In case you were hoping for a break from existential dread, the water news cycle is here to remind you that we are, in fact, up a creek without a paddle. Just in the past few weeks, Puerto Rico has seen severe drought cut water supplies to thousands, the Rhine and Po rivers in Europe are at record lows, and the seven states sharing the Colorado River are bickering over shortages while its reservoirs hit historic lows. Hungary's only nuclear power plant is on the verge of shutting down because the Danube is too low to cool it, toxic chemicals have been found in all English water bodies, desalination plants in the Middle East have been bombed in the war with Iran, and US municipal water systems are getting hacked. Oh, and the worst El Niño on record is unfolding, water-related conflicts are at an all-time high, and communities are now blocking water-hungry datacenters. In short, it's a mess.

But wait, isn't some drought and flood normal? Sure, but what we're seeing now is not your garden-variety variability. It's the direct consequence of accelerating human-caused climate change, layered on decades of neglect and underinvestment in our water infrastructure. Scientists have been yelling about this for years, but their warnings were ignored, dismissed, and downplayed. And now we're reaping what we've sown - which, fittingly, is mostly dust.

Politicians, however, remain committed to doing absolutely nothing. The Trump administration's EPA has halted efforts to regulate new water pollutants and weakened existing rules, while pushing for billions in cuts to agencies like the National Science Foundation, the US Geological Survey, and NOAA. Because nothing says 'protecting our water' like gutting the people who study it.

If governments keep failing, we can look forward to more water violence and deteriorating health for both people and ecosystems. But it doesn't have to be this way. People actually care about water - polls consistently rank it as a top environmental concern. And we have the solutions: no new tech needed to provide safe water and sanitation to billions; international agreements can ease water conflicts (shoutout to a Finnish water diplomacy initiative); smart investments in efficiency and wastewater treatment can boost resilience; efficient irrigation can grow more food with less water; and transitioning to renewables will slow climate change and reduce water use for energy - a win-win, if we're into those.

We also need more public education, bipartisan action, and investment in proven technologies and policies. Constant news about worsening water problems should not be our new normal. But unless we act, that's exactly what we'll get. Peter Gleick, author of 'The Three Ages of Water' (2023) and 'When the Well is Dry: How Water Fuels Violence and Shapes Peace' (2026), knows this all too well.