LONDON -- Water may be an essential ingredient for life, producing food and economic growth but most countries are not prepared for natural disasters that will leave them with too much or too little of it.

Economic damage caused by droughts and floods has increased tenfold in the last 50 years, according to the World Water Council (WWC), an international water policy think tank.

Although climatologists predict there are worse scenarios to come, the WWC said on Thursday governments had not learned from past mistakes.

"What we are saying is that if we learn to manage today's problems better we will build resilience that will help us to better manage the worst problems that are being forecast," William Cosgrove, the vice president of the WWC told Reuters.

Climate change is a leading culprit but humans are contributing to the problems by overusing one of nature's most precious resources, living in locations prone to natural disasters and failing to heed the warnings of such disasters.

By 2025 the United Nations estimates half the world's population will live in areas at risk from storms and other weather extremes.

Cosgrove believes a closer collaboration between scientists, particularly climatologists and hydrologists, governments, water managers and disaster relief agencies such as the Red Cross would improve the management of water resources under climate change.

Rethinking Plans In a report that will be discussed at the 3rd World Water forum in Kyoto, Japan from March 16-23, the WWC will urge governments to form plans to deal with the consequences of rising sea levels, droughts and flooding.

Organizers of the Kyoto meeting are hoping to get firm commitments from governments to tackle the problems that could kill or displace many millions of people and ruin economies.

"Sea level rise has started and will continue. In fact, if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions tomorrow the sea level will continue to rise and warming will continue because the process has been launched," Cosgrove said.

The WWC is urging small Pacific islands, low-lying coastal countries such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands and coastal cities including Tokyo, Lagos, Buenos Aires and New York to start preparing.

"We are going to have to protect against it. That means building dikes where it is feasible, taking measures to move people if we have to. It requires a long-term plan and I think we have enough information that we can begin this kind of planning," he added.

Instead of reacting to droughts, Cosgrove said countries should anticipate them by improving infrastructure, storing water and harvesting rainwater. "Assistance seems to start flowing after the pictures of swollen bellies start to appear on television and yet the international community has the capability now, using climate science, to forecast when these things are going to happen."

Climatologists are also providing advance warning of major flood disasters which have increased from six in the 1950s to 26 in the 1990s.

The majority of the worst floods occur in Asian countries but few nations have been spared from floods in recent decades, according to the WWC. "The big problem is that most countries aren't ready to deal adequately with the severe natural disasters that we get now, a situation that will become much worse as storms and droughts become more pervasive. Ignoring the problem is no longer an option," Cosgrove said.(Reuters)