The global water crisis in pictures

  • Published

Since 2011, American photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz has travelled to eight countries around the world highlighting the global water crisis in his documentary project, Water Stories.

Seventy large-scale photographs from the series are on display in London in his first UK solo exhibition.

Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WaterAid
Image caption,
Children journey to collect water, Sindh Province, Pakistan, 2013

Abdulaziz's project aims to highlight the effects of urbanisation, poor sanitation, pollution and water scarcity.

"Our most critical resource for life on this planet hangs in a delicate balance - between growing populations and energy demands, between rising seas and melting ice and between those who have access to clean water and those who do not," says the photographer.

Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WaterAid
Image caption,
Women pull water from a well, Tharpakar, Pakistan, 2013.
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/EarthWatch
Image caption,
Drought conditions, Cantareira Reservoir, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2015
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz / WWF-UK
Image caption,
Shrimp fishing, Lake Hong, Hubei Province, China, 2015

"Photographs have the capacity to bring into focus our place in the world, where this imbalance between water and civilisation may be explored in the hope we may look upon ourselves and our world not as separate entities but as one whose future is intrinsically linked," says Abdulaziz.

Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WWF-UK
Image caption,
Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei Province, China, is said to have cost up to $40bn (£26bn) to build and forced around 1.3m people to relocate.
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WWF-UK
Image caption,
The Yangtze basin supports 450 million people and stretches 6,300 kilometres from high in the Tibetan plateau to the East China Sea at Shanghai.
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WaterAid
Image caption,
Women and children collect drinking water from a well in Osukputu, Benue, Nigeria. According to WaterAid, 57 million people in Nigeria do not have access to safe water.
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WaterAid
Image caption,
WaterAid also state that more than 770 million people do not have access to adequate sanitation in India.
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WaterAid
Image caption,
In India more than 140,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.
Image source, Mustafah Abdulaziz/WaterAid
Image caption,
Rakhi Mandi slum, Kanpur, India, 2014

Water Stories runs until 10 April 2016 at The Scoop, More London Riverside.

The open-air exhibition, to mark UN World Water Day, is in collaboration with the HSBC Water Programme, a partnership between HSBC, Earthwatch, WaterAid and WWF.