Considerable attention has been given during the past few years to the water crisis that many regions of the world may face in the coming decades. While the mag- tude and the extent of the global water scarcity problems of the future should not be underestimated, a serious analysis of the current trends indicate that the main water crisis in the coming years is most likely to stem primarily from water quality deterioration and lack of investment funds, rather than from physical water scar- ties per se, as is widely expected at present. In spite of the seriousness of continuing water quality...