5 Nations Facing the Highest Water-Stressed Risks

Singapore: The affluent city-state, Singapore has an area of about 680 square kilometers and a population of 4 million, and has highly developed industrial, business, and financial services. As an essentially urbanized country, but one which lacks natural resources, Singapore is facing a serious shortage of water resources.

Its current water demand is about 1.4 million cu meters daily but domestic resources only meet about 50 percent of that (Baumgarten, 1998). The city-state has to import several millions of liters of fresh water from neighboring Malaysia via pipelines. In fact, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has officially classified the island state as “water poor.” Water resource management becomes, therefore, a strategically important issue for national economic development and public and social life.

Qatar: As a small peninsula in one of the most dry and arid regions in the world, it is no secret that Qatar faces severe water scarcity. With an average of around 80 millimeters a year, Qatar has one of the world’s lowest levels of rainfall. The Qatar National Development Strategy has admitted that the three key water sources on which Qatar depends-desalination, groundwater and recycled water are under stress.
Its natural evaporation rate of 2000 millimeters puts it into a water deficit, while consumption and network leakage rates are staggeringly high. Per capita water use is one of the highest in the world, estimated at an average of 460 litres per day, according to the Permanent Committee on Water Resources. Though the Qatari government openly acknowledges the urgency of tackling water stress, a network of privately-owned enterprises, spanning multinationals to family-run start-ups, to lone entrepreneurs, is also looking to apply its talents and expertise to address the challenge this reality brings to the country.

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