- published: 16 Feb 2016
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Water crisis is a general term used to describe a situation where the available water within a region is less than the region's demand. The term has been used to describe the availability of potable water in a variety of regions by the United Nations and other world organizations. Others, for example the Food and Agriculture Organization, said in 2003 that there is no water crisis but steps must be taken to avoid one in the future. The major aspects of the water crisis are allegedly overall scarcity of usable water and water pollution. Water is the fundamental life blood of all organisms on Earth; without it nothing on Earth can survive.
According to Nature (2010), about 80% of the world's population (5.6 billion in 2011) live in areas with threats to water security. The water security is a shared threat to human and nature and it is pandemic. Human water-management strategies can affect detrimentally to wildlife, such as migrating fish. Regions with intensive agriculture and dense population, as the US and Europe, have high threat to water security. The researcher estimate that during 2010-2015, ca US$800 billion will be required to cover the annual global investment in water infrastructure. Good management of water resources can jointly manage biodiversity protection and human water security. Preserving flood plains rather than constructing flood-control reservoirs would provide a cost-effective way to control floods while protecting the biodiversity of wildlife that occupies such areas.