An important part of achieving water security is restoring the ecological integrity of rivers, watersheds, wetlands, floodplains and aquifers, and treating these freshwater ecosystems as integral to the built infrastructure—reservoirs, water-treatment plants, etc.—we depend on for clean water. Embracing a blend of green and gray infrastructure and striking a healthy balance between nature and people are our best hope to overcome the chronic neglect of water resources.

As an organization, TNC has been field-testing strategies to protect and manage freshwater ecosystems for decades. That may sound surprising for an organization that got its start protecting land. But as one TNC scientist in Colorado puts it, “We realized pretty quickly that preserves that protect water supplies are worth a lot more, ecologically speaking.” The greatest threats to water systems across the world come from three difficult—but not unsolvable—problems: the enormous amount of water used by agriculture, poorly planned dams and other infrastructure on rivers, and the degradation of natural lands that supply water to our towns and cities.

Perhaps the most challenging threat is agriculture. Globally, about 70 percent of available fresh water is withdrawn for irrigation and other agricultural purposes. In places where water scarcity is a problem—about a third of the watersheds of the world—that percentage can grow to more than 90 percent. But there are ways to cut back water use without harming agricultural productivity, even in arid places.

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