Future of Water Looking Murky

Colin Chartes, the director general of the Sri Lanka-based non-profit research group International Water Management Institute, is very concerned. But though his concern is shared by many experts and is widely known around the world, he says that journalists aren't talking about it and politicians aren't doing enough to fix the situation. It's the water problem. Soon, we're not going to have enough of it. Every calorie of food requires one liter of water to produce it. With a global human population that will increase from 6.5 billion to 9 billion over the next four decades, we're going to have a harder time finding enough water not only for our day-to-day use, but also for all those additional calories.

GET INFORMED

• Read "Water everywhere, and not a drop to grow" (BBC News, August 20, 2008)

GET INVOLVED

• Sign the petition to adopt Article 31 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which will give all people the right to clean and accessible water

photo courtesy dbarronoss, Creative Commons