According to Population Action International, based upon the UN Medium Population Projections of 1998, more than 2.8 billion people in 48 countries will face water stress or scarcity conditions by 2025. Of these countries, 40 are in West Asia, North Africa or Sub-Saharan Africa. Over the next two decades, population increases and growing demands are projected to push all the West Asian countries into water scarcity conditions. By 2050, the number of countries facing water stress or scarcity could rise to 54, with their combined population being 4 billion people - about 40% of the projected global population of 9.4 billion (Gardner-Outlaw and Engleman, 1997; UNFPA, 1997).

• Many African countries, with a population of nearly 200 million people, are facing serious water shortages. By the year 2025, it is estimated that nearly 230 million Africans will be facing water scarcity, and 460 million will live in water-stressed countries (Falkenmark, 1989).

• Today 31 countries, accounting for less than 8% of the world's population, face chronic freshwater shortages. Among the countries likely to run short of water in the next 25 years are Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Peru. Parts of other large countries (e.g. China) already face chronic water problems (Hinrichsen et al., 1998; Tibbetts, 2000).
• Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have resorted to the desalinisation of seawater from the Gulf. Bahrain has virtually no freshwater (Riviere, 1989). Three-quarters of Saudi Arabia's freshwater comes from fossil groundwater, which is reportedly being depleted at an average of 5.2 km³ per year (Postel, 1997).
  

Some 460 million people - more than 8% of the world's population - live in countries using so much of their freshwater resources that they can be considered highly water stressed (UNCSD, 1999; WMO 1997). A further 25% of the population lives in countries approaching a position of serious water stress (WMO, 1997).