Existing global and regional data collected by organizations and scientists around the world show that human activities have severely affected the condition of freshwater systems worldwide.
- Even though humans have increased the amount of water available for use with dams and reservoirs, more than 40 percent of the world’s population lives in conditions of water stress. This percentage is estimated to grow to almost 50 percent by 2025.
- Surface and groundwater is being degraded in almost all regions of the world by intensive agriculture and rapid urbanization, aggravating the water scarcity problem.
- Lack of access to clean water continues to be a leading cause of illness and death in much of the developing world.
- Food production from wild fisheries has been affected by habitat degradation, overexploitation, and pollution to a point where most of these resources are not sustainable without fishery enhancements.
- Finally, the capacity of freshwater ecosystems to support biodiversity is highly degraded at a global level, with many freshwater species facing rapid population declines or extinction.
While current datasets highlight these important – and troubling – trends, improved national and global data on ecosystem land use characteristics, basic hydrological information, fisheries production, and freshwater species could lead to significantly more knowledge about the condition of freshwater systems.
