Every human being has a connection with water. If you bring up the subject of water in a conservation, you are nearly always assured of immediate and keen attention. We feel that water has a special place in our lives. Seventy percent of our body is water; seventy percent of the surface of the planet is water; the blue planet that is what the astronauts see.

Drinking, washing, swimming, baptizing, sailing, raining, watering vegetables and flowers, all these  aspects of water create feelings and emotions. Rivers, creeks, lakes and oceans are appealing forms and images of water in nature.

Water, a substance that emerged around twelve billion years ago in the universe; all water molecules presently existing on earth, including the water in your body, date from that time.

We are presently entering a period of crucial decision-making on the management of water in the world. In the coming decades we have to prevent a collapse scenario that will lead to increasingly severe regional water scarcities affecting everybody on our planet.

When one discusses the scarcity of clean water in the world with a Westerner, his or her response is often one of disbelief. They seem to think that water scarcity is a problem that only concerns developing countries. This is a big misunderstanding, as many parts in the developed world also show an increase of water scarcity.
 

EMF started to be involved with water in 1995, when it investigated desalination technologies with TNO, a major application research institute in the Netherlands, aiming at technologies that are technically, economically and ecologically superior to conventional methods. In 1998 Allerd Stikker wrote an extensive article in "Futures" on the world water situation and this article led to various actions and activities of EMF in the field of water, initially mainly focussed on desalination and on the role of multinational corporations to improve water management.
 
 

A website has been opened for the organisation At@Work www.atatwork.org. The overall objective of the AT@Work network is to help reduce the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals. EMF works closely with At@Work.