Water Security, Climate Change and Sustainable Development: An Introduction

The global population is estimated to increase from 7.3 billion at present to about 11.2 billion by 2100. Providing good quality of life for the existing hundreds of millions of people living in poverty and for the additional 3.9 billion people will be a challenging task under the best of circumstances. Many parts of the world are already facing serious water problems, both in terms of quality and quantity. Adding climate change scenarios further intensifies the uncertainties and complexities of the global situation by several orders of magnitude. The realities and politics of water security, climate change and sustainable development are likely to be one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century. Each country must rise to and meet these challenges successfully since there are no other alternatives. Status quo or incremental progress will not be an effective option.