The first international conference to draw attention to the coming water crisis was in 1977—the United Nations Water Conference held in Mar del Plata, Argentina (218). Several others have followed, including the Global Consultation on Safe Water and Sanitation for the 1990s, held in New Delhi in 1990, and the International Conference on Water and the Environment, held in Dublin in 1992.

The Dublin Water Principles, agreed to at the 1992 conference, summarize the principles of sustainable water management:

• Principle No. 1: Freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development, and the environment.
• Principle No. 2: Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners, and policy-makers at all levels.
• Principle No. 3: Women play a central part in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water.
• Principle No. 4: Water has an economic value in all its uses and should be recognized as an economic good.

Making needed investments. Turning principles into practice will be difficult. Most countries need massive investments in sanitation and water supply infrastructure. In the developed world, for example, the United Kingdom must spend close to US$60 billion building waste water treatment plants over the next decade in order to meet new European water quality standards. This amounts to about $1,000 for every person in the country (166). Hungary faces similar problems. One-fifth of the country's population is not connected to a functioning sewer system. Hungary will need to invest about US$3.5 billion over the next two decades to connect all of its citizens to wastewater treatment plants (71).

In developing countries one of the most pressing problems is the overwhelming need to invest heavily in sanitation facilities and the provision of clean water. The World Bank has estimated that over the next decade between US$600 billion and US$800 billion will be required to meet the total demand for freshwater, including for sanitation, irrigation, and power generation (164).

Of this huge amount, the World Bank will be able to lend only US$35 to $40 billion at most (164, 165). The remainder will have to come from a combination of public funding and private investment. It will be difficult, if not impossible, for most developing countries to finance the remainder, however. In Latin America alone, for instance, it is estimated that investments in water resources management and infrastructure will require $100 billion over the course of the next two decades (67).

Avoiding international conflicts. An important part of any international water-management strategy is to help countries that share river basins fashion workable policies to manage water resources more equitably. A water-short world is an inherently unstable world. Nearly 100 countries share just 13 major rivers and lakes. More than 200 river systems cross international borders (137). Conflicts can arise, especially where countries with rapidly growing populations and limited arable land collide over access to shared freshwater resources (222) (see side-bar, Wars over Water?).

The case of India and Bangladesh demonstrates how international river basins can be managed to meet demand in the face of scarce water supplies (137). The Ganges, the subcontinent's largest and most important river, rises in Nepal and flows 1,400 miles through three densely populated Indian states—Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal—before entering Bangladesh and flowing into the Bay of Bengal. The river affects the lives of half a billion people, many of whom depend on the river for subsistence agriculture and fishing. After half a century of bitter rivalry over access to the waters of the Ganges, India and Bangladesh signed a new 30-year water-sharing agreement in December 1996. Both countries have proclaimed a new era of water management (19).

The agreement, if implemented fully, will provide Bangladesh with a guaranteed minimum amount of water during the dry season, especially the three driest months of March, April, and May. The new treaty sets 10-day periods during these three months when India and Bangladesh will alternately have access to an agreed-upon amount of the water reaching the Farakka Barrage, a huge dam built by India in 1974 in an effort to claim as much of the water for its own use as possible before the Ganges enters Bangladesh. In order to insure implementation of the agreement, a team of inspectors from the two countries will monitor the flow rate at the Farakka Barrage during the dry months (19).

Critics argue that, if the agreement is to work over the long term, India must begin to manage the Ganges watershed much better than it does now (37, 163). Deforestation in Nepal and northern India has greatly increased the amount of sediment washed from the hills into the river during the monsoon season, clogging waterways and increasing the incidence of damaging floods. Unless ways can be found to capture more stable runoff during the wet season for use during the dry season, Indian farmers might be tempted to take all the water they can get from the river during the driest months, putting the agreement in jeopardy.

Despite such caveats, the fact that two neighboring countries have successfully negotiated and reached a comprehensive agreement over such a contentious issue is a positive sign. It promises to permit downstream Bangladesh a more equitable supply of water from the Ganges and to foster better water management practices in upstream India (137).