News release {includes link to video and charts]: “Climate change and over-use of water will mean that nearly on in every two people will live in water-stressed areas by 2030. Households, industry and agriculture will increasingly compete for water, leaving little to sustain ecosystems. Three new OECD studies say that putting the right price on water will encourage people to waste less, pollute less, and invest more in water infrastructure. Households and industry in many OECD countries increasingly pay the true cost of the water they consume. Pricing Water Resources and Water and Sanitation Services shows this is done through tariffs – user prices – which better reflect the actual consumption and treatment costs, including water abstraction and supply as well as treatment of wastewater to avoid pollution…Today agriculture uses more water than households and industry put together – about 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Sustainable Management of Water Resources in Agriculture shows that while agricultural water consumption decreased in some countries, especially in Eastern Europe, some OECD countries such as Greece, Korea, New Zealand and Turkey recorded large increases since the 1990s. Country specific data on agriculture water pricing are available for Australia, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Turkey and the United States.”