LONDON - Population growth and climate change are putting increasingly intense pressure on the planet's limited water supplies, with worsening shortages emerging from the Middle East to Asia and Latin America, researchers and bankers said on Monday .
"It's potentially a powder keg," said Davies, who heads climate resilience investments for the bank."From a political point of view, it's imperative to keep water tariffs very low." In many Islamic countries, water is seen as a human right and a gift from God, so asking governments to charge people for better water services can be complicated, Davies said.
Three out of every four jobs globally depend on water in some way, including small-scale farmers who produce 80 per cent of the world's food, said Unver, who is also a water adviser for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation .