14. The Future of Unconventional Water Resources

The water scarcity challenge continues to grow and intensify in arid and semi-arid areas. There is a need to build a diversified portfolio of water management strategies to face this challenge. With unconventional water resources as the common theme, the following strategies have the potential to help address global water scarcity: (1) promoting further research and practice on both technical and nontechnical aspects of unconventional water resources; (2) ensuring that unconventional waters provide benefits, not cost to the environment; (3) positioning unconventional waters as a reliable source of water in times of uncertainty; and (4) supporting complementary and multidimensional  approaches such as addressing water scarcity and climate change together because most climate change impacts are expressed through water issues. Such a focus on unconventional water resources needs to continue and be supported by on-the-ground projects in water-critical areas to connect water experts, practitioners, young professionals, the private sector, the media, and policymakers to learn and exchange pertinent knowledge and practices.