RT Report
T1 Freshwater under threat: South Asia
A1 United Nations Environment Programme, 
PB United Nations Environment Programme
SN 978-92-807-2949-8
YR 2008
FD 2008
LK https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/7715
UL https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/7715
NO The South Asian countries (Afghanistan
NO Bangladesh
NO Bhutan
NO India
NO Iran
NO Maldives
NO Nepal
NO Pakistan
NO 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 Almost 95 per cent of the  withdrawn water is consumed by the agriculture sector, a much larger proportion than  the average global agricultural water use (70 per cent).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.
DS UN Environment Document Repository
RD Sep 19, 2026