Few issues have a greater impact on our lives than water. Water is a paradox: seemingly it is abundant and renewable resource, whereas only a tiny amount of it can be accessed and drinkable. Moreover, global water resources are unevenly distributed and many of them have been contaminated. Millions of people struggle with water scarcity, many times leading to water related international conflicts. Water is an international public good, with CPR and collective action problems, calling for international cooperation and actions to solve. Well-developed ancient civilizations have disappeared because of human environmental degradation, bad resource management and related socio-political problems. We should learn the lessons from our ancestors therefore wisely manage our natural resources. Such socio-cultural aspects as sustainable water governance, policy and communication can be as important as high-tech engineering for human survival from a historic perspective. Our paper is a theoretical overview and analysis of the most challenging water related issues and problems, providing theoretical as well as practical, policy oriented solutions in the end.

中文翻译：

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水就是生命，生命就是水：21世纪水的（非）可持续利用和管理

很少有问题比水对我们的生活产生更大的影响。水是一个悖论：看似丰富且可再生的资源，但只有极少量的水可以获取和饮用。此外，全球水资源分布不均，许多水资源已被污染。数百万人与缺水作斗争，多次导致与水有关的国际冲突。水是一种国际公共产品，存在 CPR 和集体行动问题，需要国际合作和行动来解决。由于人类环境恶化、资源管理不善以及相关的社会政治问题，发达的古代文明已经消失。我们应该从我们的祖先那里吸取教训，因此明智地管理我们的自然资源。可持续水治理等社会文化方面，从历史的角度来看，政策和交流对于人类生存来说可能与高科技工程一样重要。我们的论文是对最具挑战性的水相关问题的理论概述和分析，最终提供了理论和实践的、以政策为导向的解决方案。