Per capita renewable water availability is declining faster than many governments are prepared to address. FAO‘s new Aquasat Water Data Snapshot 2025 report records a 7% decline over the past decade, signaling the growing fragility of this essential resource, squeezed by demographic pressures, climate change, and water-intensive production patterns.
The Most Exposed Regions: North Africa and Western Asia
The report confirms that North Africa and Western Asia remain on the margins of water security: here, available resources per person are already among the lowest in the world and continue to decline.
In North Africa, withdrawals have increased by 16% in ten years, accentuating the structural deficit of regions that rely heavily on overexploited groundwater. In Western Asia, demographic pressure and agriculture‘s heavy dependence on irrigation are further eroding the water security margin. Countries like Kuwait and Qatar, lacking sufficient natural resources, remain emblematic examples of vulnerability: their water budgets largely depend on desalination and indirect imports via agricultural goods.
The Weight of Agriculture on The System
Globally, 72% of freshwater withdrawals are absorbed by agriculture. This figure isn't surprising, but it highlights a production system struggling to find sustainable alternatives. In Latin America and many regions of Asia, irrigation supports a significant portion of agricultural production, ensuring high yields but increasing pressure on rivers and aquifers. By contrast, in sub-Saharan Africa, only a minimal amount of land is irrigated. Here, the problem isn't overconsumption, but the lack of infrastructure: a condition that limits productivity and makes communities more vulnerable to climate variability.
Efficiency is Growing, But Also Insufficient
The FAO report highlights an overall improvement in water use efficiency, the result of more modern technologies, more targeted irrigation systems, and greater attention to resource management. However, this progress does not offset the accelerating demand. Many river basins and numerous aquifers are already in critical condition: the risk, FAO notes, is entering a spiral in which the reduction in per capita availability fuels economic instability, food insecurity, and geopolitical tensions.
FAO calls for water stress to be considered not as a marginal consequence, but as a central indicator of global sustainability. The transition must include investments in water networks, irrigation system reforms, groundwater management policies, and more rational use of water in agriculture and urban areas.
The underlying message is unequivocal: water availability per person is one of the most pressing fault lines of our time. Without a change of direction, the gap between what the planet can provide and what humanity requires risks becoming irreversible.
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