UN's World Water Development Report Foreshadows Water Crisis; How Will Latin America Be Impacted?

There's a water crisis pending, which could leave humans at a deficit of the life-essential. Currently, an estimated 768 million people do not have access to reliable and safe water, and 2.5 billion do not have decent sanitation. By the end of the century, billions could be impacted by the shortage, which is being caused by climate change according to hydrologists.

"Approximately 80 percent of the world's population already suffers serious threats to its water security, as measured by indicators including water availability, water demand and pollution," warned the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a report in March. "Climate change can alter the availability of water and therefore threaten water security."

The United Nation's recently published World Water Development Report echoes the findings of the IPCC report, as it warns that global demand of water will increase by 55 percent while more than 40 percent of the population will living in regions that will have "severe" water stress, which in turn, can cause other problems.

"It can lead to fluctuations in energy and food prices, which can in turn lead to civil unrest. In such cases, the 'conflict' may be over energy or food prices, but these are themselves related to water availability and allocation," said Richard Connor, the head of the UN water report, to AFP.

In Latin America -- where 31 percent of the world's freshwater resources are found -- water management is a priority and the countries in the region are successful at this endeavor, according to World Bank. Despite this, areas from Mexico to Chile often suffer from droughts and the deficit of water is said to increase as climate change becomes more rampant and the glaciers of the region continue melting.

The shortage of water can already be seen in Latin America, as Venezuela's government recently announced that they would be implementing an emergency rationing plan to counteract the effects of the country's dry season drought. Government officials have revealed that water levels at the Lagartijo reservoir, which has fallen to near record lows, will not normalize until August, or even September.

While the drought is beyond the government's control, opponents of President Nicolás Maduro argue that the socialist government is to blame. Carlos Ocariz, the mayor of Caracas' Sucre district, has pointed out that during the 15 years of the socialist party's rule, there have been no water reservoirs built to counteract the dry season and potential droughts. Ortiz tells the Associated Press in a statement that "we didn't have to wait for things to reach this point to begin taking action."