Opportunities for water companies are flowing around the world because of looming shortage

s and decades of underinvestment. Saudi Arabia and Algeria, where water shortages have become acute, are placing billions of dollars of contracts out to bid to improve water supplies for their growing populations. The trend is expected to grow, as 40% of the world's population will suffer water shortages by 2050, according to the United Nations Development Program. Global warming is expected to exacerbate the problem.

Saudi Arabia began privatizing water services after shortages sparked riots last November in Jeddah. Loay Ahmed Musallam, the deputy water minister, said the first contract to manage water supplies for Riyadh would be awarded this year. By 2010, private companies will provide water for half the population, he added. Saudi Arabia plans to invest $37 billion over five years to improve water pipelines. Leaks cost 1 million cubic meters of water a day—the output of seven desalination plants—the minister said. Even after putting contracts out to bid, governments still face politically sensitive decisions. In Saudi Arabia, for example, water tariffs are among the lowest in the world. Musallam said Saudis consumed twice as much water as Britons in spite of living in one of the driest parts of the globe. The government is introducing measures to encourage water conservation.

Even in the US, the shortfall between actual investment and the industry's real needs is estimated to be $122 billion for waste water treatment and $100 billion for drinking water over the next 12 years, said Michael Dean of the Environmental Protection Agency. "People take for granted clean, safe, inexpensive water, but the old ways of paying for water in the US no longer meet our needs", Dean said.

Water services in the US are mainly owned by municipalities, which fiercely resist privatization. Gasson says decades of underinvestment are catching up with the water industry. "Either tariffs or subsidies will have to rise. We are at an inflection point. Investment now is unavoidable", he said.

David Lloyd Owen, a British consultant, estimated the investment shortfall for the global water industry at $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years. "The question is how to overcome political resistance to the involvement of the private sector", he said. "The water industry is one of the most conservative in the world. By and large, it is still run by bureaucrats and engineers", Owen said. "There is also a passionate and well-organized lobby against privatization".

He sees more room for the private sector as technology for desalination and recycling come to play an increasing role in the industry. Banks are also becoming more creative in matching the financing of capital outlays in the industry with the long lives of water treatment facilities.

Which of the following can't we infer according to the author？

A．Global warming will exacerbate the shortage of water.

B．Water companies will feel happy because of water shortage.

C．Saudi Arabia and Algeria are making great efforts to solve the problem of water shortage.

D．According to the UN, 60% of the world's population won't suffer water shortages by 2050.