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“Scarce, cheap, and wasted. In too many places water is a triple paradox,” says this updated WBCSD paper on water, which was originally prepared for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in April 2004. Its message is straightforward: with no water there can be no business.

According to the paper, the way forward lies in:

• Sharing resources: water resources must be shared to meet competing demands
• Unlocking finance: to attract investment, governments need to implement policies for effective cost recovery, so that the price of water reflects its true value
• Mobilizing know-how for delivery systems: business resources can be leveraged to transfer knowledge, share technologies, help build local capacity, and support sustainable growth of small and medium enterprises