The water crisis

It does not receive much public attention in the West yet, but we are facing a water crisis - some of the most threatening developments are happening in China and India:

Here is a report from the Washington Post which discusses the problems of sinking water levels and increasing pollution of the Ganges river:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061600461.html
The bottom line is that the Ganges river - the main fresh water source for about 500 million people in Nepal, India and Bangladesh - is basically fed from two sources:
1. Rain during the monsoon season
2. The Gangotri Glacier - one of the largest glaciers in the Himalayas

The Gangotri glacier supplies the Ganges river with most of its water during the dry season. It has been receeding quickly in the last decades:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=4594

The short-term effect is that the Ganges currently carries more water due to the quickly melting glacier. The long-term effect is that the Ganges will carry much less water once the glacier has melted. It is hard to calculate how long it will take until the glacier has melted completely, but some estimates say that it could happen as early as 2030. Due to large water use upstream, the lower parts of the Ganges may dry up completely during the dry season.

Drastically falling water levels will not only impact drinking water supplies, but also agricultural irrigation, industrial water use and ceremonial bathing in the river:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Ganges

And since the freshwater pushes back the seawater in the Ganges delta in Bangladesh, the sinking water levels may lead to salination of farmlands, causing a further loss of arable land in one of the poorest and most densly populated countries in the world.

There is already tension between Bangladesh and India over water use - these tensions are likely to rise in the coming years, as water becomes an increasingly precious commodity.
Should the water levels in the Ganges really sink drastically - as is to be expected - the effect on the national economies of India and Bangladesh will be devastating. A crisis of this magnitude will impact the whole world.