Water - a basic element of life livelihood food security and sustainable development - holds
the key to global sustainability. The global water demand has been increased 3-fold in the past
five decades and only 0.4% of the total world's fresh water resources is available and
accessible for use. The United Nations projected that half of all countries will face water
scarcity by 2025 and more than one-third of the world's population could be affected by water
stress by 2050. The water problem is rapidly intensifying in the Asian region and around 700
million people do not have access to safe drinking water. Similarly according to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report by 2050 more than one billion people
in Asia alone are projected to experience negative impacts on water resources as a result of
climate change. Climate change is also putting extra pressure on and adversely affecting the
global water cycle leading to irregular precipitation more floods and droughts and creating
an imbalance between water supply and demand. The availability of safe water is a major global
concern due to the rapidly increasing population urbanization unsustainable consumption
patterns and rapid shifts in land use. It is believed that reduced access to freshwater will
have cascading consequences that will pose threat to global food security livelihood security
and cause large scale migration and economic and geopolitical tensions. As such strategies for
water conservation wastewater reuse and recycling should be adopted in order to lessen the gap
between supply and demand for water for different activities. This book provides readers with a
better understanding of the water security challenges and presents innovations to address
these challenges strengthen the science-policy interface and develop institutional and human
capacities for water security and sustainability.
