The United Nations World Water Development Report, 2015, warned that the world by 2030 will face a 40% shortfall in water supply if water management is not improved.

The report 'Water for a Sustainable World' was released ahead of World Water Day on Friday March 22.

The report was published by the World Water Assessment Programme, and hosted by UNESCO, on behalf of UN-water. It stressed the point that there is an urgent need to change the way we presently use and manage water.

Global water demand is highly influenced by population growth, urbanization, food and energy security policies, and also by macro-economic processes such as trade globalization, changing diets and increasing consumption.

According to the report, the global water demand by 2050 is expected to increase by 55%, majorly due to growing demands from manufacturing, thermal electricity generation and domestic use.

It also said that competing demands would impose difficulty in making allocation decisions and might also limit the expansion of sectors important for sustainable development.

According to the report, the groundwater supplies are diminishing with an estimated 20% of the world's aquifers currently over-exploited.

The factors undermining the environment's capacity to provide ecosystem services, includes disruption of ecosystems through urbanization, inappropriate agricultural practices, deforestation and pollution.

India in 2000 had nearly 19 million tube wells compared to less than a million the country had in 1960, said the report.

Although technological revolution has played a vital role in the country's efforts to combat poverty, development in irrigation has in turn resulted in significant water stress in some regions of the country like Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Despite significant efforts and progress in recent years, nearly 748 million people are still without access to an improved drinking water source, stated report.