Since I talked about cyber-terrorism in my last column, I thought it prudent to talk about another crucial and dangerous issue.

Unlike terrorism and espionage, this threat has very little sex appeal. It doesn’t make the news that often, and when it does, it is on the fourth or fifth page next to the Garfield comic strip. But just because the media does not feel this threat is important does not mean that it is not.

I am talking about the threat of water shortages.

I know what you are thinking. “I saw that “Waterworld” movie with Kevin Costner.

There’s more water than we know what to do with.” Although Hollywood will continue to make awful, expensive movies about the dangers of an overabundance of water, the fact is that we could face a real shortage in the amount of drinkable, fresh water in the coming decades.

Speaking of Hollywood, just look at the most recent James Bond movies, where one of the main points was the antagonists taking control of the water supply.

We never think about it because it is easily accessible, but water is power. A shortage or inability to access it is extremely dangerous.

We are fortunate enough to live in a country where we have extensive infrastructure for processing and moving water.

But the destabilizing effects of water shortages are going to be felt even in the most developed of nations.

So what does water shortage actually mean? It does not necessarily mean that there is no water, just that it is not accessible.

There may be fresh water near, but if it is not sanitary or is heavily polluted, then it is undrinkable. Countries such as the Sudan and Venezuela face the problem that a good amount of their water is not sanitary for human consumption. But at the end of the day, people have to drink water.

There have been efforts to “desalinate” salt water, which is basically taking sea water and through a complicated process making it drinkable. The issue with that is the process creates so much waste that it is not sustainable. We have to keep relying on our current supply of drinkable water for now.

Another issue that compounds the problem is that in the coming decades, the majority of population growth is expected to be in places that already experience water shortage. As demand increases, tensions will also rise over the finite amount of fresh water.

Although this issue may not be a high priority in your mind, it needs to be. If we started investing international water reclamation programs and keeping in mind to limit our overall water consumption (ask yourself how long your showers are), then we might be able to head off a very serious problem.

Water is necessary for life and people will fight for it. We won’t be able to solve it by the end of this decade, but we can start to talk about it before then. Instead of being reactive, we would try to be proactive in this. And always be thankful for showers, sprinklers and glasses of ice water, some people do not have that luxury.