Abstract
The continuing increase in the world population during last years has placed increasing pressure on the demands of world society. Industrial, construction and agricultural production has been under considerable pressure to cope with the population development and growing demands. This increase requires a large and continuously growing supply of energy and water delivered mostly from reserves of the natural resources. In the case of energy so far mainly fossil fuels are still used. The accelerating development of countries with large populations, such as China, India, Nigeria and some others has resulted in increased demands on agricultural production and processing, which in turn have resulted in further increases in energy and water demands. This sharply increases in cost and many cases of shortages of all forms of energy and water. This paper reviews the main trends in the flows of energy and water supply, paying attention also to the concept of virtual water, and draws conclusions for directions of possibly promising future research and development efforts.
