The United Nations, recently held a high-level symposium on water security organized by the World Water Organization, where they warned that two-thirds of the world’s population will face a lack of water in the next two decades if current trends in climate change, population growth, rural to urban migration and uncontrolled consumption continues they are now. Agriculture (in its currently practiced system) consumes around three quarters of the world’s fresh water supplies and in Africa the proportion is closer to ninety per cent.

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, leading the discussion, said that “if present trends continue, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world population could be subject to water stress” Migro continued to warn against the severity of the problem saying “The lack of safe water and sanitation is inextricably linked with poverty and malnutrition, particularly among the world’s poor.”

The Deputy Secretary-General was adamant that achieving water security would have to include more effective and efficient water management, with initiatives like enhancing food security through more equitable allocation of water for agriculture and food production. Migro said that “it means ensuring the integrity of ecosystems, and it means promoting peaceful collaboration in the sharing of water resources, particularly in the case of boundary and trans-boundary water resources.”

The right to water is one of many other internationally recognized human rights, including the right to food, the right to health, and the right to adequate housing. The terrifying consequences of a global water shortage will hopefully spur nations to more start implementing more stringent water policies from a regulatory standpoint.