WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- Water problems, including water
shortages, poor water quality and floods, during the next decade
will contribute to instability in many countries important to
U.S. security interests, a U.S. intelligence community report
says. The Global Water Security report, prepared at the request
of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year, was
compiled by the office of the Director of National Intelligence
with contributions from eight intelligence organizations,
including the CIA and the National Security Agency. At a State
Department event Thursday to mark World Water Day, Clinton
called the report's findings "sobering." "These threats are real
and they do raise serious security concerns," Clinton said. The
lack of adequate water will be a "destabilizing factor" for some
countries that do not have the financial resources or technical
ability to solve their internal water problems, the report says.
Some 800 million people lack a safe supply of freshwater, the
United Nations says. T