The average human being cannot live more than three days without water. Many of the world's freshwater sources are running out or contaminated, particularly in developing countries, leaving many without safe water to drink. Only 2.5% of Earth's water is fresh, and less than 1% is accessible to humans (not tied to the polar ice caps). This 1% of Earth's water supply is expected to support a population of more than 7 billion people, each of whom needs 2.6 liters per day to stay healthy, plus all the water needed to agriculture and industry. These scenarios will become more and more prevalent as time passes and we consume more water. The United Nations has classified our planet as being in the midst of a global “water crisis.” Global water supply and shortages are becoming an incredibly real and serious problem, and planning for the future is critical to prevent population declines due to a lack of safe drinking water. The shortage of drinking water leads to wars and serious international conflicts for the basic needs of human survival. One of the most popular and commonly proposed solutions to this problem is to create seawater desalination plants to remove salt from ocean water and make it safe to drink. These water desalination plants, however, are not a viable option to take us into the future due to their potentially harmful impacts and costs. Before we delve into what is actually wrong with seawater desalination plants, it is important to establish that there are many alternatives available. One of the best alternatives is to adopt more efficient practices, such as water conservation and recycling of rainwater and gray water (from washing machines and toilets... half the paper... sequences and are far cheaper.Works Cited1. Into the Sea: Desalination as Hydro-Social Fix in SpainErik Swyngedouw, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol 103, No. 2, SPECIAL ISSUE: Geographies of Water (March 2013), pp. 2702. “California Water Boards Fact Sheet” . California Water Boards.ca.gov, 23 May 2013. Web. 25 April 2014.3. “Desalination : an ocean of problems.” Food and Water Watch 1 (2009): 1-20. Postel, SL, GC Daily and PR Ehrlich 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water. 271:785