While a freshwater crisis appears inevitable in many water-short regions, in others the problem could be managed, if appropriate policies and strategies were formulated, agreed to, and acted on soon. The international community is paying increasing attention to the world's water problems, and a number of organizations are providing funding and assistance to help manage water supply and demand (6, 136, 164, 165). Increasingly, mechanisms are being put in place that permit more equitable water management. Countries in water-stressed regions are introducing better pricing mechanisms, fostering community-based water management schemes, and moving toward watershed and river basin management regimes. Both the number and scale of these activities need to increase substantially.

Also, population growth has slowed, reflecting international and national attention to family planning programs, together with rising popular demand for contraception. To meet people's needs, national governments and international donors need to increase their commitment to family planning, to improving sanitary conditions, to curbing pollution, and to reducing the scourge of water-related diseases.

A vital part of a long-term solution is worldwide recognition of the links between rapidly growing populations and shrinking freshwater supplies. Recognition, knowledge, and concern can help build the political will to avert a crisis and develop the commitment needed to assure that humanity's apparently unquenchable thirst for freshwater does not exhaust the world's finite water supply.