Is water a more important issue than even oil?

"U.S. water shortages are becoming critical. Flow in the Colorado River, which feeds the Las Vegas Valley, dropped by almost half between 2000 and 2005 due to successive droughts."(more)

According to BusinessWeek, the coming water shortage has Israel, and many corporations, rushing to position themselves to profit from the massive shortages of clean water that the world is expected to soon face.

Ironically, water barely even registers as a concern to the average American. Yet, could water be even more important than oil?

Of course even oil supply really isn't a concern to most Americans.

Anyway, perhaps, water could be an unseen benefit of fuel cells. Instead of exhausting fuel cell water vapor into the air, capture it as drinking water!