In 2025 alone, women and girls spent an estimated 250 million hours every day collecting water (Omer, 2025), time that could otherwise be spent in school, at work, or building economic independence. These realities underscore how deeply water insecurity is intertwined with inequality, opportunity, and long-term development.

Yet, even amid these challenges, 2025 also delivered powerful examples of progress, particularly in how water reaches remote and underserved communities.

In Chile, decentralised autonomous water units proved more cost-effective and reliable than traditional truck delivery systems. By integrating predictive artificial intelligence, Remote Water’s technology now monitors everything from salt levels in desalination processes to solar power performance in real time. This allows technicians to resolve issues weeks before failures occur, making local, resilient water systems viable in regions such as Antofagasta and the fjords of Patagonia (IDRA, 2025).

A similar shift toward sustainable access emerged in Djibouti, where construction began on a solar-powered desalination plant in Dalaf (ESI Africa, 2025). The project has already provided 5,000 residents with a reliable source of clean water, reducing dependence on costly and volatile fossil fuel markets. These innovations show that when we prioritise reliability and resilience, we are not just delivering water, we are fostering stability, cooperation, and what many describe as 'water peace.'

Beyond freshwater access, the health of our oceans and rivers reached a critical tipping point in 2025.

An estimated 170 trillion plastic particles now float in our oceans (Eriksen et al., 2023), breaking down into microplastics that infiltrate freshwater systems, food chains, and ultimately human bodies. These pollutants degrade water quality, disrupt ecosystems, and create conditions in which pathogens can thrive. The result is a direct and devastating impact on human health: over 400,000 children under the age of five die each year from diseases linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation (Randriarimalala, 2025). That is one child lost roughly every ninety seconds.

Faced with these realities, the international community responded with unprecedented legal and environmental action. 

On September 19, 2025, 60 countries ratified the High Seas Treaty, establishing a long-awaited legal framework to protect biodiversity in international waters (HSA, 2026). The treaty empowers governments to restrict industrial activity in ecologically sensitive areas, giving marine ecosystems a chance to recover.

This legal clarity has already accelerated large-scale restoration efforts. In 2025, The Ocean Cleanup removed a record 25 million kilograms of plastic waste from oceans and rivers worldwide (Viglianisi, 2025). Together, these efforts demonstrate how policy and technology, when aligned, can begin to operate at the scale the crisis demands.

Looking ahead, however, the pressure on global water systems continues to mount. By 2030, more than half of the world’s population is projected to live under severe water stress. At the same time, a quarter of all freshwater species are now at risk of extinction, while agriculture alone accounts for 70% of global freshwater use (Ashworth, 2025). These converging pressures highlight the urgent need to rethink how water is managed, shared, and restored.

In response, 2025 became a turning point for nature-based solutions. In California, the completion of the Ackerson Meadow restoration project revived 230 acres of landscape, enabling the ground to naturally store an additional 70.8 million gallons of water each year (Freitas, 2025).