Water

Abstract

This chapter talks about water, which is essential for life and is recognized as a human right. It emphasizes how the invisible system of buried pipes and infrastructure that delivers water is largely forgotten when it is easy, clean, and inexpensive to turn on the tap. It also mentions that climate change threatens water security, even for those with generally reliable water services. The chapter emphasizes that flooding and drought challenge the systems for supplying water and cleaning sewage before returning to rivers and lakes. It clarifies the relation between water and energy, which shows how the energy footprint of delivering clean water and then treating it as municipal sewage is part of the water–energy nexus.