It is estimated that for every 1°C increase in global temperatures, there is a 20 percent decrease in renewable water resources. By 2025, over half of the world’s population is expected to live in water-stressed areas with serious consequences for public health, global trade and economic development, as well as for conflict and migration patterns.

By 2025, over half of the world’s population is expected to live in water-stressed areas.

Water scarcity can have wide-ranging effects on travel, impacting everything from the availability of recreational activities to the cost of travel and the overall infrastructure of travel destinations, highlighting the interconnectedness of environmental sustainability, local economies and the travel industry.

Impact on Public Health

Prolonged water stress can have devastating consequences for public health. With more than two billion people lacking access to safe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation affecting over half of the global population, the risk of waterborne diseases like cholera, typhoid, polio, hepatitis A and diarrhoea looms large. Preventable deaths, associated with unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hand hygiene, continue to plague societies. As such, access to clean water for drinking and personal hygiene becomes a critical concern, affecting the health and safety of not only residents, but also travellers.

Uruguay’s recent 2022-2023 water crisis serves as a stark reminder of the profound impact of water scarcity on public health. The country, facing the most severe water crisis in its history, imposed emergency measures as freshwater reservoirs dried up, pushing its potable water supply to the brink. As the nation’s reservoirs dwindled to historic lows due to a combination of a natural La Niña episode and climate disruption, a dramatic decline in water quality also ensued. The addition of brackish water to the supply led to elevated levels of sodium and chloride, surpassing the safety thresholds established by the World Health Organization.

While authorities argued that these chemicals might not pose an immediate health risk for most people, the lingering questions about potential effects on health are concerning. As salt infiltrates the water supply and insufficient water availability drives people to use and drink water from contaminated sources, it raises concerns about the safety of drinking water and the transmission of waterborne diseases. Similar water crises have happened before in South Africa’s Cape Town and Brazil’s Curitiba and similar scenarios are becoming more likely with climate change.

Trigger for Conflicts, Migration and Food Insecurity

Water scarcity’s impacts extend beyond resource unavailability, triggering a chain reaction of problems encompassing health issues, conflicts, refugee flows and food insecurity.
Agriculture is significantly hampered by water scarcity, posing a direct threat to food security, with food-insecure communities facing acute and chronic hunger, leading to malnutrition, stunting, wasting, and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes.
By 2025, over half of the world’s population is expected to live in water-stressed areas.

As water scarcity often affects local communities, the resulting economic challenges can also have a ripple effect on the hospitality and service industries that cater to travellers. Water scarcity may thus lead to a shift in travel patterns as travellers will seek destinations with more reliable water resources and thus more stable contexts.

As water scarcity often affects local communities, the resulting economic challenges can also have a ripple effect on the hospitality and service industries that cater to travellers.

Water scarcity is also a global problem increasingly linked to conflict and refugee flows. Water infrastructure is frequently targeted during conflict, as was the case in Ukraine and Gaza Strip, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without access to this essential resource. Competition over limited water resources can also lead to tensions and even violence, both within and between nations. In water-stressed regions like the Middle East and the Nile Basin in Africa, disputes over shared water sources can escalate into armed conflicts, displacing populations and creating refugee crises. Even in peaceful contexts, water-related burdens are linked to a 10 percent increase in global migration.

Climate change exacerbates these challenges, emphasising the urgent need for sustainable water resource management, international cooperation and climate mitigation efforts. As climate change and extreme droughts become more frequent and widespread, these multifaceted global impacts of water scarcity on health, travel, food security, conflict and refugee flows affect societies on a global scale.