The availability of clean water is a basic human need. It is also a seriously endangered basic need. Due to climate change, pollution, wastage, a sharp increase in use and depletion of finite resources, an acute water shortage already exists in many places. In many other places, this shortage will occur in the foreseeable future, with major consequences for agriculture, horticulture, livestock, health, and overall livability, among others. This problem is not only at the regional level, but can even threaten good relations between populations and states. Advanced water management and water-saving techniques such as water treatment and desalination technologies need to be further developed so that they can be widely deployed at acceptable cost.
Connecting character
The demand for the water management of the future links technical questions in the field of purification and sanitation with questions on other uses of water and on the organisation of water management. In water technology, not only the purification and desalination techniques are important in themselves, but also the relationship with energy and reuse of raw materials, such as phosphate. Water use is partly about using water more economically in existing systems, but also about developing new uses that require less water, which can greatly reduce water demand in agriculture, for example. In the case of water governance, the central question is what new management systems can bring together the different actors who use water. Economic measures and the legal aspects are also an important topic for research.
