Book excerpt: "Water may soon be one of our most valuable commodities. The growing demands made on a finite resource by an increasing number of people adopting urban lifestyles and western diets, coupled with a changing and less predictable climate, are putting pressure on the planet's freshwater supply as never before. By 2025, four billion people may be living in conditions of water stress. And even where water is plentiful, the poor are unlikely to have ready access to a safe, cheap supply. The new edition of this timely atlas analyzes the latest thinking and emerging issues. Completely updated, it maps the competing claims on limited water resources--made by farmers, industrialists, and householders--and investigates the nature of the resource, its uses and abuses, as well as the vexed question of how it can be managed equitably"-- Page 4 of the cover.