press · Feb 2025
WDL and GIZ launch the Water Crisis Clock
By World Data Lab — Press Office
A new clock visualising water stress across the planet — built in partnership with GIZ to support sustainable, equitable management of one of the world's most vital resources.
World Data Lab and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) today announce the launch of the Water Crisis Clock, a new public platform that estimates, visualises and forecasts water stress across every country and major river basin in the world.
The Clock combines hydrological modelling with population, agriculture and climate data to express water risk in human terms — how many people live under stress today, how that number is projected to evolve under different climate scenarios, and where investment is most urgently required.
"Water is the single most under-priced and under-measured resource in the global economy," said Wolfgang Fengler, CEO of World Data Lab. "Our partnership with GIZ is an attempt to give policymakers, investors and citizens a shared, transparent baseline they can act on."
The platform is available without registration at worldwater.io and will be updated continuously as new data becomes available. A full launch webinar is scheduled and open to partners working on water security, climate adaptation and sustainable agriculture.
