Avoiding Water Wars

Re “Report Predicts Thirstier World,” Aug. 14: When French peasants wanted for bread, Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake” didn’t do it. When present and future generations want for water, “Let them drink Coke” won’t do it either. Let’s return to the Program of Action adopted by 179 countries at the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development. It called for universal knowledge about and affordable access to methods of family planning to prevent unintended pregnancy. Only with population stabilization in the poorest countries can the world avoid water wars and conflicts over all the resources that sustain life on this planet.

Jane K. Roberts

Redlands