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Rhossili Beach, Gower peninsula, south Wales

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geography online

Water use and overuse: where is water under stress?

Essential for life and critical for food production, freshwater and obtaining sufficient supplies of it are important issues. Rising demand, fluctuating supply and contamination can lead to water stress. This article considers the scale and location of the challenges.

Visit the website of the Oxford University-based ‘Our World in Data’ team (www.ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress). Scroll down and view the first chart showing ‘Global freshwater use over the long-run.’ Identify when the most rapid growth in demand occurred, and more recent trends.

The next chart, titled ‘Freshwater use aggregated by region,’ breaks global demand into three key regions — more affluent industrialised nations of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), countries with recent rapid economic expansion of the BRICS economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and the Rest of the World (ROW). As you scroll across the chart, annual water demand data for each region are shown. Hovering over each label on the right puts into grayscale the other two regions so you can analyse change in a particular region more easily.

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Previous

Rhossili Beach, Gower peninsula, south Wales

Next

Aiming for grades 4–6