About Global Water Futures

Global water scarcities and quality issues are reaching crisis proportions, not only in developing countries but across the planet. These challenges will play a vital role in accomplishing the strategic objectives of U.S. foreign policy and potentially threaten security and stability in key regions. Without concerted action by the United States to mobilize its knowledge and resources, global water challenges will lead to increased instability and poverty around the world. In addressing these challenges, long-term, sustainable success can only be achieved by integrating innovations in both policy and technology.

STRUCTURE: Research, Workshops, Recommendations and Outreach

In order to identify clear principles for deploying innovative policy and technology approaches to mitigating some of these trends, CSIS and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) have devised a straight-forward, four-step approach. These steps include

1. background research to explore the fundamental issues and current thinking;
2. a two-part conference on policy approaches, on the one hand, and technological solutions, on the other;
3. an extensive outreach effort including a final report, a website, and a multimedia presentation.

SUBSTANTIVE FOCUS: Innovations in Technology and Governance

In mid-2004, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) launched a joint research effort on global water issues. What began as a survey of challenges from water scarcity to water quality, from Bangladesh to Marrakech, from institutional capacity building to new technologies, the project quickly became focused around examining U.S. policy options, on the one hand, and technological responses, on the other. This approach not only reflects the core competencies of the two organizations managing the project – CSIS and SNL – but also represents a clear addition to the ongoing dialogue on global water issues. Noticeably absent from this discussion was a clear, concise and yet comprehensive look at, first, why the United States should engage on these issues, and second, how the United States could better address global water challenges and more efficiently leverage and deploy available technologies. The CSIS-SNL Global Water Futures project seeks to do just that – identify areas in which the United States can innovate in the way it formulates its international water policy and in the way it deploys technologies.

Clearly, both these areas—U.S. strategy and policy, on the one hand, and technology, on the other--are closely interrelated. Necessarily, strategies on U.S. international water policy must be instructed by the technologies available—and the opportunities and constraints they engender. Policies designed to enact broader strategies on water must also be conditioned by the costs and benefits of technological solutions. For the same reason, the nature, direction and speed of technological innovation and diffusion is affected in no small part by public policy.

Beyond this, there is a need to examine both these areas from the standpoint of innovation. How can we innovate in the process by which we develop, implement, and assign resources to U.S. international water policy? How can we innovate in bringing a greater range of technological solutions—from high-cost, high tech to low-cost, low-tech—to areas around the world? And how can we innovate in our understanding of the integrated water-management strategies that underlie policy formulation and technological development? These are the core questions that the project is designed to address.

If you would like further information about the CSIS Global Water Futures Project, please contact Rachel Posner at RPosner@csis.org or (202)775-3296.