Water Management in the Era of Climatic Change: Volume III

Water is a crucial element on Earth for all living and non-living components. Climate change is
an alarming issue for managing and sustaining life on Earth. Given climate change, water resources
worldwide have been under drastically stressed conditions, as is evident from the uneven weather
patterns, droughts, floods, and cloud bursts. Only three percent of the water resources on Earth are
fresh, and two-thirds of the freshwater is locked up in ice caps and glaciers. Of the remaining one
percent, a fifth is in remote, inaccessible areas. Much of the seasonal rainfall in monsoonal deluges
and floods cannot be easily used. Only about 0.08 percent of all the world’s freshwater is exploited
by humankind, with an ever-increasing demand for sanitation, drinking, manufacturing, leisure, and
agriculture. The ever-increasing water exploitation has intensively degraded freshwater ecosystems,
notably rivers.