Forget OPEC. The next cartel may export drinking water.

Already, companies are locking up resources and selling abroad.

Some call him crazy, others, a genius – but if Terry Spragg is anything, he’s a believer that filling up giant ocean-going bags with fresh water and towing them to water-poor regions can slake the thirst of nations and help deliver world peace.

If that seems far-fetched, consider that less than 2.5 percent of the world’s water is fresh. That vital resource is threatened by pollution, waterborne disease, and shifts in rain patterns caused by global warming, recent studies show. All of which, in some eyes, leaves the world on the verge of a scramble by private companies and countries vying for rights to available water.

Forget OPEC. Some experts say the next cartel will be an organization of water-exporting countries. Others see more danger in local privatization of water, which could restrict access to the poor within nations.

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1230/p13s01-sten.html?s=hns