The British Royal Society for Chemistry just issued a major report calling for significant improvements in water quality.

http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2007/WaterReport.asp

To quote them, “The publication of the report is the first step in a timely RSC 2008 campaign on sustainable water. Providing sufficient quantities of water at an appropriate standard to satisfy domestic, industrial, agricultural, and environmental needs is a global challenge.  To do this in a sustainable way in the face of massive population growth, climate change and man-made pollution, is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.”