The World Bank has predicted that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will run short of fresh drinking water. Given such a grim outlook, it comes as little surprise that Fortune magazine recently defined water as “the oil of the 21 st century.” Poised to capitalize on this crisis are private companies, many of which are multinationals whose tentacles are probing the planet for opportunities to turn the misery of water-starved regions into profits for their executives and stockholders.