Russia has the largest freshwater lake by volume, Lake Baikal, so they aren’t likely to invade anyone because of their drinking water needs. Especially because Ukraine has been instrumental in reducing their need of fresh water.
It’s a big lake but a bigger country. I don’t think Russia will be the first to have big water issues. Rather, I would look to Mexico City, Panama, Arizona, Nevada, California.
There definitely will be other areas with far greater issues.
Russia has a current population of around 143.8m people. One quarter of the Earth’s freshwater is in Russia. Lake Baikal has a total volume of 6 quadrillion, which is 20% of Earth’s freshwater.
The average Russian household uses 64 gallons of water per day. So Russia, with only Lake Baikal, has enough access to freshwater for over 10,000 years if no water is added to the lake and the population doesn’t change.
Russia has the largest freshwater lake by volume, Lake Baikal, so they aren’t likely to invade anyone because of their drinking water needs. Especially because Ukraine has been instrumental in reducing their need of fresh water.
It’s a big lake but a bigger country. I don’t think Russia will be the first to have big water issues. Rather, I would look to Mexico City, Panama, Arizona, Nevada, California.
There definitely will be other areas with far greater issues.
Russia has a current population of around 143.8m people. One quarter of the Earth’s freshwater is in Russia. Lake Baikal has a total volume of 6 quadrillion, which is 20% of Earth’s freshwater.
The average Russian household uses 64 gallons of water per day. So Russia, with only Lake Baikal, has enough access to freshwater for over 10,000 years if no water is added to the lake and the population doesn’t change.
Lake Baikal is out by Mongolia and the majority of Russians live in the west of the country.
Russia has previously unlocked pipeline technology and aren’t all that concerned with ecological impacts of their actions.
If they had to tap Lake Baikal to supply the population, it wouldn’t be unimaginable.