This alarming message comes from a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, jointly published with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and presented during the opening ceremony of the World Water Week held in Stockholm on 21-27 August 2011.
During the conference more than 2600 delegates coming from 130 nations worldwide met to discuss the issues to emerge through responding to global changes, mainly associated to water in an urbanizing world.

There are currently 1.6 billion people affected by drought and this level will dramatically increase up to 2 billion if the world continues to follow the current trend of water withdrawal for agricultural activities and for sustaining the needs associated to urban population growth. This is why there is an urgent need for adequate policies to support the provision of adequate infrastructures for sanitation and water supply, whose lack in many urban and peri-urban areas is the second cause of child mortality worldwide.

As a concrete message towards a change in the water sector, the World Water Week 2011 closed with assembled participants supporting a "Stockholm Statement to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20 Summit)". The 'Stockholm Statement' calls on leadership at all levels of government who will participate at the Rio+20 Summit in June 2012, to commit to achieving "universal provisioning of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and modern energy services by the year 2030" and to adopt intervening targets to increase efficiency in the management of water, energy and food.

The targets to be achieved by the year 2020 include:

• 20% increase in total food supply-chain efficiency
• 20% increase in water efficiency in agriculture
• 20% increase in water use efficiency in energy production
• 20% increase in the quantity of water reused
• 20% decrease in water pollution