Across the globe, from India to New York, Australia to Nigeria, people struggle to preserve and protect what little water supply they have. The combination of droughts, floods, pollution, overuse, misappropriation, waste, and increased need make water one of the world’s most coveted and quickly diminishing resources. The reality is that less than one half of one percent of the water available on earth is fresh water, the rest being found in the oceans, polar ice, and inaccessible groundwater. Steady population growth, increasing worldwide by eighty-five million people per year, adds to the water availability problem in many countries. Many people attribute the cause of the accelerated depletion of freshwater supplies to the advanced technologies in the developed world, promulgating the waste of the resource through flushing toilets and running the kitchen sink until the water warms. Industries account for huge amounts of water use, approximately twenty to twenty-five percent worldwide, and sixty-five to seventy percent of the remaining water supply is used in irrigation for crop production. . . .
