Dr Naho Mirumachi, King’s Water lead, recently contributed to the report, ‘Under Pressure: The economic costs of water stress and mismanagement’. This report was written by the Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by the FONPLATA Development Bank and the Swiss Development Agency.
Key highlights of this report include: Agriculture is by far the biggest consumer of water, accounting for up to 90% of total consumption in certain countries, and is thus inherently exposed to water stress or a permanent decline in water availability; Most industries, particularly energy, food and drink, chemicals, and textiles and apparel use water as a major product input, or for industrial processes such as heating and cooling, transport, cleaning, product use and servicing, and energy supply; and lack of access to safe water at home can have devastating consequences for people’s health, productivity and labour participation.
This report builds on work from the Blue Peace Index programme, for which Naho also provided input. The Blue Peace Index provides a snapshot of the state of water management in 30 countries around seven basins.
To read more about this report and the Blue Peace Index, go to this page that also includes useful infographics.
