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Tragically, most shared water resources do not have adequate international agreements to prevent war over the decreasing resources, leaving the door wide open for wars between nations as water resources dwindle. While the UN-IHP is working hard to mediate between nations and create case studies on how to resolve shared international water resources, there are many locations around the globe that could prove hot spots of international tension as fresh water becomes more scarce.

Potable, or drinkable, water is rapidly drying up around the world. In many parts of the world, it has never been readily available, such as Saharan Africa or central China, and the effect on population density is marked. Little water equates to very few humans. According to the World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, in 2004 1.1 billion people (17% of the world's population) had no access to improved water sources, of which nearly 60% live in Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, 56% of the population is still without improved water.

While water in developing countries is often scarce, what water remains is often polluted by poor sanitation or attempts at industrialization. According to Maude Barlow in her book Blue Covenant, 80% of China's rivers and 75% of India's rivers are overflowing with sewage. Lakes and water sources are shrinking all over the developing world due to wasteful human practices, population growth, government mismanagement, and climate change. These forces often converge in developing countries to destroy potable water right before people's eyes, leaving entire population groups desperate for survival.

In modern areas of the world, the relatively abundant potable water supply is often treated frivolously, as people mindlessly assume there will always be more. Corporations in industrialized nations think nothing of dumping chemicals into rivers, thereby polluting the fresh water source for everyone downstream. Private citizens maintain lush garden paradises in desert places such as Arizona by constant and indiscriminant watering. Potable water is used to water lawns, run car washes, clean streets, and in other functions that could perform equally well with "grey," or used but not toxic, water.

Only in first world countries experiencing unusual drought conditions do you begin to see water conservation measures, such as the state of Georgia by the end of 2007. In the current water shortage, the people of the state have cut

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