Bahrain is among the top countries suffering extreme water stress, revealed data gathered by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
According to the WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, 25 countries are currently suffering from extreme water stress every year – with Bahrain, Cyprus, Kuwait, Lebanon and Oman being the worst-affected.
Water stress is a measure of how much of its available water supply a country must use to meet the demand.
The WRI says countries are experiencing ‘extreme water stress’ when they are using more than 80 per cent of their renewable water supply every year.
According to its report, the higher the water stress, the more vulnerable a country is to water shortages, especially during periods of peak demand – such as during a heat wave.
Previous analysis by the WRI calculated that it would cost about 1pc of global GDP to achieve water security for the whole world by 2030. Methods that could be used to do this include making water usage in agriculture more efficient, treating and reusing wastewater and employing nature-based solutions.
According to the WRI, these solutions can only be implemented with “the necessary political will and financial backing.”
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