Freshwater Security: A Community or a Global Issue?

The only way I got my mother to stop using the phrase "Finish your food. There are starving children in .....(you can fill in the blank with the name of your favorite nation)" was by gathering the courage to say "Why don't we send the food to them?" Of course, such a delivery never took place but this conversation clearly showed me that human communities are in some ways totally independent from other human settlements.
Super-storm Sandy's early legacy

Super storm Sandy turns lights off
Source - news.yahoo.com

When the storm hit, power and services were lost in many areas of New York. Today, nearly a week later, Lower Manhattan and Staten Island are like world's apart even though they are just 10 miles, as a crow flies, from each other.
Electric power and many other services are fully operational in Lower Manhattan but not yet available for many Staten Island communities.
To residents of Staten Island without electricity, Lower Manhattan is today a world away.
Rich and poor nations share borders

Asuper wealthy country inext to a not-so welthy nation
Source - churchworldservice.org

This feeling of being a world apart, when you are really only next door, also separates countries e.g. The wealthy US shares a border with the developing nation of Mexico.
As we are well aware, rivers cross country boundaries and a truckload of case law and agreements specify how much water each country can draw from these rivers.
This inter-dependency with freshwater is one ordained by nature
Freshwater is both a Global and a Local Issue
If New York figures out a way to be freshwater secure, it does not imply that Miami cannot also be freshwater secure. However, if New York industries starts spewing excessive amounts of carbon in the atmosphere, it can impact the climate in Miami, which in turn could alter rainfall patterns for Miami. Freshwater inter-dependency, if any, for New York and Miami is the result of them being interconnected by the Earth's atmosphere. What one does to its atmosphere can and is felt by the other. Thus, freshwater security is typically a local issue if the atmosphere cooperates. When it does not, freshwater can become a regional and even a global issue.

How Successful Are We At FreshWater Management?

A study was completed in early 2010 that mapped threats, like scarcity and pollution, to freshwater supplies at the regional level. This study shows that humankind has, so far, a good record at combating threats to freshwater security is many parts of the world.
Conclusions of the Study
1. About 80% of the world's population exists in areas where freshwater supplies are NOT secure
2. The most severe threat is to 3.4 billion people
Natural Areas of Freshwater Scarcity

Natural areas of Scarcity
Source - nature.com

Looking at the global map:
- Much of North America (especially the population centers of Canada, US and Mexico) and Western Europe is under high stress. Many areas experience extreme natural stress
- Much of Middle Africa should be fairly unstressed
- Most of India and Western China are under high natural stress.
- There are wide areas with NO natural water flows like, much of Australia, northern and Southern Africa and Inner Asia.
Impact of Human Intervention

Freshwater Managed by Humankind
Source - nature.com

Looking at this global map, some startling results are visible:
- Much of North America (except Mexico) is being managed to virtually eliminate natural unavailability of freshwater
- Middle Africa, despite being under few natural forces of water stress, is experiencing extreme freshwater scarcity
- India's water management is somewhat successful at alleviating natural water stresses but has a long way to go to be freshwater secure
- China's water management is somewhat successful at alleviating natural water stresses but has a long way to go to be freshwater secure
Assumptions underlying the Study
Undoubtedly, we need to better understand and agree with all the assumptions, subjective factors, weighing of individual threats, combining of threats, etc before people all over the world will accept how well or how poor a job they have done on freshwater security.
However, there are three conclusions that we should all be able to agree on:
A. The threat of freshwater scarcity is a common threat virtually everywhere around the globe.
B. There are two options to resolve this common threat: We can
EITHER work together, addressing the BIG scale of the threat, to find a universal solution, 
OR we leave it to individual nations and regions to work out their individual custom solutions.
C. The problem of freshwater insecurity is so large in scale that time is of the essence i.e. we must eradicate freshwater security quickly before the increasing freshwater demand overwhelms us. This increasing demand is coming in the next decade from the 500+ million people who are expected to dramatically improve their Standard of Living and the 700 million additions to the human population