Water and the right to water are recognized as factors of Peace; their preservation is becoming a priority action for the CIBP.
Today, one person in six on Earth — more than a billion human beings — suffers from a lack of fresh water of adequate quality. According to United Nations data, more than half of the world's countries will face water-supply difficulties in 2025. By around 2050, three-quarters of the world's population — some 6.5 billion people out of a total of 9 billion — could be facing a shortage of quality water. Demand is rising, resources are declining, and global warming will only make matters worse.
The water needs of human populations will have to be met without degrading natural ecosystems — as the wildfires in Australia have starkly illustrated.
1,000 cubic metres of water — about 40% of the volume of an Olympic swimming pool — are needed each year to meet a person's basic needs: drinking, hygiene, food production. This does not include the water used to build a home, wash a car or make a pair of blue jeans, which requires around 11 cubic metres of water to produce.
In Europe, water consumption per person currently stands at around 1,800 m³ per year. It is expected to rise to 2,000 m³ per year by 2030, owing in particular to the growing share of meat in diets — given that it takes around 15 m³ of water to produce one kilogram of beef.
