A global water security assessment led by United Nations water experts found that the majority of the world’s population currently live in water-insecure countries. This is a cause for major concern because water security is fundamental to development.

Over a thousand large dams in India will be roughly 50 years old in 2025 and such aging structures across the world pose a growing threat, according to a UN report which notes that by 2050, most people on Earth will live downstream of tens of thousands of dams built in the 20th century.

Groundwater represents 97% of the world’s available freshwater resources and is extensively abstracted throughout the world. While abundant in a global context, it can only de developed to a certain extent without causing environmental impacts.

Over the past two decades, the international science and development communities have referred to a global water crisis that is emerging. Looking at the current situation in virtually every region of the world, the facts show that the world water crisis is here.

A new UN report warns that without large new water-related investments many societies worldwide will soon confront rising desperation and conflicts over life's most essential resource.

The first-ever maps of global vulnerability to dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical virus that produces a painful condition of body joints sometimes referred to as "breakbone fever," were published by UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

This report explores a hybrid mechanism of microfinance, based on community networks and third party collateral for meso-scale loans, to provide a different financing model for small community water and sanitation supplies.

The report is not formally mandated; rather it is an independent evidence-based analysis of how water can be addressed in a development agenda beyond 2015.

This analytical brief published by United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment & Health offers a working definition of water security developed from contributions made by the broad range of organizations, agencies, programmes and institutions that form UN-Water.

This analytical brief serves as a starting point for dialogue on water security in the United Nations system. The working definition of water security offered here was developed from contributions made by the broad range of organizations, agencies, programmes and institutions that form UN-Water.