Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Water is indispensable - and also irreplaceable. There are no substitutes for its most crucial uses. Yet rising demands, mounting environmental pressures, and unsustainable management practices increasingly strain global water systems. Many major rivers and groundwater aquifers have reached or surpassed the limits of their renewable supplies. Where countries and communities rely on the same resources, frictions over the availability of, access to, and decision-making about shared waters are growing. Around the world, water systems and water supplies increasingly figure as deliberate tools or collateral targets of war, and as contributing triggers of violent conflict.

Hidden Depths is a new, six-part podcast series from CSIS – the Center for Strategic and International Studies in which David Michel, Senior Fellow for Water Security at CSIS, talks with policy specialists, academics, and practitioners to understand the drivers of rising water tensions and the tools of water diplomacy.