Today, according to the International Water Management Institute, a Sri Lanka-based cousin to IRRI and CIMMYT, one person out of every three on the planet lacks reliable access to freshwater, whether because the water is unsafe, unaffordable, or unavailable. The problems are not restricted to poor nations. By 2025, the institute predicts, all of Africa and the Middle East, almost all of South and Central America and Asia, and much of North America will either be running out of water or unable to afford its cost. As many as 4.5 billion people could be short of water.