A growing population and rising temperatures will strain the world's freshwater supplies over the next 30 years, jeopardizing available water for drinking, bathing and growing food, according to new research.
An analysis of newly released data from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that by 2050 an additional billion people will be living in arid areas and regions with high water stress, where at least 40 percent of the renewable water supply is consumed each year. Two-fifths of the world's population - 3.3 billion people in total - currently live in such areas.