This report is an attempt to illuminate the impacts of the hidden dangers that lie beneath the waters surface and elucidate strategies for combating them. The main, though not exclusive, focus is on water quality, with a focus on nutrient loads, salt balances, and the overall environmental health of water bodies."Water quantity--too much in the case of floods, or too little in the case of droughts--grabs public attention and the media spotlight. Water quality, being predominantly invisible and hard to detect, goes largely unnoticed. This report presents new evidence and new data that call urgent attention to the hidden dangers lying beneath waters surface. It shows how poor water quality stalls economic progress, stymies human potential, and reduces food production. It examines the effects of water quality on economic growth and finds upstream pollution lowers growth in downstream regions. It reveals that some of the most ubiquitous contaminants in water, such as nitrates and salt, have impacts that are larger, deeper, and wider than has been acknowledged.

And it traces the damage to crop yields and the stark implications for food security in affected regions. An important step toward tackling the worlds water quality challenge is recognizing its scale. The world needs reliable, accurate, and comprehensive information so that policy makers can have new insights, decision making can be evidence based, and citizens can call for action. The report calls for a paradigm shift that emphasizes safer, and often more cost-effective remedies that prevent pollution by combining smarter policies with newer technologies. A key message is that such solutions exist and change is possible"--Page 4 of cover.