East, according to the report.

"When we look at any of the major impacts of climate change, they one way or another come through water," said Richard Damania, a lead economist at the bank and the lead author of the report, on Tuesday.