New Delhi: India and China are among the 31 countries of the world where people do not have adequate access to safe drinking water, a major cause of water-borne diseases, according to a report.

The report "Safe Drinking Water", brought out by the Third World Academy of Sciences, says that people in most parts of Asia and Africa do not have access to safe drinking water and even in relatively advanced countries such as India safe drinking water is not readily available, particularly in rural areas.

The 31 countries which suffer from chronic water problem account for 2.8 billion of the six billion people on the Earth. Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Peru also fall in this category, the report says.

It says that two key factors are at the centre of global concerns for the future availability of freshwater, particularly safe drinking water, total withdrawals of freshwater have increased dramatically in recent times and there is relentless rise in population in various parts of the world, particularly in developing countries.

The withdrawals of freshwater have doubled over the past 40 years. As a result, groundwater aquifers are currently being depleted faster than they are being replenished in parts of India, China and the US, it says.

Stating that global population is expected to increase by 1.5 million over the next 25 years, reaching about eight billion people by 2025, the report says it will reduce the amount of available freshwater per person per year by 40 per cent, from more than 8000 cubic metres to about 5000 cubic metres.

PTI