Water is the key to further development. The private sector is already playing a major role in looking into alternatives for a balanced water supply situation with the help of advanced technologies. We were generously given many Gardens of Eden, but only a few will survive into the next century. A worldwide campaign is necessary to show the scarcity of water. The United Nations Habitat II Conference in Istanbul, June 3–14, 1996, and the preceding IDA World Conference in Abu Dhabi on Desalination and Water Sciences, 18–24 November, 1995, are the immediate platforms on which international institutions and multilateral development banks can discuss this topic and help formulate an agenda for the next century.