River basins critical for emerging markets

Reuters: Poor management of water resources could stifle economic growth in some of the world's most rapidly developing economies, according to research commissioned by banking group HSBC.

The study, by consultancy Frontier Economics, estimates that by 2050 the world's ten most populous river basins will be producing a quarter of the globe's gross domestic product, compared with 10 percent now.

But seven of them will be facing water scarcity without significant investment in better water management.

"This could mean the GDP growth expected in the river basins would not materialize - and would therefore mean wider forecasts for emerging markets will not be achieved," the report said.

The key river systems identified by the study are mostly in China, India and North Africa. They are the Ganges, the Yangtze, the Indus, the Nile, the Huang He (Yellow River), the Huai He, the Niger, the Hai, the Krishna and the Danube....

The Indus River delta, shot from a NASA satellite