Specials

  • As of World Water Day in March 2008, more than billion people around the world still lack access to safe drinking water and two billion have little or no sanitation. As water is sucked up by demands for food and energy, and its distribution on the planet is changed by climate change, what can be done to ensure water availability for the future?

  • Briefing

  • Editorial

      • A fresh approach to water

        The water shortage that threatens humanity will have wide-ranging consequences for agriculture and energy production, requiring significant shifts in the way this precious resource is managed.

        19 March 2008

  • News & News Features

        • SPECIAL REPORT: Purification with a pinch of salt
        • Climate change, growing populations and political concerns are prompting governments and investors from California to China to take a fresh look at desalination. Quirin Schiermeier wades in.
        • 19 March 2008
        • NEWS FEATURE: Water under pressure
        • More than a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and two billion have inadequate sanitation. This is despite two international decades, a millennium declaration goal, two international years and a string of global celebratory days — all dedicated to drinking-water or sanitation. Why has progress been so slow?
        • 19 March 2008
      • Use our keyword archive to find ongoing stories on water management
        • NEWS FEATURE: A long dry summer
        • In parts of the world already facing unreliable food supplies, an uncertain climate adds to the future stress for soils, plants and people. Quirin Schiermeier reports on water strategies for a drier world.
        • 19 March 2008
        • NEWS FEATURE: More crop per drop
        • Farmers' yields in the developing world are often limited by unreliable rains. Improving their harvests will require plant breeders, agronomists and geneticists to pull together — but can these experts work out their differences? Emma Marris reports.
        • 19 March 2008
        • NEWS FEATURE: Muddy waters
        • India's population is growing, and its water supplies are not keeping pace. Can an ambitious scheme to connect up the country's rivers slake the nation's deepening thirst? Daemon Fairless investigates.
        • 19 March 2008

  • Podcast

  • Commentaries

        • Improving on haves and have-nots
        • All-or-nothing targets for global access to basic amenities such as drinking water and sanitation are outdated. The time has come, says Jamie Bartram, for a more fluid approach.
        • 19 March 2008
        • The energy challenge
        • Global energy consumption is expected to grow by 50% by 2030, squeezing already scarce water resources. Mike Hightower and Suzanne A. Pierce recommend ways to integrate water and energy planning.
        • 19 March 2008

  • Research Review

  • Essay

        • Water — an enduring mystery
        • Yet another theory of liquid water structure raises questions about interdisciplinarity, drug design, astrobiology, molecular biology, geochemistry and more.
        • 19 March 2008

  • Books & Arts

        • Film: Water policy in the can
        • Many people regard access to safe drinking water as a human right. Yet some fear that the switch from state-run utilities to private ownership will lead to a world where water flows towards the rich as surely as it flows downhill, and where the poor, especially in the developing world, will be left thirsty.
        • 19 March 2008
        • Exhibition: Water works
        • After an injury left her temporarily unable to hold a paintbrush, British artist Pery Burge discovered a new way to produce art while recuperating. She began mixing inks in water and was inspired by the patterns that formed as the ink diffused.
        • 19 March 2008

  • Elsewhere in Nature