Water is essential to global society, for everything from drinking and growing food to producing energy and cultural practices. 40 percent of the world’s workforce works in sectors that rely on water, and water counts for $58 trillion in global economic output each year. But while the industrialized world can take water access for granted, water resources around the world are increasingly under stress. Billions of people lack access to safely managed sanitation systems and drinking water, and as this critical resource grows increasingly scarce, it is becoming a trigger for, weapon in, and casualty of global conflicts.
