FRESHWATER HEALTH INDEX WATER IS LIFE Freshwater is the lifeblood of our planet – no one can survive without it. Essential to humanity for drinking, food production, energy, and sanitation, freshwater also sustains aquatic ecosystems that contain 10 percent of the world’s animal species. Freshwater is likewise vital to forests and wetlands, which among their many services, protect us from catastrophic flooding, landslides, erosion and pollution. We do not always grasp that these benefits are connected via the flow of water—the rain that falls on our upland forests ends up in our cities downstream and is eventually discharged out to sea. However as we make decisions that affect the quantity or quality of water, we are making tradeoffs among these benefits, and their beneficiaries.
Freshwater makes up about 0.01 percent of the water on Earth. As our global population grows, so does our demand for fresh water. And as our climate changes and becomes less predictable, so does our planet’s freshwater supply and flow. It is finite and it is under pressure. The U.N. estimates a major water gap by 2030 where half of the people on Earth will likely face water shortages. Despite being one of today’s most pressing development challenges, there is a critical gap in our understanding and monitoring of freshwater ecosystems and their direct connection to human wellbeing. We all need water to thrive — and that means we must understand and monitor the lakes, rivers and wetlands that provide it for us.