The Future of Water

This concluding chapter looks at the future of water. There are two possible paths for managing water. First, if the world continues with inadequate governance and institutions, incorrect market signals, and insufficient innovations to improve efficiency and manage competing demands, most chronic water and scarcity problems will continue to worsen. The world will see a future of declining water security, freshwater ecosystem degradation, and increasing disputes and conflicts over remaining water resources. The alternative path to managing water is the one offered by this book. If, in anticipation of the coming decades of increasing water scarcity, humankind is able to develop appropriate governance and institutions for water management, instigate market and policy reforms, and address global management issues, then improved innovation and investments in new water technologies and better protection of freshwater ecosystems should secure sufficient beneficial water use for a growing world population.

Humankind and Water

This chapter examines how humankind's complex relationship with water evolved historically to create today's water paradox. There is a significant difference between how water is managed and used for economic development today compared to past eras. Starting with the Agricultural Transition around 10,000 years ago, economic development was spurred by harnessing more water resources. Rather than threatening sustainable development, exploiting and controlling water resources was the key to building successful and long-lasting economies. Although the relationship between exploiting water resources and economic development has changed, many of the water institutions and innovations have not. Water may appear to be cheap, but it is only artificially so. Instead, the current market, policy, and governance institutions underprice it, and so people continue to use water excessively as if it were not scarce. Most of the innovations are also geared toward expanding command and control of water resources, not toward reducing use as economies develop.