Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1.8 shows the water abstraction per capita for all of
the OECD countries. This shows that the USA,
Canada and Australia are very high water users,
reflecting a very large amount of water used for
agricultural and industrial production. The largest
water user is the USA with 1,730 m 3 per capita per
annum, which is still only 1 per cent of the 146
million litres per capita per annum derived from the
Stumm quote. Australia as a high water user has run
into enormous difficulties in the years 2005-2007
Table 1.3 Annual renewable water resources per capita (1990 figures) of the seven resource-richest
and poorest countries (and other selected countries). Annual renewable water resource is based upon
the rainfall within each country; in many cases this is based on estimated figures
Water resource
Annual internal
Water resource
Annual internal
richest countries
renewable water
poorest countries
renewable water
resources per capita
resources per capita
(thousand m 3 /yr)
(thousand m 3 /yr)
Iceland
671.9
Bahrain
0.00
Suriname
496.3
Kuwait
0.00
Guyana
231.7
Qatar
0.06
Papua New Guinea
199.7
Malta
0.07
Solomon Islands
149.0
Yemen Arab Republic
0.12
Gabon
140.1
Saudi Arabia
0.16
New Zealand
117.5
United Arab Emirates
0.19
Canada
109.4
Israel
0.37
Australia
20.5
Kenya
0.59
USA
9.9
United Kingdom
2.11
Source : Data from Gleick (1993)
2,000
1,500
1000
500
0
Figure 1.8 Water abstracted per capita for the OECD countries.
Source : OECD Factbook 2005
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