If we’re all going to live in cities, we will need water

Joint press release Utrecht University and KWR Water Research Institute More than half of the world's population lives in cities, a percentage that is only going to increase. All those people need water but the outlook is not particularly optimistic, warns an international group of environmental scientists led by Utrecht University and KWR Water Research Institute. They examined water management in 200 cities around the world. Of those cities, only Amsterdam and Singapore can be classified as "water wise." The research has been ongoing for more than a decade and was conducted mainly by students at Utrecht's Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development. According to Stef Koop , a researcher at KWR and the Copernicus Institute, there are only a few water wise cities worldwide. "That means they are largely circular and therefore water self-sufficient. They recover raw materials and energy from their waste and wastewater.