Serving Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and surrounding communities

By Lisa Wells
Contributing writer

Except for oxygen, nothing is more essential than water for basic survival.

Yet, poor water resource management and agribusiness' soaring use of this finite resource is causing water shortages in about a third of the world, the International Water Management Institute, a leading authority on fresh water management, said in August.

The Sri-Lanka based institute is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research, founded by the World Bank, and is supported by various government and private foundations.

And while water crises have long been relegated as a problem for only the poorest of populations, the world's poor may be the metaphoric canaries in the coal mine. >>

Orginally published September, 2006