Responding to you on why I picked on Water as an issue

In a previous posting where I was having fun looking ahead on key trends, I had highlighted my concerns about water. Some of you who spoke to me after that or e-mailed me wanted to check out my reasoning for highlighting why I think that the crisis with water will play out. I will encapsulate my key reasons for the impending challenges on water as being that of mismatch of demand and supply for these resources, the now acknowledged climate changes warming the globe and the human reaction to scarcity. Warming of the planet Almost everyone has now come around to the fact that the planet is warming; we have seen and will continue to see extreme weather conditions impacting different parts of the earth. The warming will likely lead to dryness in several parts of the world but increasingly, the weather will be more unpredictable and planning crops and life around water usage will become more difficult. Mismatch in supply and demand for clean water Emerging countries such as China and India with huge populations are growing extremely fast. The N-11 (next 11) of developing countries - Vietnam, Pakistan, ..... will join in. As they rapidly join and move through being more industrialized, they will need more water to not only drink, but to produce electricity, manufacture goods and satisfy the growing needs of consumers. Not only will they need fresh water, they will have to deal with a population that will be concerned with the level of purity of the water. Accelerated growth and huger populations will accentuate the demand for water from the developing countries. Waste is pumped into clean water sources on a regular basis in developing countries despite growing awareness of the problem and some tough laws. With greater growth, this phenomenon will intensify; as a result, the bulk of the people on this planet who live in developing countries will be demanding an increasingly reducing resource. Desalination techniques still have not evolved or become price effective and can be afforded by only the exceedingly rich countries, if at all, and the rich countries don't need water as acutely as the poor do. On the supply side, a few countries have access to a disproportionately high source of fresh water (Brazil's Amazon river base and Canada's fresh water lakes) and they account for a very small percentage of the population. Thus this is a classic case of "resource mismatch", as economists will put it. Human behaviour could make the problem even more acute The scarcity of water, combined with uncertainty due to climactic changes and the mismatch between supply and demand could lead to hoarding of this precious resource in reservoirs, underground storage and other innovative ways. If the hoarding is accompanied by negative human traits (envy, pride and pilfering), rivers could be diverted, dam walls between countries raised. Pride too may play a hand as few leaders would like their national press to read "We have not managed our natural resources and now import the most basic resource - Water. Bury the President/Prime Minister for allowing it to happen." All the above scenarios could lead to unimaginable chaotic consequences and as usual if the people and leaders act quickly, the crisis could be averted or the negative impacts of the problem well managed. Detailed scientific and statistical understanding of the problem at micro (city, province) and then regional (multi-country) levels, pooling of this information with impact of growth factored in. Along with scientific and research work to understand the magnitude of the problem, the obvious parallel step should be implementation of stricter laws to conserve and safeguard clean water, enhanced focus (similar to Global Warming) on spreading awareness on preserving and using water more effectively, early investment by nations in water purifying and desalination technologies (as important in infrastructure plans of nations as telecom and roads) and accelerating gaining long term agreements on water sharing across borders. But what is also needed is early thinking and proactive implementation on easy transportation of water for long distance hauling of water, advanced storage techniques, set up of exchanges for trading water (similar to oil commodity trading) and bringing water management into academic curriculum at top universities.