ABSTRACT
A number of influential institutions, including the United Nations, Worldwatch Institute, the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, and the World Bank have documented world water scarcity in detail. We are particularly indebted to Peter Gleick’s The World’s Water: The Biennial Report on Fresh Water Resources, 1998–1999, published by Island Press in Washington. The World Resources Institute’s Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World, edited by the distinguished professor I.A. Shiklomanov and published by a number of United Nations institutions, including UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, and the World Health Organization (WHO), is an excellent source of data. So is the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development’s 1997 report, Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World. Allerd Stikker’s Ecological Management Foundation in the Netherlands also produced a helpful paper called Water Today and Tomorrow, for the 1998 Futures series published by Pergamon Press.
