Environmental security

Water strategy represents an emerging opportunity for US national security

Politics stops at the water’s edge, or at least at water. The most conservative and the most liberal members of Congress, House and Senate, authorizers and appropriators, have come together in repeated support of global water security. Now the long-anticipated U.S. Global Water Strategy has been released, bringing together the full and coordinated strength of 16 U.S. government agencies and private partners. Smart indeed.

Water imbalances — too little, too much, too dirty — are on the rise across the globe, as are the associated risks: water-accelerated conflicts such as Syria and Yemen, dozens of water and sanitation-related infectious diseases like cholera, and the next droughts becoming the next destabilizing famines. However, our ability to project when and where these threats will arise has never been stronger, thanks in part to the U.S. intelligence community. Solutions to all of these challenges are also known, and merit the attention and seriousness of this new U.S. Global Water Strategy, mandated by the 2014 Water for the World Act.