What will the world look like in 2017?

Water, water anywhere?
All that change points to what some analysts fear could is the triumph of the consumer society.

Looking ahead, the Copenhagen Institute projects that “consumption is found everywhere.”

“Once, we were people. In 2017, we are primarily consumers,” it warns. “ The modern person — and not least the modern family — consumes constantly,” particularly natural resources.

Australia is in the midst of another searing summer drought. Without significant rain, the government will turn off irrigation lines to farmers in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia’s food bowl, in July to keep water flowing to cities and towns.

In Sydney, water police are already enforcing restrictions, NBC News’ Anne Thompson reported, looking for signs of forbidden car washing and collecting evidence of gardens’ being watered on Monday, when it’s allowed only on Wednesdays and Sundays after 10 a.m.

The drought has been a wakeup call for Australian leader, making them do that they already knew they had to do, but with a greater sense of urgency. And It could be a glimpse of what is coming in other parts of the world.

The 2006 U.N. Human Development Report found that more than a sixth of the world’s population has inadequate access to water. Access to piped water in the home averages about 85 percent for the wealthiest fifth of the population, it found, compared with 25 percent for the poorest fifth.

The world population tripled in the 20th century, but its use of renewable water resources grew six-fold, the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development reported in 2002. In 2006, the United Nations reported that more than a sixth of the world’s population had inadequate access to water.

“Overcoming the world water crisis — achieving water, food and environmental security simultaneously — is one of the most formidable challenges to achieve sustainable development,” it said.

The problem is so acute in the rural Australian city of Goulburn that water is strictly rationed. Steve and Belinda Baxter and their three daughters are limited to 40 gallons a person a day, enough for little more than a five-minute shower.

Belinda Baxter washes her daughters in one bath, then Steve reuses the tub water to water the flowers.

“When I wash my hands, I will run the tap to get them wet, get my soap, lather up, wash it off, rather than keep the tap running the whole time,” Belinda Baxter said.

It is not enough. Already, Goulburn has to spend $1 million a week to bring in usable water by truck. Mayor Paul Stephenson wants to build a $40 million pipeline.

“It’s the lifeblood,” he said. “Without water, this place doesn’t go anywhere. Without water, you don’t do anything.”

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