Few issues have achieved the same pre-eminence as water in the debate over how to manage the world's finite natural resources. Water pervades society and is critical for long-term economic development, human health and social welfare and environmental sustainability. Yet more than a billion people do not have access to adequate supplies of safe water and 1.7 billion people do not have adequate sanitation. The poor pay the most for water and suffer the greatest both from impaired health and from lost economic opportunities.
Contaminated water causes millions of preventable deaths every year, especially among children.
Effective water resources management must help alleviate poverty, rather than making the poor the victims of bad decisions and policies. Emerging trends indicate that we are now approaching a 'water crisis' in several regions - most notably the Middle East and North Africa where per capita water availability is presently 1,247 cubic metres per year, one of the lowest in the world, compared to 18,742 cubic metres in North America and 23,103 in Latin America. The main constraint to agricultural production in many areas in the near future will be the availability of water, not land. In many countries, water shortages stem from inefficient use, degradation of the available water by pollution and the unsustainable use of groundwater resources. Massive urban and industrial growth is creating unprecedented demands, often at the expense of agriculture, aquatic ecosystems and the rural poor.