Greenpeace report reveals world’s most polluting form of energy uses as much water as one billion people, urges leading polluters to invest in renewables
Low 2015 rainfall levels left Arjun Kashinath Kumbad, a cattle farmer in Maharashtra, struggling to feed his livestock (© Subrata Biswas / Greenpeace)
By Ed King
Global drinking water supplies are under increasing threat from heavy industry, coal power and a warming climate.
That’s the finding in a new report published by NGO Greenpeace, released on World Water Day 2016. It finds 44% of coal plants and 45% of planned projects are in areas of water stress.
“If all the proposed coal plants were built the water consumed by coal power plants around the world would almost double,” said Harri Lammi, a Greenpeace senior global campaigner on coal.
“We now know that coal not only pollutes our skies and fuels climate change, it also deprives us of one of our most precious resources: water.”
According to campaigners the world’s 8,359 operating coal-fired power plants use enough water for 1 billion people.
Khomnal Village pond at Mangalwheda taluk, Solapur district in Maharashtra usually has water all year round – but not now (© Subrata Biswas / Greenpeace)
Maharashtra has declared 15747 villages in 21 districts as drought affected (© Subrata Biswas / Greenpeace)
Heavy industry and energy companies dump their waste into the Yellow River as it snakes through Huinong district, Shizuishan, Ningxia (© Lu Guang / Greenpeace)
Greenpeace says the coal industry in Yulin in Shanxi province is using water supplies once reserved for crops and drinking (© Nian Shan / Greenpeace)
To guarantee drinking water for his family and sheep, this farmer has to drive two buckets of freshwater from a small source every 2-3 days (© Nian Shan / Greenpeace)