Sustainable Development Institute/Russian Center of Environmental Policy, 2009, 88 pp. Editor-in-Chief V.M.Zakharov

The work was completed as part of the state-supported grant project, according to Resolution of the President of the Russian Federation of 14 April 2008. Water resources are considered as a strategic factor of development. Particular attention is paid to the first-priority and long-term tasks in the Russian water sector, taking into account world market conditions and national economic needs. A need was emphasized for a state policy to address problems in the water sector, with the aim to ensure sustainable water use as part of the Russian Federation’s Water Strategy by 2020. Water is the most important natural resource used in human activities and the volume of its annual use exceeds well all other extracted resources in total. Water resources are enormous on the Earth but their usability is limited, first, due to natural factors. The unprecedented growth of the world economy in ХХ century, population outbreak and associated increase in anthropogenic load on ecosystems and natural water bodies have led to scarcity of water in many regions all over the world. Water availability per capita decreased almost twofold in 2002 as compared to 1970 and it would lower further by a factor of 1.5 by 2050 against 2002. The situation can become even worse if the current tendency of anthropogenic deterioration of water quality is not reversed.