March 17, 2006, 2:42AM
VIOLENCE IN MEXICO CITY
'Suffering ... for water'
Riots surround a global summit seeking answers to a problem that's getting more acute
By MARION LLOYD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Foreign Service
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - Violence broke out Thursday as experts and conservationists from around the world gathered to search for ways to safeguard one of the world's most precious commodities.
A gang of youths, many of them in ski masks, attacked a patrol car with sticks and rocks, and riot police fired tear gas into the crowd, local media reported. At least a dozen protesters armed with knives, pipes and Molotov cocktails were arrested in a separate incident on the first day of the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City.
Mexican President Vicente Fox urged 11,000 delegates from about 120 nations to work together to prevent a worsening of the water crisis that is already plaguing parts of the world. "Our survival depends on a profound change in attitude," he said.
One billion people lack clean drinking water and 2.6 billion are without adequate sanitation, according to the United Nations, and shortages are expected to get worse when the world's population hits 8 billion in two decades.
In the Mexican capital, tomorrow's crisis is already here.
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