干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The continuously growing global water scarcity and the evidences for climatic changes require a refocus on reliable and sustainable water supplies, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, being the most water-deprived regions in the world. Population growth, urbanization and increasing water demand add pressure on many water resources, causing a rapid depletion and quality degradation to a degree that part of the resources may not be safe to use and cause health and environmental risks. Such adverse development is strongly apparent in the Middle East and elsewhere where global warming impacts are already apparent leading to a situation in which available water resources are depleted and deteriorated, unable to satisfy the basic needs. To provide an integrated picture of water challenges and possible solutions at global and regional scale a Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework is applied to elaborate the water scarcity issue and mitigation measures with examples from the Middle East, California, India and other regions of the world facing water scarcity challenges. Reversing the trend of growing water shortages while securing basic water needs for all are a challenging and an ambitious task, but achievable provided that comprehensive and consolidated water management strategies are implemented. A comprehensive and integrated water management policy combing advanced management and conservation as well as the harnessing of nonconventional water resources (water reuse and desalination), together with trans-boundary cooperation on shared water resources can provide a sound solution to the challenges posed by water scarcity as discussed in this chapter.