The water crisis
Despite the vital and irreplaceable character of drinking water 900 million of people still don’t have access to it. The lack of access to water especially touches people in rural areas and in the rapidly growing suburban areas of cities in Latin America, Asia and Africa. At the beginning of this century the lack of pure water worldwide is still the biggest cause of sickness and death, of absenteeism at work and at school.
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Moreover, for about 10 years analyses and forecasts of the "United Nations" (UN), the "Food and Agriculture Organisation" (FAO), the "World Health Organisation" (WHO), the "United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation" (UNESCO), the "United Nations Development Programme" (UNDP) and the World Bank have pointed to:
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the aggravation of the water crisis in the world. As such by 2032, 40 years after the first Earth-Summit in Rio the Janeiro, allegedly 60% of the world population will live in areas with water stress.
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serious problems concerning the water resources for agriculture in China, India and the US. In these countries the aquifers have lowered remarkably due to extreme use of water for agriculture and industry in the last 50 years.
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a multiplication and intensification of "water conflicts" between states. More and more water is described in terms of "Blue Gold", as once oil was referred to as "Black Gold". Many believe that the XXIst century will be a century of water wars.
