Water shortage is the next global crisis waiting to happen, according to Nestle SA chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.

The chairman of the world's largest food company sounded the alarm bells at the closing session of the World Economic Forum on East Asia on Monday.

“We will run out of water before we run out of oil,” he said.

The crisis was potentially larger than the food or fuel crisis that had hit the world economy so forcefully, he said, adding: ``Every human needs about five plus 20 litres of water a day.``

That is an average of five litres a day to drink to avoid dehydration, depending on activity, and 20 litres for minimum hygiene.

Brabeck-Letmathe said his company had discovered that ``three parts of the world no longer send water into the sea,`` while, in Europe, decades-old lead-welded pipes were not being replaced, posing a serious risk to contamination of water supply.

He said one in five children under the age of five mainly in Africa, was dying every 20 seconds due to lack of clean water.

Unlike the carbon dioxide emission issue, clean water supply was a problem that could be solved now at minimal cost, he said, adding: ``The infrastructure and technology is available, but it is not currently on the agenda of any discussion or government.``

On the food crisis, Brabeck-Letmathe said one reason for the current high food prices was inward-looking government policies in a number of countries in the past year.

Argentina, Thailand and Kazakhstan, among others, have decided to go for food self-sufficiency, leading to inefficient use of agricultural land in the world.

Countries should instead import food from where it is most cheaply and efficiently produced and export food that it produces most efficiently.

At the same closing session South Korea's Deputy Trade Minister Ahn Ho-Young called upon Asian countries to keep to open-market policies in the face of rising fuel, water and food prices.

Such policies had been shown to raise living standards and were important for the region to pull itself out of the current crisis, he said, adding: ``At the same time we must address the growing (income and social) gap in our countries.``