You put your questions to our panel of experts, Koichiro Matsuura, director general of Unesco and Michael Rouse, president of the International Water Association, in a LIVE interactive forum.
More than a billion people lack access to clean water and 2.4 billion do not have proper sanitation - and those numbers are predicted to grow.
"No region will be spared from the impact of this crisis," says Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
The United Nations has called for the number of people without drinking water and sanitation to be halved by 2015.
But is this best achieved by massive investment in state-of-the-art technologies, or by turning to simpler methods?
The president of the International Water Association, Michael Rouse, says the world should revert to using human solid waste as compost and fertiliser. Meanwhile, could we preserve water through more efficient systems of irrigation?
And what determines our water policies? Do we need more transparency and expertise from the authorities and individuals who manage the world's water resources?
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Factfile: The big picture