Since the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational uses of International Watercourses was adopted in 1997, water pollution and overuse have worsened in many places, and the world’s poorest people are already facing shrinking supplies.
 
The scale of the freshwater challenge is enormous, especially with climate change making water availability more unpredictable and causing more frequent, widespread droughts and floods. Securing the water we need to meet growing human needs, safeguard fragile ecosystems, and maintain economic prosperity is actually one of the most serious and urgent tasks confronting the world in the 21st Century.