ostly on the grounds that these were disguised trade barriers. The approach is precautionary, which can be extremely stringent without very much proof of consequence and can lead to irreversible and expensive decisions and regulation. This precautionary principle is justification for the forthcoming EU's prescribed substances daughter directive to the Water Framework Directive (WFD) that seems to impose absolute and unreachable standards for prohibiting discharges of certain substances in wastewater, despite environmental background levels being much higher. The consequences of this will be to force EU countries to invest huge sums in wastewater treatment. INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 - © OECD 2006 5. THE IMPACTS OF CHANGE ON THE LONG-TERM FUTURE DEMAND FOR WATER SECTOR INFRASTRUCTURE The above illustrates that greater participation of international bodies could impact on design, development and other areas that indirectly affect operation and provision of infrastructure. Standards, benchmarking and technology, for example, could have either detrimental or beneficial effects on efficiencies, thus increasing or reducing costs and affecting levels of affordability. The impacts of moving beyond the nation state will be felt not only in the developed world and OECD countries but also in the transition economies of East and South Asia and Latin America. Impacts are less likely in the low- income, lesser developed countries of Africa, where the challenges are more localised and closely linked with coverage, access and keeping up with basic water service provision. Water and other resources The population living in water-stressed areas is set to double over the period 1995-2025, and by 2030 two-thirds of the world's population may experience moderate to high water stress (Alcamo et al., 2000). Regions of particular concern will be the Middle East, North Africa, Southern Africa, South Asia and parts of China. Some countries are already ill-equipped to meet th