Risk of water stress
Lower
Higher
Arid area
Minn.
Wis.
Nev.
Colo.
Calif.
Ariz.
N.M.
Texas
Fla.
No data for Hawaii
Risk of water stress
Lower
Higher
Arid area
Minn.
Wis.
Nev.
Colo.
Calif.
Ariz.
N.M.
Texas
Fla.
No data for Hawaii
Risk of water stress
Lower
Higher
Arid area
Minn.
Wis.
Nev.
Colo.
Calif.
Ariz.
N.M.
Texas
Fla.
No data for Hawaii
Risk of water stress
Lower
Higher
Arid area
Minn.
Wis.
Nev.
Colo.
Calif.
Ariz.
N.M.
Texas
Fla.
No data
for Hawaii
Risk of water stress
Lower
Higher
Arid area
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Nevada
Colorado
California
Arizona
New Mexico
Texas
Florida
No data for Hawaii
The United States has enough water to satisfy the demand, but newly released data from the World Resources Institute shows some areas are out of balance.
The WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas researchers used hydrological models and more than 50 years of data to estimate the typical water supply of 189 countries compared to their demand. The result was a scale of “water stress” — how close a country comes to draining its annual water stores in a typical year.
Of course, many years are not typical, and unpredictable weather patterns of a changing climate can have drastic consequences. In areas of high or extremely high water stress, said Betsy Otto, director of WRI’s Global Water Program, "if you then hit a drought ... you’re really in trouble, because you’re already using most of what you have.”
The United States ranked 71st of 189 countries, and low-medium on the stress scale, meaning we are pulling out just under 20 percent of our available water.
Extremely high risk
of water stress
States with higher
water use per day
NM
High
CA
AZ
CO
NE
Medium
to high
WY
NJ
TX
FL
NC
DE
RI
MA
KS
NV
AR
VA
GA
ID
Low to
medium
ND
SC
MT
NH
WI
MN
OR
SD
CT
IN
PA
AK
MO
OK
OH
UT
LA
VT
NY
KY
Low
WA
WV
MD
IL
MS
IA
TN
AL
MI
ME
DC
Circles are sized to population
Extremely high risk
of water stress
States with higher
water use per day
NM
High
CA
AZ
CO
NE
Medium
to high
WY
NJ
TX
FL
NC
DE
RI
MA
KS
NV
AR
VA
GA
Low to
medium
ID
ND
SC
MT
NH
WI
OR
MN
SD
CT
IN
PA
AK
MO
OK
OH
UT
LA
VT
NY
KY
Low
WA
WV
MD
IL
MS
IA
TN
AL
MI
ME
DC
Circles are sized to population
Extremely high risk
of water stress
NM
States with higher water use per day
High
CA
AZ
CO
NE
Medium to high
NJ
WY
TX
FL
NC
DE
RI
KS
MA
AR
NV
VA
Low to medium
GA
ID
MT
ND
SC
MN
NH
OR
WI
CT
SD
IN
AK
MO
PA
OK
OH
UT
LA
VT
KY
Low
NY
WA
WV
MS
MD
IA
IL
TN
AL
MI
ME
DC
Circles are sized to population
Extremely high risk
of water stress
NM
States with higher water use per day
High
CA
AZ
CO
NE
Medium to high
NJ
WY
TX
FL
NC
DE
RI
KS
AR
MA
NV
VA
Low to medium
GA
ID
MT
ND
SC
MN
NH
OR
WI
CT
SD
IN
PA
AK
MO
OK
OH
UT
LA
VT
KY
Low
NY
WA
WV
MS
MD
IA
IL
TN
AL
MI
ME
DC
Circles are sized to population
But within the country, the push-and-pull for water varies greatly. Paul Reig, an environmental scientist who leads Aqueduct, helped explain why.
The southwest is most stressed
Because much of the territory is naturally arid, southwestern states are in the most precarious positions when it comes to water, Reig said.
New Mexico, for instance, was the only state in the “extremely high” category, earning the same alarming score (4.26 on a five-point scale) as the United Arab Emirates, which was the 10th most-stressed in the world.
New Mexico’s demand sucks up more than 80 percent of the largely arid state’s annual supply. That leaves 20 percent, but such a narrow margin means that it may have trouble withstanding an extended drought or an increase in demand from population or industry growth.
Neighboring Arizona was among four states in the somewhat-less-perilous “high stress” category.
California uses more water than any state
Ample water resources in northern areas of California are balanced by huge demands from Central Valley agriculture and the large populations in hotter, drier southern areas such as Los Angeles and San Diego.
California uses the most water of any state, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, up to 9 percent of all withdrawals from the national supply.
Central Florida is straining its aquifer
On the other coast, Florida demonstrates that a state surrounded by seas and perforated by lakes and rivers can still have a water problem.
Desalinization of saltwater is expensive and often not practical. The enormous Floridan aquifer provides most of the area’s freshwater, but demand is high. Florida uses the fourth-most water of any state. Reig said it also supplies up to 7 percent of the water used for the country’s thermoelectric power.
Stress appears in seemingly unlikely areas
Only part of Colorado is snowy peaks and mountain streams. Much of the eastern half of the state is largely flat, fairly dry agricultural land that uses an enormous amount of water for irrigation. Same for Colorado’s northeast neighbor, Nebraska.
Even the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” can have water issues. Parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin border Great Lakes, and in those places water is plentiful, Reig said. But other heavily agricultural parts of the states rely on limited resources that tend to fluctuate.
Much of the world is worse
The U.S. water picture is far less grim than that of other places.
Seventeen countries ranked in the “extremely high stress” category, and they are home to about a quarter of the world’s population.
ASIA
Qatar
Israel
Extremely high risk
of water stress
AFRICA
Lebanon
Libya
Eritrea
EUROPE
AMERICA
India
San Marino
Chile
Mexico
High
Spain
Egypt
OCEANIA
Medium
to high
China
Australia
France
Indonesia
U.S.
Low
to medium
UK
Russia
Low
Norway
China and India are not displayed to scale.
ASIA
Qatar
Israel
Extremely high risk
of water stress
Lebanon
AFRICA
Libya
Eritrea
EUROPE
AMERICA
India
San Marino
Chile
High
Mexico
Spain
Egypt
OCEANIA
Medium
to high
China
Australia
France
Indonesia
U.S.
Low
to medium
UK
Russia
Low
Jamaica
Uruguay
Norway
Equatorial Guinea
China and India are not displayed to scale.
ASIA
Qatar
Israel
Extremely high risk
of water stress
Lebanon
AFRICA
Libya
Eritrea
EUROPE
India
San Marino
AMERICA
Botswana
Chile
High
Mexico
Spain
Egypt
OCEANIA
Medium to high
Australia
China
France
Indonesia
U.S.
Low to medium
UK
Russia
Low
Jamaica
Norway
Uruguay
Equatorial Guinea
China and India are not displayed to scale.
ASIA
Qatar
Israel
Extremely high risk
of water stress
Lebanon
AFRICA
Libya
Eritrea
EUROPE
India
San Marino
AMERICA
Botswana
Chile
High
Mexico
Spain
Egypt
OCEANIA
Medium to high
Australia
China
France
Indonesia
U.S.
Low to medium
UK
Russia
Low
Jamaica
Norway
Uruguay
Equatorial Guinea
China and India are not displayed to scale.
The most dire numbers are in Qatar (4.97 on a water-stress scale of 1 to 5), which pulls out nearly all its available water in any given year, followed by Israel and Lebanon.
But by far the most populous high-stress country is India, where more than 600 million people live in areas of high or extreme water stress, said Shashi Shekhar, the country’s former secretary of India’s Ministry of Water Resources. After two straight unusually weak monsoon seasons, taps in the city of Chennai ran dry in June.
In South Africa, Cape Town only narrowly avoided Chennai’s fate in 2018 after drastically curbing water use. Mexico City, meanwhile, is sinking because so much groundwater is being pulled out, Otto said.
Not all the news is bad
Fourteen countries had a score of 0.0, meaning either supply is very high, demand is very low or both. Those include countries such as Uruguay, Norway, Jamaica and Equatorial Guinea.
And in the United States? Many places are in good shape, but this may be the only metric ever in which D.C.'s stress level ranks lowest in the country.
Note: Reig said that small islands are very difficult to model because they’re not part of a watershed. So Hawaii and some island nations are not included in the data.