New research shows that there will be a global water supply shortage by 2040 if citizens do not improve the way energy and power is used.
The results come from three years of research and were published in two new reports, according to Science Daily. The results show today's use of energy will lead to a decline in water supply needed to support the world population.
The research was conducted by a group of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, Vermont Law School and CNA Corporation in the U.S.
Electricity is the main source of water consumption in most countries, since power plants need cooling cycles to work, Phys.org reported. The group recommends replacing old power systems with new ones that use solar and wind energy, and don't require cooling cycles. The results also demonstrated that most power systems don't even show how much water they use to operate.
"It's a huge problem that the electricity sector do not even realize how much water they actual consume. And together with the fact that we do not have unlimited water resources, it could lead to a serious crisis if nobody acts on it soon," said Prof. Benjamin Sovacool of Aarhus University.
A combination of the new research and projections about water shortage shows that many areas will run out of access to clean drinking water by 2020, and water will be scarce among 30 to 40 percent of the world by that time. The group added that the issue could get even worse due to climate change, Science Daily reported.
"This means that we'll have to decide where we spend our water in the future," Sovacool said. "Do we want to spend it on keeping the power plants going or as drinking water? We don't have enough water to do both."
In addition to investing more in solar and wind energy, researchers made other recommendations on how to avoid this crisis, including improving energy efficiency, doing more research on alternative cooling cycles, registering how much water power plants use, and ending the use of fossil fuel facilities in all water stressed locations, which reportedly cover half the planet.
"If we keep doing business as usual, we are facing an insurmountable water shortage- even if water was free, because it's not a matter of the price," Sovacool explained. "There will be no water by 2040 if we keep doing what we're doing today. There's no time to waste. We need to act now."
