Humanity uses a little less than half the water available worldwide. Yet occurrences of shortages and droughts are causing famine in some areas, but industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies. (1) ______ Since the world’s population is expecting to double in the next 50 years, (2) ______ many experts think we are on the edge of a widespread water crisis. But that doesn’t have to be the outcome. Water shortages do not have to trouble the world--if we started valuing water more than we (3) ______ have in the past. Just like we began to appreciate petroleum more after (4) ______ the 1970s oil crisis, today we must start looking at water from a fresh economical perspective. We can no longer afford to consider water a (5) ______ virtual free resource of which we can use as much as we like. (6) ______ Instead, for all uses except the domestic demand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect their actual value. This means (7) ______ charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the demand costs. (8) ______ Governments should also protect this resource by providing water with more economically and environmentally sound ways. (9) ______ Often the cheapest way to provide irrigation water in the dry tropics is through small-scaled projects, such as gathering rainfall in depressions (10) ______ and pumping it to nearby cropland.