Water is critical to life on this planet. It is connected to every human endeavor and holds a social and cultural dimension distinct to each country. These characteristics of water overlay a host of challenges—water scarcity, inaccessibility, lack of sanitation, disease, continued poverty, illiteracy, geopolitical instability, environmental degradation, economic stagnation—that are further driven by a number of forces—population growth, urbanization, modernization, economic growth, rising food demand, and global climate change. The Global Strategy Institute is exploring how these dynamics affect economic growth, human development, and peace and stability. That is what we mean by the “global water challenge.”

Beginning in 2004, the CSIS Global Strategy Institute launched the Global Water Futures project to examine the many dimensions of these growing challenges, identify the most innovative policy and technology solutions, and explore the implications for U.S. strategic interests.

The first phase of the project, conducted in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories, focused on the areas in which the United States can innovate in the way it formulates its international water policy and in the way it deploys technologies. Several conferences, extensive research, and multiple conversations with leading experts informed a comprehensive white paper with conclusions and recommendations, entitled “Addressing Our Global Water Future.” These conclusions and insights helped to shape the 2005 Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act and the ensuing strategy developed by the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other U.S. government agencies.

In the second phase of the Global Water Futures project, we have undertaken a major effort to devise a set of policy recommendations for the creation of a comprehensive, integrated U.S. government approach to international water issues. We have explored current capacities across more than 15 government agencies engaged in international water issues, assessed the resources devoted to these issues, identified approaches for integrating and coordinating efforts across the diverse group of government agencies involved, and finally, we proposed an overarching strategy for protecting U.S. strategic interests by addressing water challenges across the world. This phase of the project has culminated in a Declaration on water, cochaired by Former Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist and E. Neville Isdell, Former Chairman of The Coca-Cola Company. The Declaration—endorsed by dozens of high-level individuals including former Cabinet-level officials, university presidents, and both NGO and Fortune 500 CEOs—calls on the United States to launch a bold, new international campaign to address the global challenge of water.