Welcome to ELI's Water Resources Program
Water pollution persists and water shortages are increasing as population grows and watersheds undergo development. Fresh water is essential to life and livelihoods. Worldwide more than a billion people lack access to clean water and more than two billion lack adequate sanitation.
In the United States, non-point sources and stormwater — runoff from farms, developed lands, and cities — are the largest cause of degraded water quality. Development pressures continue to impair our wetland resources, despite an energetic and technically sophisticated effort to mitigate wetland losses. Population growth and climate change conditions are making watershed decisions and allocation of water supplies more difficult. Environmental resources like fisheries and wildlife habitats often rank low on the priority list.
Oceans provide critical renewable and nonrenewable resources such as fish, oil and natural gas, minerals, and genetic materials and are crucial for transport of goods. Land based activities have profound effects on estuaries and near shore environments, as well as the health of the seas. Oceans are home to an incredible diversity of organisms, and are tightly entwined with the earth’s climate, but laws and policies have been unequal to the task of protecting this global resource.
ELI works to foster better and more participatory decisionmaking on water issues to protect human health and livelihoods as well as the natural environment which sustains them. We are seeking and testing better tools, management approaches, and governance systems for water resources and oceans management. At the same time, ELI honors and recognizes excellence in protecting water quality and wetlands.
Click the bullets to the right to view ELI’s strategies for water resources. Read about our successes below:
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