Water Stress and Scarcity Reading Answers

Nov 4, 2025

The reading answers for "Water Stress and Scarcity" include 13 questions and are part of the evaluation framework for the IELTS General Reading assessment. Test takers are allotted 20 minutes to complete the reading answers related to "Water Stress and Scarcity." This section of the IELTS reading test features different question formats, such as match each statement with the correct person's initials and do the following statements agree with the information given in the text below.

The reading answers for "Water Stress and Scarcity" offer an in-depth look at how Water stress and scarcity affect billions due to pollution, competition, and limited freshwater access, worsening with urban growth and poor infrastructure. Global initiatives like the Safe Water System (SWS) and Guinea Worm Eradication Program aim to improve water safety, sanitation, and community health through sustainable, low-cost interventions. For additional practice with similar reading assessments, candidates can refer to the IELTS Reading Practice Test section.

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Water Stress and Scarcity Reading Answers

Water stress and scarcity occur when there is an imbalance between the availability of water water. At present, 1.1 billion people have little choice but to use potentially harmful sources of water, and 2.6 billion people, which is around half the developing world, lack access to adequate sanitation. As Kathy Coles, an executive from the charity World of Water, describes the situation will deteriorate, “Over the next 20 years an estimated 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with an absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population may be under pressure conditions. This situation will only worsen as rapidly growing urban areas place heavy pressure on water supplies”.and the demand for water. When we hear people talking about water stress and scarcity, we often think of drought but this is only one of several causes. Alex Karpov, a representative from the WHO explains some of the other issues that also impact the availability of fresh water, “The deterioration of ground water and surface water quality, competition for water between different segments of society, for example between agricultural, industrial, and domestic users, and even social and financial barriers, are all causes of water stress and scarcity today.”

While approximately three quarters of the earth are covered with water only a small proportion of it is available as fresh water. Of the available fresh water supplies, nearly 70\% is withdrawn and used for irrigation to produce food, and the demand just keep growing. Although there is currently no global scarcity of water, more and more regions of the world are chronically short of

Of course, there have been different initiatives put into place around the world to help with water stress and scarcity. With larger scale projects, such as the construction of piper water systems, remain important objectives of many development agencies, a shortage of time and finances will leave hundreds of millions of people without access to safe water in the foreseeable future. Georgina Ronaldson, a spokesperson for the World Bank, recently announced a way to deal with the current difficulties. “To help developing countries, various concerned organisations have developed the Safe Water System (SWS), which is an adaptable and flexible intervention that employs scientific methods appropriate for the developing world”.

The SWS has been criticised in various corners as being too amateurish, but Ronaldson continues to justify the approach. “The use of relevant technologies is important, an in many places around the world, water provision efforts suffer from a lack of technical knowledge to effectively manage or adapt a system to a community’s changing needs”. The SWS is a community-based, integrative approach to improving health and quality of life through increased access to improve water, sanitation and hygiene. Darren Stanford, a water quality engineer, explains the important three step methodology. “The first is an assessment of water delivery system from catchment to consumer. The second is implementing appropriate interventions, which can include protection of source waters, improvements to the water deliver systems, introduction of SWS, improved sanitation and hygiene education. The third is the evaluation of the impact of the intervention of the health and quality of life of the consumers”.

One example of how poor water access can affect local populations is the problems of guinea worms in remote parts of Africa. This is a preventable parasitic infection that affects poor communities that lack safe drinking water. The infection is transmitted to people who drink water containing copepods (tiny water fleas) that are infected with the larvae of guinea worms. Once ingested these larvae take up to one year to grow into adult worms; the female worms then emerge from the skin anywhere on the body. Will Goodman, a doctor with WHO, says that this can affect communities in different ways. “The emergence of the adult female worm can be very painful, slow and disabling and prevents people from working in their fields, tending their animals, going to school, and caring for their families”.

Currently many organisations are helping the last nine endemic countries (all in Sub-Saharan Africa) to eradicate guinea worm. Since the Guinea Worm Eradication programme began, the incidence of guinea worm has declined from 1.5 million cases per year in 20 endemic countries to 25,018 reported cases in 2008 from the nine remaining endemic countries. The eradication efforts make use of simple intervention for providing safe drinking water including using cloth filters and pipe filters to strain the infected copepods from water, applying chemicals to the water supplies to kill the larvae, and preventing infected people from entering and contaminating the water supplies, as the worms emerge from their skins. Providing boreholes wells and other supplies of water in endemic village is another important component of the eradication efforts.

The provision of borehole well is one of the principal aims of SWS. Many existing dug wells in communities only pierce the topsoil, do not reach deep enough and are therefore readily affected by drought or by the natural declines from summer to autumn in the water table. SWS borehole wells can pierce the bedrock and access a deeper aquifer with water that is not affected by surface drought. These are also unaffected by guinea worm infestation and water is much safer for human consumption.

Questions 28-34

Look at the following statements and the list of people below. Match each statement with correct person's initials.

28. Local water demands around the world can sometimes change too much for the local infrastructure to cope with effectively.

Answer: GR

Supporting statement: “...water provision efforts suffer from a lack of technical knowledge to effectively manage or adapt a system to a community’s changing needs.”

Keywords: lack of technical knowledge, adapt, changing needs

Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, Lines 3–5

Explanation: Georgina Ronaldson mentions that many water systems fail because of limited technical expertise and the inability to adjust to local changes, showing that local infrastructure cannot cope effectively with shifting demands.

29. The fast growth of towns will create more areas around the world suffering from water scarcity or water stress.

Answer: KC

Supporting statement: “Over the next 20 years an estimated 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with an absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population may be under pressure conditions… as rapidly growing urban areas place heavy pressure on water supplies.”

Keywords: 1.8 billion, two-thirds, growing urban areas, water scarcity

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, Lines 4–8

Explanation: Kathy Coles clearly explains that the expansion of urban areas will intensify global water stress, linking population growth directly to worsening scarcity.

30. A measurement of the success of the implemented water intervention strategies is a key step in the SWS.

Answer: DS

Supporting statement: “The third is the evaluation of the impact of the intervention on the health and quality of life of the consumers.”

Keywords: evaluation, impact, intervention

Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, Lines 6–8

Explanation: Darren Stanford outlines three SWS steps, where the third step focuses on measuring results—confirming that evaluating success is key to the program.

31. A lack of money is one of the potential causes of water scarcity.

Answer: AK

Supporting statement: “...competition for water between different segments of society… and even social and financial barriers, are all causes of water stress and scarcity today.”

Keywords: financial barriers, causes, water stress

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, Lines 4–7

Explanation: Alex Karpov includes financial barriers among the major causes of water scarcity, linking economic limitations to the problem.

32. In the future, more than half of the world's population will live in an area suffering from water stress.

Answer: KC

Supporting statement: “...two-thirds of the world population may be under pressure conditions.”

Keywords: two-thirds, world population, pressure conditions

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, Lines 5–6

Explanation: Kathy Coles predicts that in the future, over half of the global population will live under water-stress conditions, showing the potential scale of the issue.

33. Poor water sanitation can lead indirectly to fewer workers being active in agriculture.

Answer: WG

Supporting statement: “The emergence of the adult female worm can be very painful, slow and disabling and prevents people from working in their fields…”

Keywords: disabling, prevents, working, fields

Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, Lines 5–7

Explanation: Will Goodman points out that the guinea worm infection stops people from working, indicating that poor sanitation indirectly reduces agricultural productivity.

34. There is a current initiative today to use suitable technologies to deal with people affected by water difficulties around the world.

Answer: GR

Supporting statement: “To help developing countries, various concerned organisations have developed the Safe Water System (SWS), which is an adaptable and flexible intervention that employs scientific methods appropriate for the developing world.”

Keywords: adaptable, flexible, appropriate technologies, developing world

Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, Lines 5–8

Explanation: Georgina Ronaldson mentions the introduction of the SWS initiative that uses relevant, practical technologies to solve water issues in developing regions.

AK Alex Karpov

KC Kathie Coles

GR Georgina Ronaldson

DS Darren Stanford

WG Will Goodman

Questions 35-40

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text below? In boxes 35-40 write:

TRUE - if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE - if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

35. The SWS has been appreciated worldwide.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: “The SWS has been criticised in various corners as being too amateurish...”

Keywords: criticised, amateurish

Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, Line 1

Explanation: The passage states that the SWS faced criticism for being amateurish, indicating it was not appreciated worldwide, which makes the statement false.

36. SWS has been implemented in more than 30 countries.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Supporting statement: No information about the number of countries where SWS has been implemented.

Keywords: implemented, more than 30 countries

Keyword Location: —

Explanation: The text discusses the SWS approach and its methods but does not specify how many countries have adopted it; hence, the statement is not given.

37. Guinea worms in only found in Arica.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: “Currently many organisations are helping the last nine endemic countries (all in Sub-Saharan Africa) to eradicate guinea worm.”

Keywords: nine endemic countries, Sub-Saharan Africa

Keyword Location: Paragraph 7, Lines 1–3

Explanation: The passage explicitly states that all the remaining endemic countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, confirming that guinea worm is only found in Africa.

38. SWS focuses on providing boreholes to eradicate the problem of guinea worms.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: “The provision of borehole well is one of the principal aims of SWS.”

Keywords: borehole well, principal aims, SWS

Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, Line 1

Explanation: The SWS aims to provide borehole wells to supply safe drinking water, which helps eliminate guinea worm infestation, making this statement true.

39. One of main reasons behind declining availability of water is demand from different working segments of society.

Answer: TRUE

Supporting statement: “...competition for water between different segments of society, for example between agricultural, industrial, and domestic users...”

Keywords: competition, agricultural, industrial, domestic

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, Lines 4–5

Explanation: Alex Karpov identifies competition between various sectors of society as a cause of water stress, confirming that rising demand from different users reduces water availability.

40. Majority of water available on earth is drinkable.

Answer: FALSE

Supporting statement: “While approximately three quarters of the earth are covered with water only a small proportion of it is available as fresh water.”

Keywords: three quarters, small proportion, fresh water

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, Lines 8–10

Explanation: The text clarifies that most of Earth’s water is not drinkable, as only a small fraction is fresh water, contradicting the statement that the majority is drinkable.

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