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What are the most Water Stressed Countries? - Answers


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What are the most Water Stressed Countries?

5/5 - (3 votes)
5/5 - (3 votes)

World Map depicting most water stressed countries

‘Water Water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.’
The lines from the poem – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, could soon be appropriate to describe the world’s condition.

The increasing population is a threat to mankind, as it may double by the year 2040. Along with it, the clean and drinkable water supply is already dwindling in various regions around the world. Some industrialized areas may have a plentiful supply, with water being available at an inexpensive price, but for many in under developed areas, water is almost a luxury.
Do you know that a data sourced by World Business Council for Sustainable Development, declares that half of the world’s freshwater supply is limited to only nine countries? These countries are the United States, Brazil, Colombia, China, India, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada, Indonesia and Russia.

Conserving water is the best plan if we want to secure the future of our planet. Currently, as one would have expected, it’s the Middle Eastern countries that are facing a high risk of water depreciation. To assess the water situation in 167 nations by 2040, the World Resources Institute (WRI) ranked and scored the future water-stress in these countries. WRI gave the nations a score between 0 and 5. With 5 being the greatest level of water risk, 0 was the least.
There are around 33 countries, with a score of 4 or 5, suggesting that they are in dire need of water conservation and face a high risk of being the most water-stressed in the future. Countries having the highest risk are; Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, San Marino, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, and Israel.

Meanwhile, there are countries which have a score of less than 1 and thus, the circumstances are not as dire. Some countries like Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo and Iceland even have a score of 0.


Yet, water conservation needs to be a top priority worldwide if we want to avoid it becoming scarce on our planet.

The table below provides information on the nations which would be the most water-stressed by 2040.

Most Water-stressed Country Score
1 Bahrain 5.00
2 Kuwait 5.00
3 Qatar 5.00
4 San Marino 5.00
5 Singapore 5.00
6 United Arab Emirates 5.00
7 Palestine 5.00
8 Israel 5.00
9 Saudi Arabia 4.99
10 Oman 4.97
11 Lebanon 4.97
12 Kyrgyzstan 4.93
13 Iran 4.91
14 Jordan 4.86
15 Libya 4.77
16 Yemen 4.74
17 Macedonia 4.70
18 Azerbaijan 4.69
19 Morocco 4.68
20 Kazakhstan 4.66
21 Iraq 4.66
22 Armenia 4.60
23 Pakistan 4.48
24 Chile 4.45
25 Syria 4.44
26 Turkmenistan 4.30
27 Turkey 4.27
28 Greece 4.23
29 Uzbekistan 4.19
30 Algeria 4.17
31 Afghanistan 4.12
32 Spain 4.07
33 Tunisia 4.06
34 Mexico 3.99
35 Dominican Republic 3.94
36 Estonia 3.91
37 Mongolia 3.85
38 Belgium 3.74
39 Italy 3.67
40 India 3.61
41 Andorra 3.57
42 Monaco 3.56
43 Australia 3.55
44 Portugal 3.55
45 Tajikistan 3.44
46 Sri Lanka 3.33
47 United States of America 3.32
48 China 3.30
49 Albania 3.28
50 Haiti 3.27
51 Indonesia 3.26
52 Ukraine 3.25
53 South Africa 3.19
54 Namibia 3.18
55 Peru 3.18
56 Timor-Leste 3.18
57 Philippines 3.01
58 Botswana 3.00
59 Eritrea 3.00
60 Kosovo 2.96
61 Cuba 2.90
62 Moldova 2.85
63 Luxembourg 2.76
64 Georgia 2.75
65 Argentina 2.69
66 Netherlands 2.67
67 Swaziland 2.63
68 South Korea 2.59
69 United Kingdom 2.38
70 Lithuania 2.30
71 France 2.28
72 Japan 2.24
73 Nepal 2.18
74 Poland 2.05
75 Venezuela 1.98
76 Ecuador 1.88
77 Finland 1.86
78 Lesotho 1.84
79 Bulgaria 1.84
80 Thailand 1.82
81 Czech Republic 1.81
82 Russia 1.79
83 Malaysia 1.78
84 Ireland 1.73
85 Germany 1.70
86 Somalia 1.66
87 Sweden 1.63
88 Sudan 1.56
89 Egypt 1.53
90 North Korea 1.50
91 Romania 1.50
92 Belarus 1.35
93 Switzerland 1.26
94 Canada 1.26
95 Guatemala 1.23
96 Montenegro 1.22
97 Angola 1.21
98 Honduras 1.17
99 Taiwan 1.14
100 Slovakia 1.08
101 Mauritania 1.05
102 El Salvador 1.03
103 Zimbabwe 1.02
104 United Republic of Tanzania 1.00
105 Senegal 0.98
106 Costa Rica 0.97
107 Vietnam 0.96
108 Republic of Serbia 0.93
109 Latvia 0.92
110 Nigeria 0.90
111 Hungary 0.89
112 Madagascar 0.88
113 Brazil 0.88
114 Gambia 0.85
115 Bolivia 0.79
116 Slovenia 0.78
117 Mozambique 0.72
118 Denmark 0.70
119 Chad 0.67
120 Croatia 0.66
121 Ethiopia 0.66
122 Austria 0.65
123 Kenya 0.64
124 New Zealand 0.61
125 Guyana 0.61
126 Liechtenstein 0.59
127 Uruguay 0.59
128 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.58
129 Ghana 0.57
130 Norway 0.55
131 Belize 0.41
132 Nicaragua 0.40
133 Papua New Guinea 0.40
134 Burkina Faso 0.39
135 Cambodia 0.38
136 Colombia 0.37
137 Ivory Coast 0.34
138 Mali 0.32
139 Bangladesh 0.32
140 Togo 0.32
141 Burundi 0.30
142 Djibouti 0.28
143 Niger 0.28
144 Suriname 0.22
145 Zambia 0.20
146 Myanmar 0.17
147 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.15
148 Rwanda 0.10
149 Laos 0.08
150 Malawi 0.08
151 Liberia 0.03
152 Guinea 0.02
153 Sierra Leone 0.02
154 Uganda 0.01
155 Cameroon 0.01
156 Benin 0.01
157 Brunei 0.01
158 Paraguay 0.00
159 Panama 0.00
160 Guinea Bissau 0.00
161 Bhutan 0.00
162 Central African Republic 0.00
163 Equatorial Guinea 0.00
164 Gabon 0.00
165 Iceland 0.00
166 Republic of the Congo 0.00
167 South Sudan 0.00

(Data sourced from World Resources Institute)

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