Not a drop to drink?

It’s World Water Week. You’ve heard it before, but if oil dominated the 20th century, water will dominate the 21st. The folks at the International Water Management Institute have put out a new report, and while they stress that the world isn’t running out of water, they do want to alarm you. In case you ...

607397_water_map5.jpg
607397_water_map5.jpg

It's World Water Week. You've heard it before, but if oil dominated the 20th century, water will dominate the 21st. The folks at the International Water Management Institute have put out a new report, and while they stress that the world isn't running out of water, they do want to alarm you. In case you didn't know, there is a world water crisis. And it's largely because our diets are changing.

It’s World Water Week. You’ve heard it before, but if oil dominated the 20th century, water will dominate the 21st. The folks at the International Water Management Institute have put out a new report, and while they stress that the world isn’t running out of water, they do want to alarm you. In case you didn’t know, there is a world water crisis. And it’s largely because our diets are changing.

Check out these stats:

Imagine a channel of water a meter deep, a kilometre wide, and 7 million kilometres long—long enough to encircle the globe 180 times. That’s the prodigious amount of water it takes each year to produce 3,000 calories of food a day for each of the world’s 6.1 billion people.

Broken down into smaller quantities, a calorie of food takes a liter of water to produce. A kilo of grain takes 500-4,000 liters, a kilo of industrially produced meat 10,000 liters. Surprising numbers, indeed. Add 2-3 billion people by 2050 and accommodate their changing diets from cereals to more meat, and that will add another 5 million kilometres to the channel of water needed to feed the world’s people. Where will that water come from?

And they’ve put together this map of water scarcity. FP noted some of the countries highlighted here when we put together a List of impending water crises.

 

 

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.