Three billion people, or 46 percent of the world's population will suffer water shortages by 2025, experts warned in Beijing Thursday.

The prediction was made by Prof. Jan C. Schippers, a researcher with the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, and was echoed by other participants at the International Forum for Coastal Cities, opened Thursday in Xiamen, a southeastern city in China.
Currently, about a billion people around the globe are plagued by water shortages and that number continues to climb.

Water shortages, which are especially acute in North China, North Africa and East Asia, have been worsened by drought, pollution, waste and bad management, according to Schippers.

Water shortages are serious in China, said Hu Siyi, vice minister of the Ministry of Water Resources.

"Over 400 cities in China, or nearly two thirds of the total, are undersupplied with water. Water shortages have reduced agricultural output by 35 billion kilograms each year and caused serious environment problems," Hu said.

China's per capita water resources are only a quarter of the world's average, according to Chen Lianzeng, deputy director of the State Oceanic Administration.

Every country should execute effective water policies, strictly control exploitation of ground water and protect the integrity and safety of rivers and seas, said Chua Thia-Eng, regional program director of PEMSEA (Partnership on Environment Management for the Seas of East Asia).

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2006)