The United Nations report released Friday said that over exploitation, climatic change and inadequate cooperation among South Asian countries threaten some of the world’s greatest river basins, which sustain around 750 million people, are some of the findings of the new report.

Researcher Kelum Manamendra Arachchi told The Island, despite Sri Lanka being blessed with a fair portion of rainforest water absorbing sponge is becoming lesser.

He added: "This may be due to loss of forest cover and climatic changes. Water is drying quickly even after heavy showers in the dry zone, up country and in the wet zone."

He also said that a country like Sri Lanka which is home to one of the best rainforests

in the world doesn’t need to sell a litre of water between Rs. 60.00 and Rs. 75.00.

The report examines the state of freshwater resources in selected major river basins in South Asia. It identifies key threats to water resources development and management, and assesses the challenges the region faces in coping with these threats.

South Asia is home to one-fourth of the global population including some of the world’s poorest people, that have access to less than five per cent of the Planet’s freshwater resources.

"Water is a vital resource for people’s health and livelihoods, especially in South Asia where these three Tran boundary river basins sustain about half of the region’s 1.5 billion people, and some of the poorest people in the world," said Mr. Young-Woo Park, UNEP Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific, who launched the report at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.

Dr. Mukand Babel of AIT said that this vital resource is facing a number of threats from high population growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, poor management and use of available water resources, pollution, and inadequate investment in infrastructure as well as environmental change, particularly climate change. "This situation is exacerbated as the poor are particularly vulnerable," he added.

Key findings of the study include climate change is likely to lead to severe water shortages in all of the basins in the long term, as about 67 per cent of Himalayan glaciers are reported to be receding, reducing the glacial runoff that feeds these rivers.

The report says urgent policy attention and accelerated research into the impact of climate change on water resources, infrastructure and management practices are necessary to avoid serious water-related vulnerability in the future.

Freshwater under Threat South Asia is the first of a series produced by UNEP that covers three sub-regions, North East Asia, South Asia and South East Asia. A similar assessment was completed for selected river basins in Africa.

They are intended to complement the efforts of governments, non-governmental organizations and development agencies engaged in improving the status of water systems in Asia.