PEAK WATER: When The Water Runs Out

Peak oil may be the least of our problems, scientists warned today. Growing industrial demand for water in developing countries such as China, rapidly expanding urban populations and the efficiency with which we use water have increased the risk of "peak water" -- a resource that most of us presume will be infinite -- entering a terminal decline.

Of course, we already knew one of the big eco-bummers of our modern lives is that products from beer to microchips use inordinate amounts of water. Last August, the WWF revealed that each Brit effectively uses 4,645 litres of water a day to produce the food on our tables and the T-shirts on our backs; see our world map for an idea of where Britain's "borrowed water" comes from.

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