These 11 Cities Are the Most Likely to Run Out of Drinking Water

These Cities Are the Most Likely to Run Out of Drinking Water

Some of these cities are a little surprising when you first see them. Clean water is a limited resource.

While you’re looking at this list, think about the potential repercussions beyond just the city running out of water. Even if you don’t live near one of these cities, one of these cities running out of clean drinking water could have global ramifications.

Always look past the headlines to see the real underlying issues!

Cape Town faces the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to run out of drinking water.

However, the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about - water scarcity.

Despite covering about 70% of the Earth’s surface, water, especially drinking water, is not as plentiful as one might think. Only 3% of it is fresh.

Over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month of the year. A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of “water stress”.

1. São Paulo

Brazil’s financial capital and one of the 10 most populated cities in the world went through a similar ordeal to Cape Town in 2015, when the main reservoir fell below 4% capacity.

2. Bangalore

Local officials in the southern Indian city have been bamboozled by the growth of new property developments following Bangalore’s rise as a technological hub and are struggling to manage the city’s water and sewage systems

3. Beijing

The World Bank classifies water scarcity as when people in a determined location receive less than 1,000 cubic metres of fresh water per person a year.

4. Cairo

Once crucial to the establishment of one of the world’s greatest civilizations, the River Nile is struggling in modern times.

5. Jakarta

Like many coastal cities, the Indonesian capital faces the threat of rising sea levels.

6. Moscow

One-quarter of the world’s fresh water reserves are in Russia, but the country is plagued by pollution problems caused by the industrial legacy of the Soviet era.

7. Istanbul

According to official Turkish government figures, the country is technically in a situation of a water stress, since the per capita supply fell below 1,700 cubic metres in 2016.

8. Mexico City

Water shortages are nothing new for many of the 21 million inhabitants of the Mexican capital.

9. London

Of all the cities in the world, London is not the first that springs to mind when one thinks of water shortages.

10. Tokyo

The Japanese capital enjoys precipitation levels similar to that of Seattle on the US west coast, which has a reputation for rain. Rainfall, however, is concentrated during just four months of the year.

11. Miami

The US state of Florida is among the five US states most hit by rain every year. However, there is a crisis brewing in its most famous city, Miami.

Source: The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water