Every day, more than 5,000 children die from diarrhea-related illnesses developed due to unsafe drinking water. Around a billion people do not have access to drinking water; One billion people is about one in six people. Deaths from unsafe drinking water outnumber deaths caused by war. We must all work together to find new sources of fresh water so that everyone on the planet has an adequate supply of drinking water. This essay will present current and future technologies that will be available to solve this problem in the coming years. Water covers almost three-quarters of the Earth, but people still die every day from lack of fresh water. How is this possible? Only three percent of the planet's water is fresh water, and a small amount is water not found in snow or ice. The depletion of this fresh water is occurring at a faster rate than the replenishment, creating a fresh water crisis. Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) predict that within 40 years, four billion people, almost two-thirds of the current global population, will face significant freshwater shortages. This problem cannot be solved by a single group of people, but engineering is at the heart of the problem. Engineers must optimize current technologies:1. Desalination of ocean water2. Water diversion3. Wastewater Recycling/IrrigationIn addition, engineers must continue to develop new technologies. New projects on the freshwater engineering horizon include:1. Nano-osmosis of ocean water2. Decentralized distillation units in rural areas3. Strategies to reduce water consumptionOcean water desalination presents enormous challenges w...... middle of paper ......Much of this population explosion will occur in regions considered to be the “third world”. Fresh water is rare in these regions today; by 2050, the lack of fresh water in these regions could reach disastrous levels. The implications of these numbers weigh heavily on the shoulders of engineers. The lack of fresh water cannot be ignored, which requires the further development of technologies and programs aimed at solving the problem. This problem has social, political and scientific implications. Engineers cannot be tasked with solving the problem alone, but their work will go a long way toward moving toward developing a solution. od/biodiversityconservation/a/desalination.htmhttp://www.care2.com/greenliving/seawater-desalination-solution-or-problem.html