Water resources in developing countries are under various threats such as climate change, population growth and ecosystem degradation

American Geophysical Union decided to highlight an article of  Buytaert W, De Bievre B, 2012. "Water for cities: the impact of climate change and demographic growth in the tropical Andes. Water Resources" in their journal "Water Resources Research" one of the leading journals in the discipline.  Water resources in developing countries are under various threats such as climate change, population growth and ecosystem degradation. It is crucial for policy makers to understand the future evolution of these treats to prioritize their actions. This paper analyses water availability in 4 cities in the tropical Andes with a very complex and idiosyncratic water supply system under pressure. We find that population growth outweighs climate change as the biggest pressure on water availability