News & Comment

Water can be a tool for peace and prosperity. But water can also create tensions if usage is unfairly shared. World Water Day 2024 focused on the importance of working together to make water a catalyst for a more peaceful society.

Access to clean water is a fundamental human right, yet over two billion worldwide lack this essential resource close to their homes. This scarcity fuels conflict and hampers development globally. Despite the situation’s gravity, I am steadfast in my belief that these challenges can be overcome.

Water commons are water resources collectively managed and utilized by communities as common property to support their food security, traditions, and livelihoods. Water commons are under increasing pressure of acquisition, privatization, and grabbing. This Comment analytically defines the water commons, examines their vulnerability to grabbing, and discusses the associated water justice and environmental implications.

Bridging the gap between hydrology and ecology, ecohydrology recognizes that water resources cannot be studied in isolation from ecosystems.

Research on the ecological impacts of drought has predominantly focused on the scarcity of water supply, often overlooking divergent ecosystem water demands across vegetation types, regions, and time. These diverse ecosystem water demands need to be incorporated into an effective ecological drought monitoring and assessment framework.

Rivers carry large quantities of carbon and form an important link between terrestrial, marine and atmospheric biogeochemical cycles, yet our observations of river carbon are severely limited. Here we provide a blueprint to build a global River Observation System that would improve our ability to observe and predict changes in this crucial piece of the global carbon cycle.

When the substrate for ecological interactions is the river network, the emerging universality of form is reflected in its function as ecological corridor, with implications.

For papers regarding water and wastewater treatment, we are interested in both conceptual advance and potential for practical use.

Pioneer in the development of innovative drinking water treatment processes and wastewater remediation methods.

Earth system model projections of vegetation–climate feedback frequently depend on inaccurate values of evaporation sensitivity to vegetation changes, potentially resulting in misleading conclusions. A promising avenue involves improving the transpiration partitioning parameterizations and incorporating groundwater connections to refine the modelled sensitivity.

Equitable access to water of the proper quantity and quality is a human right, and water reuse is a proven way to contribute to this goal.

On the first anniversary of Nature Water, we reflect on what we have achieved so far and how we plan to evolve in the future.

Transformation narratives in water and sanitation emphasize public health and gender equality, yet miss a critical foundational perspective: planetary sustainability.

Sandra Postel has worked for many years on the conservation of the environment with a focus on water, primarily as the founding director of the Global Water Policy Project. Nature Water talked to her about her vision of a holistic approach to meeting challenges related to the preservation of life in our natural environment, with water at its heart.

With rapidly increasing urbanization, a substantial portion of global freshwater is used for the manufacture of construction materials, such as steel and cement. This threatens to intensify competition over the allocation of blue water (from lakes, rivers and aquifers). However, much less attention has been paid to the virtual water content of materials, and the water–materials nexus.

As per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) emerge as a global concern, it is crucial to foster collaborative endeavours aimed at discontinuing their persistent usage while devising effective methods for treating legacy PFAS in the environment.

Desalination is one of the most important responses to global water challenges. Decision-making on where, how and why to develop desalination plants must focus more on addressing social issues, such as universal access, justice and sustainability.

Large-scale afforestation is championed as a way to restore degraded habitats, conserve biodiversity and advance societal improvements. In the Middle East, a severely water-stressed region, we argue that urban greening will need to play a major part in efforts to deliver a more sustainable and water-sensitive strategy, while also enhancing urban liveability.

Almost 250 years have passed since the invention of the modern flush toilet. With nearly half of the world’s population still lacking access to safely managed sanitation, it is time to accelerate change.