{"id":13257,"date":"2021-05-17T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T07:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.gstic.org\/?p=13257"},"modified":"2022-03-18T09:21:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T08:21:32","slug":"how-desalination-can-help-address-the-freshwater-challenge","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.gstic.org\/expert-story\/how-desalination-can-help-address-the-freshwater-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"How desalination can help address the freshwater challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Water is a scarce resource, at least fresh water is. While water covers 70% of our planet, only 3% of the world\u2019s water is fresh water. Also, two-thirds of that 3% is hidden in glaciers or unavailable for drinking, bathing or irrigating our farm fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Nations<\/a> reports that over 2 billion people live in countries that experience high water stress. Water stress, which is the ratio of water use to the availability of freshwater resources, has been increasing over time, mainly because of rising water consumption. But as climate change will further increase the risk of droughts, changes in water availability are likely to intensify water stress as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Access to sufficient quantities of quality fresh water is essential to achieve various sustainable development goals, including those related to food security, health, and reducing poverty. Water scarcity<\/a> has explicitly been identified as a major global challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n\n\n\nDesalination delivers 95 billion litres of water per day for human use<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n