Mumbai, the most densely-populated city in India with 13 million inhabitants in 2006, is currently facing a severe water crisis. The quantities of water available have reached a critical level, meaning the various uses of water resources have to be prioritised.

The 1st forum of the African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development programme (AMESD) was held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 1-4 December 2009. It was designed to set up a continental policy to manage water resources using “global structures for satellite observation of changes in rain basins”.

At the end of 2009, the 2030 Water Resources Group (McKinsey & Company, financial institutions, agricultural and industrial enterprises, experts, etc.) issued a report on the economic and social risks induced by possible water shortages on the 2030 timescale, and a number of recommendations to prevent them.

The annual report on agricultural outlooks, published on 17 June by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), gives a nuanced assessment of the situation in the world food supply. For one reason, the agricultural sector has shown more resilience to the global economic downturn than other sectors. However, the risks weighing on global food security, particularly in terms of water stress, may increase over the next ten years.

The European Environment Agency (EAA), based in Copenhagen, presented a report on 22 March entitled “Water resources across Europe confronting water scarcity and drought” which analyses the over-abstraction of water in Europe and its consequences on the quality and the quantity of the remaining water and the ecosystems that depend on it.

Dominique Pin is Senior Executive Vice President of SUEZ ENVIRONNENT, in charge of Institutional Relations, Strategy, and Sustainable Development.
 
In this interview, he mentions main issues related to water: among the main topics for discussion are governance, distribution of water amongst users as well as the high-performance techniques such as desalination and re-use to face water [...]

Henri Saint-Bris is Senior Vice-Président Marketing of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT.

In this interview, he talks about the increase of the drivers of water stress, especially climate change. It also mentions the different solutions that can be implemented to reduce water stress.