The financial crisis will look insignificant compared to the water crisis

The financial crisis will sound like a good joke compared to what will happen once the crisis of drinkable water begins. Experts claim that this issue will arise in 2025, as the resources of drinkable water available will be increasingly insufficient to cover the needs of the globe"s population.

Things aren"t so rosy right now, as over 1.1 billion people live in precarious hygienic conditions due to the shortage of water.

Numbers speak for themselves: 4,000 children die daily due to diseases caused by the infested liquids that they consume, as 88% of the diseases that are currently met are caused by the lack of hygiene and water pollution. The professors of the Academy of Science of Moscow claim that we are not far from the moment when the entire world will be faced with a shortage of water. The calculations of the UN claim that by 2020, water consumption will increase 40%, and by 20205, two out of three people will be living in "stress" due to lack of water. Africa, the Middle East and particularly Southern Asia will be the first to experience this problem. The most populous countries of the world, China and India will need drinkable water soon and it is possible that they may be forced to resort to substantial water imports from countries with huge hydrographical basins such as Brazil, Russia and Canada. The food needs of a population that is continuously growing means that 70% of the total water consumption is used in agriculture. The industry isn"t skimping on water either, as nuclear plants are the largest users of water. Specialists even provided a few examples: in order to obtain a ton of steel 20 cubic meters of water are needed; for a ton of paper - 200 cubic meters, a kilo of rice 5000 liters of water, one hamburger - 250 liters, one glass of orange juice - 850 liters.

Pollution and the violation of ecological norms do nothing but constantly reduce the Earth"s drinkable water reserves. The pollution of rivers and streams could have catastrophic effects; for example, in India, the river Ganges is the only source of drinkable water for 500 million people.

A study which appeared in the publication of the US Academy of Science reviewed 8000 wars which took place over the last 500 years, and most of them began over the lack of water. Over the last 40 years, there have been numerous disagreements between neighboring countries in this matter, with the most well known being the ones between Syria and Irak, of 1974, concerning the construction of hydroelectric plants on the Euphrates river, the trial between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, of 1992, concerning the rights over the waters of the Danube, the conflicts between Egypt and Ethiopia. This is precisely why there are worries that the outbreak of such a crisis could generate a world war. Realizing the danger, the governments of several countries took concrete steps. In Saudi Arabia, a large part of the money earned from the sale of crude oil is invested in technologies for large-scale water desalinization. Canada has a backup plan of using the glaciers for water, as do the Chinese. The price of water is rising continuously across the world.