Introduction to Downstream: Our Water, Our Lives from the Pulitzer Center

Learn more: http://www.pulitzercenter.org/downstream

Water issues affect us all, from the women who spend hours daily fetching water to political battles over international rivers to melting icepack and rising sea levels. We are all downstream.

Worldwide, just under 900 million people lack reliable access to safe water that is free from disease and industrial waste. And forty percent do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities. The result is the world's greatest public health crisis: 4,500 people die every day from waterborne diseases, more than from HIV-AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

A robust economy depends on water. So does a thriving ecosystem. Enter politics, fulcrum of the water issue, weighing the fate of economies against the health of individuals and of the environment as a whole. Balance has been elusive. One fifth of the world's population lives in areas where water is physically scarce, and a quarter of the population faces shortages due to lack of infrastructure.

As you learn about the water issue, consider how you affect those downstream and how those upstream affect you. We hope you'll join the conversation -- through comments and questions and by uploading your own perspective on the "Your Stories" feature. Pulitzer Center journalists are in the field now covering the water issue as it unfolds, so check back often for new reports.

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News & Politics

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