Water Scarcity: Definitions, Causes, and Coping Policies

Water is vital not only for the production of food, but also for energy production, for the extraction of materials, to maintain aquatic ecosystem services, for the livelihoods of people, and not least for the economy. The increasing stress on freshwater resources brought about by ever rising demand and profligate use, as well as by growing pollution worldwide, is of serious concern. Water scarcity is among the main problems to be faced by many societies and the world in the XXI century. In this paper, after describing the definitions of water scarcity in different sectors, various causes of water scarcity were assessed. Moreover, policies and practices of water management under water scarcity according to the causes of water scarcity were described. It has been shown that there are many issues to be considered in coping with water scarcity, in addition to the obvious technological issues of where to find more water and how to make more use of the water we have, in line with the widely accepted concept of sustainable development.

Keywords:

Water , Scarcity , Policy , Sustainable Development.