Here’s where water is running out in the world — and why

Rising temperatures and population growth will strain global freshwater resources over the next 30 years. By 2050, a billion more people will live in arid areas with high water stress. Climate change and demand from agriculture, industry, and population growth exacerbate the problem. Solutions include efficient irrigation, pricing water accurately, and changing food habits.

Informative article. On an individual level, there are some things the average person can do: reduce meat consumption, replace turf with native or drought tolerant plants, capture rain water, etc.

However, several orders of magnitude more water used is for agriculture where there are clear inefficiencies, e.g. growing alfalfa in the desert that gets shipped overseas for livestock feed or irrigating with sprayers during the day. We also should reevaluate the viability of maintaining things like golf courses in Arizona before needing to ration water in those places.