Given our growing demand, it is already very hard for Nature to supply us the water we need.
To make the problem worse, today's trend for water supplies will certainly make water more precious tomorrow.
Let us now explore the declining water supplies.
To start, water had various properties that make it potentially prone to the possibility of permanent damage.
Among the many, the most important feature is that water can be easily contaminated.
This is crucial because once water is contaminated, much of it will become useless forever.
If prolonged, consistent contamination of the Earth's water will destroy our water supplies.
One clear example would be that for the Rhine River in Europe during the 1970s.
To add on, much of the Earth's water is inconveniently located and we cannot control where it goes.
As a result, some places have floods while some have droughts.
Because of this immobility and lack of control over supplies, water will be more susceptible to being lost as we cannot dictate how Nature wants to deal with such issues of water.
Furthermore, with many of today's states being developing nations, they would rather risk contaminating water via increased industrialization (to achieve greater growth) instead of protecting the water which also deplete their limited resources.
As a result, more of today's remaining water supplies are more likely to become contaminated given the rising need for growth, reducing our supplies for the future.
Moreover, there have also been more events lately about water contamination compared to the past.
One example would be the recent BP oil spill which has heavily polluted the water and marine life in the area of spill.
In addition, as the world becomes more urbanized, energy demand will rise.
This increased energy demand will further contaminate more of our remaining water supplies, worsening the current situation.
For example, coal mining will release sulfurous compound pyrite into rivers and burning fossil fuels will increase the likelihood of acid rain.
Thus, because of all these, water supplies will have to decline unless something of great impact is done to salvage the situation.
Also, the growing global economy today will increase demand for commodities as many of them are used as raw materials.
However, the problem is that mining requires energy and will cause pollution, threatening our water supplies.
For example, titanium mining requires 150 barrels of oil per ton to process it and the by-products from it can lead to water pollution.
Because of this, titanium mines were shut down in Vietnam and China at 2006.
On surface, it may reduce the chance of pollution.
However, with these mines closed, titanium prices will go up because of the reduction in titanium supplies.
This would attract more titanium miners back to the market and result in more water pollution in the long run, further reducing our limited water supplies.
In conclusion, I believe that given the dwindling water supply and growing demand for water, water will very likely shine.
However, do prepare for changes along the way because the world is always changing and only those who can adapt are the winners.