Governments continue to subsidize water due to opposition from farmers and urban poor. In Andhra Pradesh, India, farmers agreed to a three-fold increase in water prices as part of a package that also boosted their role in running the irrigation agency. The authors said that without reforms in the pricing of water, freshwater supplies will continue to grow scarce. They project that by 2025, five out of every 10 people will be living in water-stressed river basins. Water is not only becoming scarce because of increased demand, but also because of higher pollution levels and habitat degradation.
Freshwater ecosystems occupy less than one percent of the earth's surface.
The study says that contamination denies as many as 3.3 billion people access to clean water. In addition, more than 20 percent of the world's freshwater fish have become extinct, endangered or threatened in recent decades.