TABLE OF CONTENTS Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting .
Mark Twain
Current shortages of potable water around the world and the looming water scarcity especially in the developing countries has spurred a host of news items in the media [1] [2] and priority themes of international conferences [3] [4] in the last few years. The United Nations declared the year 2003 as the International Year of Fresh Water . The reasons for water scarcity are simple; the global water consumption rose six times between 1900 and 1995, which was more than double the rate of population growth. As the world's population is expected to rise to nine billion from the current six billion in the next 50 years, the demand for water will get only worse especially when one-third of the world's population that currently lives in water-stressed countries is expected to rise to two-thirds by 2025. Inadequate supply of good-quality water coupled with higher water demand due to rapid population growth and industrialisation in developing countries are among the major reasons for the worsening water situation.
Nearly 60% of illness around the world is due to contaminated water and lack of sewer treatment. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 2.4 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation facilities, and more than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Unclean water causes diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, guinea worm infection, typhoid, intestinal worm infection, and trachoma. [4] According to the...
