China, India and the US have been rated as facing the highest level of water security challenges alongside relatively limited progress towards solutions in a new analysis published by BSI and Waterwise, while there was no improvement in the water security of 31 countries in the last 12 months. The study combines publicly available data with international polling of over 9,300 people to evaluate how water insecurity is perceived in some of these countries, finding a concerning disconnect between the reality of the challenge, public understanding of its severity, and the action required to turn things around.
Although 60% of respondents recognize water security as an important global issue, and three quarters specifically cite drought in their country as an issue (76%), under half (45%) said addressing water security was as important as addressing climate change. The polling also found that only 15% globally say they see water security discussed regularly by politicians or media, despite the fact that annual water use rose by around 3,500 billion m3 globally between 1900 and 2024 and will worsen with climate change. Put in context, this equates to adding 895m3 of water demand each second or an Olympic sized swimming pool (2500m3) every 2.79 seconds.
Global water demand is projected to grow by around 1%, or 400 billion m3, per annum. On this basis, new calculations show that the world could add 1268 m3 of water demand per second, equating to one Olympic sized swimming pool every 2 seconds.
In the analysis, the ‘2024 Water Security and Solutions Indicator’, China, India and the US all score above 50 out of a possible 85, meaning they face some of the greatest challenges and are making limited progress on solutions. Compared with this, the polling data suggests gaps between the reality of the global water security challenge and public comprehension of the scale of the issue – 74% claimed to be confident in their country’s freshwater supply, but this included 85% in India, 82% in Australia, and 73% in the US.
The greatest increase in a water security challenge score was seen in Spain, which went up by five points, due to an increasing proportion of the country’s available freshwater being abstracted, a decrease in the price of water relative to national GDP and a decrease in water use efficiency. This increase is particularly concerning in light of the water scarcity challenges faced by Spain in the last few years, such as the drought emergency declared by the Catalonia regional government in February 2024. Of the 41 assessed, 13 received higher scores representing greater water insecurity in 2024 – these included Türkiye, North Macedonia, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In Asia, China, India, and Japan also received worse scores.
Decreases since 2023, indicating improvements in water security, were generally small and only seen in nine countries, including Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Norway.
Globally, Britons (21%) and the Japanese (15%) were least confident in their understanding of their country’s level of water security, potentially indicating the impact of insufficient political and media focus. Additionally, a quarter globally lacked confidence in their country’s infrastructure for ensuring water security, with the lowest confidence levels reported in the UK (32%) and Japan (44%).
BSI sets out tangible areas for action in the report, including calling on media and policymakers, along with businesses and other organizations, to shape the conversation and raise awareness by incorporating water security into climate discussions. Additionally, BSI is urging consumers to be supported to make informed, sustainable choices, for example via tools like mandatory water efficiency labels, used in Australia and Singapore, to boost consumer awareness and market innovation in water conservation.
