Geography of world water consumption: state, dynamics, prospects

Abstract

The lack of fresh water is becoming the one of the most threatening challenges to mankind. It is pertinent to solve the problem of finding ways to overcome the impending danger. The features of the allocation of water resources and their use in the modern world are considered. Based on correlation analysis it is shown a relatively high correlation between the population and water resources, on the one hand, and volumes of water consumption, on the other, in the context of different world parts, and the absence of such correlation in the context of individual countries of the world.  It describes the state and dynamics of world industrial, communal and domestic water consumption. There are calculations on the forecast of the state of water resources, taking into account the increasing volume of their exploitation, irrevocable water losses and pollution of water sources. It shows that the dynamics of their use leads to a threatening water management imbalance on a global scale. The measures taken toupgrade the water supply systems for population and economy will not lead to an improvement of the situation. It is necessary to find ways of solving the problem on the international level, including organizational, political, economic, and technical aspects. One of such ways is to improve the water consumption territorial structure on a planetary scale based on the strengthening importance of the water factor in the organization of industrial and, in particular, agricultural production.  Conclusions: the water factor should become decisive in determining the economic specialization of countries within the framework of the international division of labor. The second way includes the extension of the practice of inter-basin redistribution of river flow with the creation of interregional and international zones of unified water consumption with the appropriate water management complexes.