Cool, clear water

This week's international water conference concludes: there's not enough for every body. Fresh water delivery looks to be a booming business. There are already an estimated billion humans without access to safe drinking water. Global warming will increase that number.

The Istanbul conference also called for more countries to sign up to an international treaty on use of fresh water. The agreement is now a decaxde old and has been ratified by only sixteen countries. Germany and Iraq are among those sixteen. The U.S. has not signed, just as it never agreed to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases.

The continent facing the most widespread water problems is Africa which has made little progress on securing safe water supplies in the past two decades, according to the water forum press release.