Coal power generation is one of the thirstiest industries, for example, a 500 MW coal-fired power plant needs to suck dry an Olympic-sized swimming pool of fresh water every three minutes for cooling purposes. Still, there are now 2,668 proposed coal power units all over the world with total capacity of 1300 GW.
45% of the proposed plants are in areas of high water stress, which means that water usage is above the level generally associated with significant ecosystem impacts. This increases the risk of a severe water crisis of an unprecedented scale. The World Economic Forum's Global Risks report 2015 identified water crises as the greatest risk that the world faces over the next 10 years in terms of potential impact. Read more at http://www.greenpeace.org/
