Over 5bn people to face water shortage by 2050 – UN forecast
«The UN forecasts that a half of population of the planet or more than 5.5bn people will suffer from water shortage by 2050. Amid these conditions, the issue of international cooperation on sustainable water resources management and conservation of this vital resource for future generations gains a critical importance,» Zarema Shaukenova said at the Central Asian Expert Forum in Nur-Sultan.
In her words, the problem has become an acute one for the Central Asian region whose population is expected to hit 90mn people by the mid-21st century.
«In this regard, Kazakhstan is ready to exert every effort to unite the potential of all the regional countries in order to find an effective and strategically beneficial solution for all the stakeholders,» the speaker said.
«The restoration of the dialogue within the V Caspian Summit of the heads of the IFSA [International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea] founding countries held after more than 9 years of break, also make us optimistic over further prospects of interaction. The restoration and reconstruction of water infrastructure, provision of drinking water to the population, settlement of social problems and promotion of joint projects for improving the ecological situation in the Aral Sea region – this is the challenge which the government and the region should solve jointly,» she reminded.
The first meeting of the Central Asian Expert Forum was held on October 29-30, 2018 in Uzbekistan and was devoted to the discussion of the regional cooperation in Central Asia and prospects of its development. Having noted the positive tendencies in political and economic relations of the Central Asian countries, all the participants of the meeting backed the initiative to facilitate the expert cooperation among the leading analytical centers of the regional countries and pointed out the importance of regional meetings of the chief executives ad experts of all the five centers in each member country of the CAEF.