- Desalination only provides 1% of the world's drinking water via 18,000 desalination plants using either thermal evaporation or membrane separation. New technologies create lower cost, less energy-intensive and more efficient desalination possibilities.
| Related Megatrend: Technology - About 500 million people live in areas where water consumption is double of the locally renewable water resources. Many countries in arid and semi-arid regions (e.g., central and west Asia, north Africa) are already close to or below the threshold for water scarcity of an annual 1,000 cubic metres per person. | Related Megatrend: Climate and environment; Migration; Urbanisation; Security