Water has displaced climate change as a huge cause for concern. This year's World Economic Forum held in Davos acknowledged businesses are doing too little to tackle a looming water crisis. In fact, "Water Stress" has been a common denominator between disease, rising food prices and crises such as the Darfur conflict. This calls for more engagement from government and businesses.

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), one of the most arid regions in the world, already use more water than they receive through rainfall and river flows each year, thus depleting groundwater resources. According to a report published by World Bank, the Middle East and North Africa face a serious crisis in water availability unless they develop more efficient and transparent policies. It estimates that by 2050 per capita water availability in the region will fall by 50 per cent.

• The world's supply of fresh water is running out. Already one person in five has no access to safe drinking water.
• Every 10 seconds a child dies because of dirty water.
• 4 million children under five die terrible deaths each year due to water-born diseases.
• 1.4 billion children lack access to safe drinking water.
• Millions of children share the water they use to drink, cook and bathe with their livestock.
• About 1000 litres of water are needed to create one litre of bio-diesel. It is time for companies to follow sustainable water policies.