Fresh Water Use: An Introduction to This Year’s Global Topic

A turn of a tap. A cold glass of water. A quick flush of the toilet. These small moments are so seamless that most of us never give them a second thought. But behind these everyday routines lies a striking global reality: less than 1 percent of all the water on Earth is clean and accessible fresh water that we can use. While water covers more than 70 percent of our planet, 97 percent of it is salty ocean water, and much of the rest is frozen away in massive glaciers.

That tiny fraction of fresh water fuels every person, farm, factory, animal, energy grid, and smartphone across the globe. From the crops growing in rural fields to the tech centers keeping our apps running, fresh water is the quiet engine behind almost everything in modern life.

This is where the real challenge comes in: our global population is steadily growing, but Earth’s total fresh water supply is limited. Nature is not making any new water. As our global family expands, our collective appetite for resources skyrockets. More people mean we need to grow significantly more food, manufacture more clothes, generate more power, and build more technology. Every single one of those things requires a massive amount of water behind the scenes.

When our water demand outpaces what local rivers, lakes, and underground wells can naturally refill, serious problems start bubbling up. Shortages can trigger dangerous public health crises, ignite intense legal battles over who legally owns a river, or force young students to walk miles in the heat every single day just to carry a jug of water home instead of going to school.

The United Nations tracks these interconnected challenges through its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), most notably Goal 6 for clean water and sanitation. Ensuring fair fresh water access is also critical for achieving zero hunger (Goal 2), promoting good health and wellbeing (Goal 3), and reducing global inequalities (Goal 10) as our population grows.

Picture waking up tomorrow in charge of your community’s entire water supply. How would you ensure every home, farm, school, and business has enough clean water to thrive as more people keep moving in? Balancing those needs is one of the biggest puzzles of our time.

Put your problem-solving hat on, get creative. Read the full Fresh Water Use Topic Backgrounder to start exploring!