☔️ Water series: Future extreme dynamics of water use: Difference between revisions

#[[☔️ Water series: Future extreme dynamics of water use]]

[[File:Freshwater-withdrawals-as-a-share-of-internal-resources_2014ourworldindata.png|thumb|Thumbnailed image|World water stress: freshwater withdrawals as a share of internal resources ([https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress#water-stress-and-scarcity Our World in Data]).]]

What we call “water stress” is measured by considering the amount of water used by a given country as a share of the actual renewable water resources that are available in this country (called “internal” water). When this share reaches around 10% of the total resource, the water stress is low; but above 40% it is described as high to extremely high at 80%. As water stress rises, less water is available for wild ecosystems and risks of groundwater depletion increases. If water use exceed 100% of the resource, this means that this country is either extracting beyond the rate at which aquifers can be replenished, or has very high levels of desalinisation<ref>Currently, 1% of the world drinking water comes from desalination, which is just a fraction of “blue water”. But this is growing every year.