Is the world going to run out drinking water soon? That's what the UN thinks!

IllustrationUday Mohite2025 the year when the world may run out of drinking water as highlighted in several reports studies and surveys And the reason its being talked about more now is because the day or Day Zero as its being called is just months away for Cape Town likely to get the distinction of the first modern city to run out of the everyday elixir mdash July 9 has been given as the day the city will have to turn off its tapsCloser home we have Bengaluru said to be first in line to be hit by the drinking water bullet according to a recent report by the BBC Indias IT hub is second on BBCs list just behind Brazils Sao Paulo Though no other Indian city is in the list several metros and major cities are no better when it comes to taking care of their resourcesDown the drainHere in India our elected representatives seem allergic to tried and tested methods such as desalination thats been successful in other countries neither has anything concrete been done to clean up our waterbodies mdash lakes and rivers mdash that continue to be pumped with garbage chemical effluents and other waste Whats worse our waterbodies are also increasingly being built over as concrete structures mushroom to accommodate our evergrowing numbers And the less said about dingy and dirty water pipelines which burst anytime anywhere leading to colossal wastage the betterWant to know how we have been digging our own grave here are a few reasonsgtgt A mere 25 of Earths total water is fresh watergtgtEvergrowing population and increasing affluence has put stress on the available fresh waterFor example it takes 400 bottles of water to produce one bottle of winegtgtAccording to a Wikileaks report growing meat consumption is another reasonhellipgtgtA calorie of meat needs 10 times as much water to produce as a calorie of cropgtgtAnd the big one climate change mdash for every degree Celsius of global warming about 7 per cent of the worlds population will see a drop of at least 20 per cent in renewable water resources as per the UNWhats the Local sceneMadhav Chitale water expertMumbai will never face a situation like the one in Cape Town things are different here Dams supplying water to the city have enough storage capacity to cater to citizens requirement The pipelines are underground so there is no question of any risk to those Also the natural conditions are different here mdash the city gets enough rainwater Mumbais problem is the rising population So citizens need to be conscious and cautious and avoid wasting waterDhaval Desai ORF research fellowOur city has enough water stock but what we need to do is curb the nonrevenue water amount of water wasted during transportation which is around 900 million litres daily These many litres are lost due to pilferage leakage and other means While we have enough sources of water what our city requires is a consolidated plan to stop all sorts of wastage These 900 million litres of water can easily fulfil requirements of a city like Pune45Number of countries facing water shortage37Number of conflicts between countries over water since 19472000Minimum litres of water a person needs daily2030Year by which global demand for fresh water is projected to grow by more than 40BBCs stressed cities01 Sao Paulo02 Bengaluru03 Beijing 04 Cairo05 Jakarta06 Moscow07 Istanbul08 Mexico City09 London10 Tokyo 11 MiamiInputs Laxman SinghCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates