Sandra Postel is director of the non-governmental Global Water Policy Project. The consumption revolution is a process during which those people in developing countries who acquire more wealth try to duplicate the lifestyle in the developed world. The trends in urbanization clearly show that in the next 25 years two-thirds of the world population will inhabit large urban areas. Reported global climate changes, Postel says, are leading to disproportionate distribution of rainfall and to the expansion of arid lands. Countries in this category of water stress simply cannot mobilize enough fresh water to meet all of the food needs, and all of the industrial needs, and all of the household needs of their citizens.
Grain is the currency by which water is traded in large quantities around the world.
It's not by tanker, it's not by pipeline, it's through the international grain market. For example, Postel says Egypt, a country with a large mass of fertile land, needs to import 60 percent of its grain because a lack of water prevents it from providing enough food domestically. These include large river systems such as the Tigris and Euphrates, shared by Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, and the Amu Darya, shared by Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. I think in this case this is a national security consideration that's driving all of this. But U.S. officials also have sought to play a mediating role to help protect oil supplies.