How Many is Too Many?

In his column, AWWA Executive Director Jack Hoffbuhr discusses world population growth and presents both the optimistic and pessimistic views on humanity's ability to solve whatever problems ensue as a result of population growth. The pessimists point out that the true limiting factor for economic development of underdeveloped countries will be water, saying that the tradeoff will be water for agriculture to feed people or water for people to drink. Hoffbuhr states that the question we should really be answering is: How can we effectively manage our resources to meet the needs of the earth's population?