[Mugwumps]

"You wouldn't think of drinking orange juice out of a pipe, would you? I wouldn't be surprised if 25 years from now the thought of drinking water as a beverage rather than a commodity will dominate."

Sounds like Europe - bottled water is for drinking, tap water is not considered a beverage.

[driftless]

There is actually no shortage of fresh water on the continent. Just look at a map of Canada. They have trillions of gallons of fresh water in their lakes and rivers most of it unused except to breed mosquitoes. Some of their interior lakes are as big as the Great Lakes. That water could make Canadians the richest people per capita in the world in the future.

[snopercod]

...is private business the answer??

What's the question?

[jimtorr]

A great deal of hysteria. This story sounds like nothing more than selling a "news" magazine. The evidence of crises listed is really evidence of a wealthy society with too much time on its hands.

[Bob Buchholz]

Already the city is weighing whether to nullify its 20-year contract with United Water, a subsidiary of the French company Suez.

Only Atlanta would contract with a water company from a country known for bad water. The Frogs drink wine because the water is not safe.

[Johnny Shear]

I live on a lake. To hell with you people who don't...I think you're all freaks for not doing so anyway...

[hedgetrimmer]

If the locals don't give up control of their water supply, we're all gonna die! Big business will save us!

Yeah, like they saved Bolivia.

Water war in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Water privatisation - global domination by a few

[qwert]

I think this was written 20 years ago, were we not going to run-out of water by 1992...or was that oil, ummmmmmm
maybe food .. no..no wait it was..Tree's and air ....

Oh well another day, another Crises

[lewislynn]

"The coming water crisis" just might be BECAUSE of private enterprise. Can anyone visualize billions of sq.ft., billions of gallons of warehoused bottled water, millions of gallons sitting on store shelves, not to mention the water being pumped and processed at this very moment for private companies.