Freshwater under threat: South Asia

The South Asian countries (Afghanistan

Bangladesh

Bhutan

India

Iran

Maldives

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka) are home to about one-fourth of the world's population, but only contain about 4.5 per cent (1,945 billion m3) of the world's annual renewable water resources (43,659 billion m3). Except for Bhutan and Nepal, the per capita water availability in the region is less than the world average, with water use in this region being limited mainly to the agriculture sector. Almost 95 per cent of the withdrawn water is consumed by the agriculture sector, a much larger proportion than the average global agricultural water use (70 per cent). In contrast, the region generally exhibits very limited water use in the industrial and domestic sectors.