While much of the attention in recent years has been paid to water scarcity issues, the problem that is more likely to precipitate a major water crisis in the coming years is not physical availability of the resource but regular deteriora tion of its quality because of continuing neglect in most parts of the world. All over the developing world, rivers and lakes within and around urban centres are already grossly contaminated with known and unknown pollutants. It is indeed a development paradox that people are clam oring for a better quality of life, and yet their economic, social, and environmental conditions are not improving according to their expectations, many times because of steady degradation of the environmental conditions.
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