Russia is considering becoming the world’s top supplier of fresh
water as growing demand turns it into a strategic resource. That
is if it can upgrade its own consumption to modern standards. If
you pay attention to the perils that future may bring, you
probably know that the oil will run dry, the sea level will rise
and drown coastal regions, and that fresh water will be such a
valuable asset that even the oil price will seem low in
comparison. All this provided that the world will not end in
2012 in accordance with Mayan prophecies, of course. The future
global water crisis is indeed a gloomy thing: by 2030 half of
world’s population will face a fresh water deficit, according to
the UN's World Water Assessment Program forecast. Thirsty
nations will take up arms against their saturated neighbors.
People drinking polluted water will become ill. Ecologies will
die out when the rivers feeding them are depleted for the sake
of human farms and factories. Russia has world’s second-largest
water reserves after Braz