70% of the earth's surface is water, but we are short?
97% is salty and another percent or so is locked up in Antarctic ice, but Nature evaporates billions of gallons per day and transports it inland. We let it run back into the sea, but we're short?
Polluted water can be cleaned with dollar filters, which are now being distributed to the undeveloped world to prevent the deaths of millions each year--but that is being done with mostly private funding--not the hundreds of millions supposedly spent by governments.
Millions of gallons per day are evaporated in cooling power plants, but that just goes into the atmosphere rather than being recaptured for fresh water supply.
On the grocery store shelves, I see water from Tahiti and Kiwi water, imported from around the world for the most fickle taste.
So, I conclude "water shortage" is lack of imagination, topped by lack of political competence, but most likely topped by a desire for an increase in the $700-million per year spent on the problem. "Spent on the problem" does not mean "spent on the solution."
