Every year around this time, some 3,000 people — scientists, policymakers, NGO staff and others — come from all corners of the globe to Stockholm, Sweden for World Water Week, the most respected annual meeting on freshwater issues.
Water is much more than just lakes and rivers and wetlands. It is also the moisture in soil that supports crops and forests; the rivers that produce energy through hydropower, process coal for electricity, and cool nuclear power stations; the water that flows into homes and factories in small towns in South Africa and mega-cities in China and through waste treatment factories back into the environment.
This year's theme ?Water in an Urbanizing World.? Across the globe, an increasing amount of resources from surrounding natural areas are being drawn to feed growing cities. This can negatively impact the health of watersheds upstream and the delivery of water downstream.
Interestingly, many of the cities that have the biggest influence on freshwater policy may not have not obvious connections to water. There are highly subjective views of a few of the global ?capitals? of water policy, and why they?re so important, as there are drastic changes in the world water issues. |
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