What Are the Most Water Stressed Countries?

Areas with the highest water stress include the Middle East and North Africa, which have little rainfall but large, growing populations that are often densely located.¹ According to a recent study by World Resources Institute, the most water stressed countries consist of the following:²

• Qatar
• Israel
• Lebanon
• Iran
• Jordan
• Libya
• Kuwait
• Saudi Arabia
• Eritrea
• United Arab Emirates
• San Marino
• Bahrain
• India
• Pakistan
• Turkmenistan
• Oman
• Botswana

These countries are said to have “‘extremely high’ levels of baseline water stress, where irrigated agriculture, industries and municipalities withdraw more than 80 percent of their available supply on average every year.”³

There are 44 countries with high water stress, including Chile, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Spain, Turkey, Niger, Nepal and Albania. According to National Geographic, 14 of the world’s largest megacities are experiencing water scarcity.⁴ A study published by Science Advances adds, “4 billion people live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year.”⁵ Some large countries with growing populations export hefty volumes of “virtual water”—water used in industry that often goes unseen—while facing water scarcity issues at home.⁶

But the issue is not always nationwide. There are sometimes pockets of communities facing water stress within countries that have an overall low water stress level.⁷ This could be a result of local climate or infrastructure.

Water scarcity is often categorized as either physical scarcity, which refers to a water shortage caused by ecological conditions, or economic scarcity, which occurs when there is inadequate water infrastructure.⁸ However, these conditions often combine as contributing factors to the water stress in a given area. Whatever the cause, narrow gaps “between [water] supply and demand leaves countries vulnerable to fluctuations like droughts or increased water withdrawals.”⁹

Growing populations will only place a higher demand on water supplies. An MIT study estimates, “That by 2050, as many as 5.0 of the 9.7 billion people (or 52 percent of the global population) in the world may be living under at least moderately stressed water-resource conditions.”¹⁰ Of the 48 countries projected to experience water scarcity by 2025, 40 are in West Asia, North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa.¹¹ Of the 1.8 billion people expected to live in areas of high water stress by 2050, 80 percent of them are in developing countries, pointing to the vulnerability of the world’s poor in this global crisis.¹²