Why Water Management Is a Strategic Concern

We live on a blue planet where water appears to be plentiful. But there are strong warning signs indicating that our reliance on the fresh water we perceive to be abundant will need to change. Although water covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, only 0.5% of it is effectively usable. Further, global water cycles are increasingly becoming unbalanced in ways that threaten humans, plants, and other life forms that depend on fresh water.

Rapidly growing demands for water due to population growth and industrial uses, as well as issues such as misuse, pollution, and the interconnected effects of climate change, are contributing to a situation in which companies and communities can no longer take the availability of water for granted. As competition for water intensifies, the consequences could be severe for health and well-being, economic development, societal stability, and security — that is, unless we significantly rethink how all of us, including companies, manage it.

Growing Water Risks and Challenges

Many companies treat water as a utility controlled by operations or plant managers. They calculate their demand for it based on their business models, process designs, and product characteristics but rarely manage it as a key factor shaping economic competitiveness and strategic decision-making. In many cases, water is seen as a hygiene factor: essential, but not critical enough to register as a risk. Accordingly, procurement teams seek to ensure the security of the water supply, and costs are kept low, while public affairs teams handle any regulatory questions. But this widely established approach is now coming under significant pressure amid consensus that water demand and related challenges are intensifying globally.

In a 2024 report, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water 警告 of a growing water disaster: “We can no longer count on freshwater availability for our collective future.” By the end of 2025, 35.8% of the U.S. was experiencing a drought, with conditions touching nearly every region. Impacts included catastrophic wildfires in Southern California, historic low water levels for the Mississippi River, and record‑low streamflow in the Northeast. Worldwide, roughly 30% of global land area experienced drought conditions in 2025, driven by near‑record warming.

Drought is one of many current problems, such as poor water quality due to pollution from farm runoff, pharmaceutical residues, and the proliferation of nanoparticles in water.