Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) consumes 249 liters of water per day per capita, Montenegro 697, Croatia 409, North Macedonia 725, Slovenia 1,179, Serbia 1,810. If we compare these figures presented by Worldometer referring to the data on water consumption in the world provided by the United Nations (UN, UNESCO and FAO), our country is not the biggest waster of water in the world. That infamous title is held by Turkmenistan, which uses a whopping 15,445 liters of water per capita (5,500 cubic meters of water per capita, which is four times more than the average United States (U.S.) resident and 13 times more than the Chinese. This Central Asian country also uses 43 times more water for the production of one dollar of GDP compared to, for example, Spain.
The annual demand for fresh water is growing by 64 billion cubic meters
The use of water, a key natural resource, can be divided into withdrawn and wasted water. Withdrawn water refers to water that has been removed from a natural source, such as a river or lake. Much of that water is returned to nature, allowing it to be reused, which is why these sources are often called “renewable.” On the other hand, wasted water refers to water that is used and then not returned to its original place, thus permanently lost from the natural cycle.
According to the UN, global water consumption shows a significant imbalance between sectors. Agriculture dominates with 70 percent of total water consumption, while industry uses 20 percent and households only 10 percent. But in industrialized countries, this ratio changes in favor of industry, which consumes more than half of the available water.
Freshwater withdrawals have tripled in the last 50 years, and annual fresh water demand is growing by 64 billion cubic meters. This growth in demand is driven by a variety of factors, including an increase in the world’s population of approximately 80 million people per year, changes in lifestyles and dietary habits, and growth in the production of biofuels. The production of one liter of biofuel requires between 1,000 and 4,000 liters of water, which puts an additional burden on water resources. At the same time, the accelerated growth in energy demand also leads to an increase in water consumption.
Nine cities in BiH, the largest consumers of water
In developing countries, lack of clean water causes 80 percent of disease, resulting in three million premature deaths annually. A particularly worrying fact is that 5,000 children die every day from diarrhea, a disease that can easily be prevented with adequate clean water and sanitary conditions.
These data indicate an urgent need to change the approach to water resource management to ensure a sustainable future.
According to the Water Action Hub, the largest cities in the entity Federation of BiH (FBiH) consume 61 percent of total water consumption. Sarajevo is at the top with 36 percent, Mostar spends 10 percent, Tuzla nine, and Zenica six percent. Agricultural land occupies 11,367 km2 (43.5 percent), of which 7,184 km2 is arable. The total area in need of irrigation is estimated to represent 808 km2 (11.2 percent) of total arable land, but current estimates show that only 16 km2 (0.2 percent) of arable land is actually irrigated. In the Republika Srpska (RS)entity, the largest cities consume 50 percent of the total water; Banja Luka leads with 25 percent, followed by Bijeljina with 10 percent, Prijedor with seven, and Doboj and Zvornik with four percent each, Forbes writes.
E.Dz.
