UN environmental officials have reinforced this warning, pointing out that the fresh water crisis has become a threat with dimensions equal to those of climate change. Water scarcity is at the heart of the crisis. At the global scale, water consumption is increasing at twice the rate of population increase. 1.4 billion people currently have no access to clean drinking water. According to the UN, this number will increase to 2.5 billion by 2025.
Water can be a crucial factor in development and well-being or a major impediment to development.
Everyone should have access to clean drinking water, and water should be equitably distributed. This will require the protection of international law. The right to water must be a basic human right. Water must be protected by an international convention in the same way that the climate is protected as a public good by the Framework Convention on Climate Change. The World Bank and multinational concerns that purchase water sources and water concessions, and banks that recommend water as an object of investment and speculation, advocate privatisation.