What are the most Water Stressed Countries?

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‘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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