Experts call for radical re-think in global water management

"One in three people is enduring one form or another of water scarcity" in the world today, according to a report compiled over five years by 700 experts and presented at the event in the Swedish capital opening on Monday.

"It is much more widespread than we thought at first," Frank Rijsberman, Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), told AFP.

"It's very concerning. We see what we can easily call a water crisis in quite a few different countries," Rijsberman said, citing as examples Australia, south-central China, and last year's devastating drought in India.

According to Rijsberman, there are two types of shortages: those observed in regions where water is over-exploited, causing a lowering of groundwater levels and rivers to dry up; and those in countries lacking the technical and financial resources to capture water, although it may be abundant.

The problem with water is linked much more to usage that to availability, he noted, with shortages caused "98 percent (by) human reasons and 2 percent natural reasons."

Currently, it takes one litre of water to produce one calorie of food, the study says, and producing one kilo (2.2 pounds) of wheat takes 4,000 litres (1,040 US gallons) of water, while 10,000 litres are needed for one kilo of meat.