Context: A new report was released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ahead of World Water Day (22nd March).
About the UNICEF report

• The new report is part of UNICEF’s ‘Water security for all’ initiative that identifies areas where physical water scarcity risks overlap with poor water service levels.
• The initiative aims to mobilise resources, partnerships, innovation and global response to identified hot spots.
• UNICEF identified 37 hot-spot countries where children faced especially distressing circumstances in terms of absolute numbers, where global resources, support and urgent action had to be mobilised.

Highlights of the Report on Global Water Crisis

• According to the UNICEF Report: One in Five children worldwide reside in areas of high or extremely high-water vulnerability.
• Children in more than 80 countries live in areas with high or extremely high-water vulnerability.
• Eastern and Southern Africa has the highest proportion of children living in such areas, with more than half of children – 58% – facing difficulty accessing sufficient water every day.
• It is followed by West and Central Africa (31%), South Asia (25%), and the Middle East (23%).
• More than 155 million children in South Asia lived in areas with high or even extremely high water vulnerability.
• India has 4% of the world’s freshwater which has to cater to 17% of the world’s population.
• The report says that nearly 40% of the population in India will have absolutely no access to drinking water by 2030 and 6% of India’s GDP will be lost by 2050 due to the water crisis.