Water

Mapping, measuring, and mitigating global water challenges.

40% of India’s Thermal Power Plants Are in Water-Scarce Areas, Threatening Shutdowns

Fourteen of India’s 20 largest thermal utilities experienced at least one shutdown due to water shortages between 2013-2016, at a cost of $1.4 billion. It's a taste of what's to come in a warmer, more crowded world.

The world runs on water. Clean, reliable water supplies are vital for industry, agriculture, and energy production. Every community and ecosystem on Earth depends on water for sanitation, hygiene, and daily survival.

Yet the world’s water systems face formidable threats. More than a billion people currently live in water-scarce regions, and as many as 3.5 billion could experience water scarcity by 2025. Increasing pollution degrades freshwater and coastal aquatic ecosystems. And climate change is poised to shift precipitation patterns and speed glacial melt, altering water supplies and intensifying floods and drought.

WRI works with businesses, governments, and civil society to ensure a water-secure future. We seek to address both water quantity and quality challenges.

Our Aqueduct project uses the most up-to-date data to produce global water risk maps, allowing stakeholders to assess current and future challenges. We conduct economic and other analyses to identify the most cost-effective strategies to reduce water pollution. And we identify solutions—such as restoring ecosystem services—to alleviate stresses on the world’s water supplies.

Top Water Outcomes

What's a top outcome?

Top outcomes are WRI's biggest success stories. They occur when our analysis, solutions, or partnerships result in significant change in the world.

Featured Expert

Betsy Otto

Global Director, Water

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June 06, 2018 Blog post

PODCAST: Water Stress Is a Threat We Can't Ignore

In this episode of the WRI Podcast, Charles Iceland, director, Global and National Water Initiatives with WRI's Food, Forests, and Water Programs, explains what water stress is, how we measure it, and why it matters for understanding geopolitics today.
May 22, 2018 Publication

Water Infrastructure Criteria under the Climate Bonds Standard

Green bonds finance sustainable infrastructure projects. A new criteria sets standards for green bonds for built and natural water infrastructure.
May 22, 2018 Blog post

Forests and Wetlands Are Water Infrastructure. New Green Bond Helps Finance Their Protection

Wetlands, forests and other green spaces are the original water infrastructure. For the first time, they can now be financed through bonds – just like other built infrastructure such as treatment plants and dams.
May 14, 2018 News

RELEASE: WRI Africa Opens with a Focus on Forests, Cities, and Water

Building on decades of work across the continent, World Resources Institute inaugurated a new regional office, WRI Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
May 10, 2018 Blog post

These 20 Water-Stressed Countries Have the Most Solar and Wind Potential

Power from solar and wind requires zero or little water, unlike coal, gas and other forms of thermal power. Renewable energy can therefore be particularly attractive to water-stressed countries looking to meet their increasing electricity demands without producing emissions.
May 08, 2018 Event

A Global Cost-Benefit Analysis Tool for Flood Protection Investment Strategies

The Understanding Risk forum is an annual convening of experts and practitioners active in the creation, communication, and use of disaster risk information. At this side event, World Resources Institute (WRI), World Bank, Deltares, the VU University Amsterdam-IVM, Utrecht University, and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), will preview a Cost Benefit Analysis tool for flood protection projects around the world.