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March 13, 2012

World Water Forum Opens as U.N. Report Predicts Surging Demand for Water 
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The study on contaminated drinking water in California’s agricultural
core comes on the heels of United Nations report that found the global
agricultural sector will need 19 percent more water by 2050 to meet a 70
percent increase in demand for food. Meanwhile, government officials,
industry representatives and members of nonprofit groups are meeting in
Marseilles, France at the World Water Forum to discuss global water
policy. Angel Gurria is Secretary General of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development.

Angel Gurria: "Today 800 million, 900 million people are in areas that
you have, where you have water stress. Water stress we define as, a
difficult access to water and then on top of that the fact that if you
get water, it may not be of the right quality. And bad quality water is
also extremely, extremely dangerous because by having good water and
investing one euro in good water, you will save six euros or eight euros
in health costs."



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