HYDROPOWER & DAMS | July 2006
With regard to future water problems, my main concern is that over the next 20 years, the world of water will change more compared with the past 2000 years. The changes will make water management practices and processes increasingly complex. The forces that will make these changes will include, but not necessarily be limited to, globalization, free trade, a scramble for energy security, information and communication revolution, changing population and urbanisation dynamics, and technological developments (especially in biotechnology and desalination). Unlike in the past, the water profession will have very limited, or even no, control over these new factors: it will have to react to these external forces. Most regrettably, the water profession is not considering any of these issues seriously.