Question: could we run out of water??

Pip Millington answered on 18 Nov 2016:

In Britain, we have quite tight control on our water supply. We never get to the stage of actual drought, even though we sometimes have hosepipe bans. Some parts of the world have terrible droughts though and we have to remember that most people in the world don’t have access to water tapped directly to their house and there are even fewer people who have drinkable tap water. There are definitely parts of the world which are in big danger of running out of water frequently, especially desert and savannah regions.

However, water is plentiful, it’s in rivers, and lakes, deep underground, in the rain and in the sea. Part of the solution for not running out of water is to make sure that people understand how to harness these vast resources, e.g. through decontamination facilities and even desalination plants, and share the benefit of these resources, not just for the benefit of our own country but also for the benefit of countries that can’t afford to invest in this infrastructure.

Unfortunately, like most things on a global scale, it is likely that progress will be hindered unless there is multinational agreement through bodies like the United Nations. In practice it is the politics, not the science, which makes this hard to achieve!