The world must act now to head off water wars in developing nations, where the resource has become so scarce, polluted or threatened that people are willing to fight over it, activists at a protest forum outside the 4th World Water Forum said yesterday.

A SUMMIT on the world’s water crisis has opened with a proposal for an international peacekeeping force to deal with future conflicts over water and calls for massive donations to rebuild water systems in poor nations.

THE Irish are “a shower of wasters” when it comes to water, the Green Party said yesterday.