Opening address of the 13th Stockholm Water Symposium

Water is essential for all life. But even though water is precious to us, we do not always treat it as a precious resource. Water is most often used and managed in a fragmented and unsustainable manner, frequently leading to water scarcity and degradation of its quality. Our way of living has created a situation where freshwater resources are under tremendous pressure and more than 1 billion people lack acceptable drinking water.