"It's really a struggle to manage those evacuation centres, there's a shortage of water and a shortage of food, " he said.
China has a different sort of problem: a shortage of water, of which millions of gallons can be required to frack a single well.
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Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, with a severe shortage of water and rising levels of malnutrition among its population of about 25 million.
Yet there is a shortage of safe water for drinking and sanitation in many places, not least in the cities to which so many people are now flocking.
Whatever power structure emerges, Yemen's next leaders will face daunting tasks as they inherit a state where oil revenues have declined and the economy is in ruins, where poverty is endemic and a young and rapidly growing population faces a chronic shortage of water.
In Sirte itself the complaints are rife as its people try to get back to normal - from a lack of electricity and clean water, to a critical shortage of bank notes.
Murrin's other bets imply that after a hiatus during the recession, a Malthusian shortage of grains, irrigation water, gold and oil will reassert itself.
Makers of plastic bottles for water and milk, for example, have faced a shortage of high-density polyethylene since the hurricanes.
Earlier this month, as U.S. newspapers warned of a drought-induced bacon shortage, international scientists cautioned that pending water shortages could result in food shortages of all kinds, urging people to eat fewer water-intensive foods (namely, meat).
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The shortage of fresh water supplies is a danger to human health and an impediment to economic progress.
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An unnamed worker said the shortage of toilets, a lack of a medical centre and water stations were an "absolute disgrace".
He worries that fracking could deplete local water supplies, that there already is a shortage of rental housing and that a large stream of strangers might be more than some locals bargained for.
The union alleges that problems with the introduction of a new computer system have helped exacerbate the water shortage.
The protesters from the nearby community of Mareniyoc blame the mining company for a worsening water shortage and demand the firm supply them with drinking water.
Beijing has about 100 cubic meters of water available per person, well below the U.N. standard of 1, 000 cubic meters per person, a threshold used to measure chronic water shortage.
Refugees are receiving only 11 litres (2.9 gallons) of water a day in 50C (122F) heat, and there is a desperate shortage of toilets, though acknowledged more are now being built.
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