A nearly empty dam as a result of a three-year-long drought is pictured on a farm north of Cape Town, South Africa, on March 7, 2018.

(WIKUS DE WET/AFP/Getty Images)

At a Glance

A new report from the United Nations says nearly 6 billion people could face water shortages by 2050.If that happens, 60 percent of the projected population will face this problem just 32 years from now.Additionally, some 1.6 billion people will face flooding dangers by 2050.

As millions around the world observed World Water Day 2018 on Thursday, a sobering new report suggests a world with extreme water shortages is just a few decades away.

The concluded nearly6 billion people will experience water shortages for at least one month every year by 2050. Currently, some 3.6 billion people – about half of the global population – face a similar situation, the report also said.

That means roughly 60 percent of the world's projected population will face water shortages 32 years from now.

"," Audrey Azoulay, director general of Unesco, which commissioned the report, told MarketWatch. "Current trends suggest that around two-thirds of forests and wetlands have been lost or degraded since the beginning of the 20th century. Soil is eroding and deteriorating in quality. Since the 1990s, water pollution has worsened in almost all rivers in Africa, Asia and Latin America."

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Water demand has been increasing globally at a rate of about 1 percent in recent years, but that is also expected to accelerate in the coming decades. What's more, an estimated 1.6 billion people will face flooding dangers by 2050, up from about 1.2 billion today, the report also found.

One answer to this daunting problem, the report said, is nature-based solutions that mimic natural processes and make more water available. They say much of the man-made infrastructure we use is contributing to water shortages.

Extreme water shortages have already begun to manifest in places like Cape Town, South Africa, where officials are doing everything they can to stave off Day Zero, when the nation would run out of potable water. It's a terrifying look into the planet's future if solutions aren't drafted to solve the problems stemming from an ever-growing demand for water.

"Two years ago, I would not have predicted Cape Town ,"Peter Gleick, president-emeritus of the Pacific Institute, told National Geographic. "What’s happening in Cape Town could happen anywhere."