Policymakers, corporations and specialists ponder the future of water, fast emerging as one of the century's crunch challenges

A global meeting on water opened in France with demands to provide billions of poor people with clean water and decent sanitation and address the spiralling demands of the future and worsening scarcity and waste issues. The World Water Forum, held every three years, gathers policymakers, big corporations and non-governmental organisations. The forum started on March 12, 2012 to end on March 17.

In Photo: FRANCE, Marseille: Activists of NGOs demonstrate to protest againt hydroelectric dams, on March 14, 2012 in the southern city of Marseille, on the sidelines of the 6th World Water Forum.

Photos: AFP