No single resource is more integral to the health, welfare, and prosperity of human communities worldwide than fresh water.  Abundant clean water is critical to basic domestic needs; it sustains agriculture and fisheries, fuels industry, provides a clean source of electricity, and supports natural ecosystems on which people and biodiversity depend. Water permeates virtually every aspect of human enterprise and the proper and sustainable management of water resources is at the heart of global efforts to alleviate poverty, promote health, stimulate economic growth, reduce conflicts, and spread democracy.  Given the multifaceted and often competing demands placed on water resources, the main development challenge is to achieve sustainable water resource management that simultaneously meets human needs across multiple sectors while maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems.

The fine elements of this challenge vary across the developing world as a function of climate, population density, and socioeconomic status.  For example, most countries in Africa and the Middle East face water stress and scarcity, where demands generally match or exceed supplies and rapidly increasing poor populations exacerbate the problems. Conversely, in humid regions of Asia and Latin America destructive floods regularly inflict harm and stifle development. Here too the problems are greatest in poor regions of high population density (e.g. Bangladesh and Haiti).  While problems of water availability afflict a subset of countries in semi-arid and arid regions, problems of poor water quality afflict nearly all countries of the developing world, although they are most intense where contamination compromises an already limited water supply.  The scale of the challenge is revealed in the suffering of 1 billion people worldwide who lack access to safe water and 2 billion who lack access to basic sanitation (WHO, date).  Under such extreme conditions, the issues are life and death, and the loss of more than 2 million children per year to water related diseases brings home the gravity of the problem. 

Many less acute and more insidious problems exist as well, revealed in degraded freshwater systems that undermine ecological integrity and the very life support systems on which people of the developing world depend. Findings of the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (www.millenniumassessment.org) confirm that virtually all of Earth’s ecosystems have been significantly transformed by human actions, and the highest rates of transformation today are centered in the developing world.  The assessment singles out rapid rates of ecosystem change in the Amazon and Southeast Asia and identifies aquatic systems as being particularly impacted.  Future scenarios considered as part of the assessment are especially troubling, because continued deterioration of aquatic ecosystems is expected under even the most optimistic scenarios considering worldwide proactive actions to address growing environmental problems.  Aquatic systems are expected to be among the last ecosystems to show improvement.  The assessment results suggest a severe deterioration of the services provided by freshwater resources, including aquatic habitat, fish production, and water supply for households, industry, and agriculture.