Blog Posts: water risk

Flood risk in the Mississippi River Basin is expected to threaten $4.2 billion in GDP annually by 2030, an $831 million increase from 2010. Levees alone won't fix the problem — and may even worsen it.

New WRI research shows how countries can achieve water security for all by 2030. The economic benefits of investing in sustainable water management far outweigh the costs.

About 2,000 administrative districts across the Global South — about 14% of all surveyed — are at risk of violent conflict between October 2019 and September 2020.

African countries face some of the highest water risk in the world, now exacerbated by climate change. But management and investment are often bigger challenges. Tackling them can strengthen economies and build countries' resilience to climate change.

New data on WRI's Aqueduct platform ranks the world's countries from least to most water-stressed.

More than 700 coastal areas are affected by algal growth and dead zones, despite a growing number of global agreements to reduce water pollution.

WRI Water Program Director Betsy Otto argues the world needs to make water security a top priority and outlines three key steps we can take, taking a global perspective with examples from the United States and Ethiopia.

Water crises can shake societies, destroy livelihoods and threaten prosperity for decades. They can also be the spark that sets aflame a powder keg of social and political issues, resulting in violent conflict.

From the foothills of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey to the desert wadis on the southern tip of Yemen, the history of water conflicts provides a cautionary tale: When water and politics mix, freshwater can become both a weapon and a threat to national security.

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.