More than eighty per cent of the freshwater in developing countries is used for agriculture, and only around one per cent of irrigation agriculture uses the most efficient drip irrigation system, so most of that water is wasted. One major problem is that underpricing – and sometimes zero pricing – reduces the incentive to invest in water-saving technologies and results in overuse. As the United Nations Development Programme points out: ‘if markets delivered Porsche cars at give-away prices, they too would be in short supply’.14
