The world is “running out of water”. Even though the planet is water rich, relative to its neighbors in the solar system, little of its water is available to human consumption. About 97% of global water resources is ocean water, and of the remaining 3% of freshwater only about 13% are accessible to humans. Competition over these freshwater resources is growing. Population growth, climate change, economic development and misguided policies lead to increasing water scarcity, a situation which hits some regions harder than others due to the problem of uneven global distribution; almost one-quarter of the world’s supply of freshwater is stored in Lake Baikal, Latin America has 12 times more water per person than South Asia, and an inhabitant of Yemen has 450 times less water available than a person living in Canada.