The forum's battle cry will be decentralizing water management and returning focus to traditional methods that, experts say, often make more "intelligent" and efficient use of water in sync with local supply.

"We must reverse water management: take a look at what the demand is, where, then adapt offers to this. Not the opposite," said Michel Camdessus, author of a 2003 United Nations report on financing water management.

He insists good water management is key to reducing global poverty, but "we must get this message across to governments and international financial institutions."

Some 5,000 delegates and scientists from international groups, governments and public and non-governmental organizations will attend this fourth meeting organized by the World Water Council from March 16 to 22. Guidelines for action are expected to be drawn up at a ministerial meeting on the final two days.

"In Mexico, 'water for everyone' must become an international reality," said Camdessus.

The situation is far from that today. Forty percent of the world's population, or more than six billion people, have either limited access to water or no system ensuring proper evacuation. The consequence is serious public health problems including: the deaths of some 3,900 children per day, reduced economic activity, increased pollution, and restricted development for women and girls who often bear the burden of fetching water.

Experts say while figures have not changed since the last water forum in Kyoto in 2003, ideas have -- notably a consensus on the need for boosting investment and putting management in the hands of local communities.

"But we still have to convince governments," said Loic Fauchon, president of the Marseille-based World Water Council, founded in 1996 by specialists and international organizations as a platform to raise awareness about water issues.

"Mexico will be the place to show that we can no longer carry on like before. If nothing changes, the vast majority of countries in the world will face serious water shortages within a generation," said Jean-Francois Donzier, head of a related group called the International Office for Water.

Though two-thirds of the world's surface is covered with water, only a tiny fraction is fresh and potable. Water consumption has risen sixfold in the 20th century but in the last 20 years alone, with eight billion people worldwide, water supplies per person have decreased threefold, according to fact files issued ahead of the forum.

Inequalities in both natural distribution and consumption are vast. The arid Middle East, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa remain the world's "thirsty triangle". And the difference in consumption between industrialized and developing countries meanwhile is enormous: 400 to 600 liters (quarts) per day per resident in the first compared to 20 liters per day in the worst-hit countries.

Experts say more -- and targetted -- investment is needed to reverse inequities and ensure intelligent use where supplies are rare.

Agriculture, which uses 70 percent of the world's fresh water resources, is likely to come under close scrutiny, notably what experts call a dangerous trend towards draining underground water supplies in unsustainable fashion, and often to produce export crops. Though experts site a host of culprits, including India, China, Brazil and the United States, they called Saudi Arabia an extreme case where wheat is grown in the desert in a country that does not consume this crop and where 90 percent of the underground water used for irrigation is lost to evaporation.

According to the World Water Council, 20 to 30 billion dollars (euros) per year are needed to attain the UN goal of halving by 2015 the number of people who do not have access either either to potable water or to proper sanitation.

"The World Bank and development banks have realized they must increase their pathetic investments," said Camdessus, whose 2003 report urged that local communities and groups be allowed to borrow directly from international institutions.

"What they need is loans that run for very long periods at low, fixed rates in local currency," he said.

He insisted corruption would also be less. "On the local level, it's harder to steal because there is less money and more eyes watching what's going on," said Camdessus.

Gerard Payen, a UN water consultant and former executive of the French energy group Suez, insists change is in the air.

At the last World Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003, "local groups were invisible. Today, they are a central theme in Mexico: for the first time, they will be present and organized," he said.

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4th World Water Forum