VIOLENCE IN MEXICO CITY: Riots surround a global summit seeking answers to a problem that's getting more acute

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.

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In the Mexican capital, tomorrow's crisis is already here.

Parts of the metropolis are sinking by as much as a foot a year because of over-exploitation of aquifers. More than 1 million residents lack water in their homes. And fights about water are getting increasingly violent, with some experts warning of a future "water war."

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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.