ABSTRACT
While ‘[t]he majority of the countries with limited renewable water supplies are in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa’,2 there are other countries which have ‘shortage of water … in [some] parts only, such as in the north of China’.3 Agenda 21 noted this problem and also noted that ‘one in three people in developing countries does not have access to drinking water in sufficient quantities and quality to cover basic needs’. It noted further that ‘in all parts of the world, the availability of fresh water per head of population from its own resources is declining alarmingly fast’ (Agenda 21 paragraph 18.46).
