The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Where Does Your Water Come From?

Don’t see a dot for your city or town? Consider doing some detective work of your own and sharing your findings with us.

By Misty Herrin

The simple fact that water falls from the sky makes it easy for us to assume that there will always be enough to meet all of our needs and fancies. But before rain and snowmelt can reach our faucets, this water first flows over land into rivers, lakes and aquifers—nature’s water tanks, pipelines and water filtration systems.

Abuse and Overuse

Unfortunately, we have stressed this “natural infrastructure” too heavily for too long. Across the world, rivers and lakes are breaking down from abuse and overuse, and lands that feed into our waterways have fewer water-cleaning forests and grasslands.

We must make smarter choices about how we use the water resources that nature gives us. The Nature Conservancy is using science and business-minded ingenuity to equip people to do just that.

Thanks to our supporters, we have protected more than a hundred million acres since 1951, helping keep water clean as it flows into rivers and lakes. From our land-buying roots our experts have forged a diverse array of creative, practical approaches to help people strike a balance in how we use nature, such as how to get hydroelectricity from rivers without depleting fish supplies that people need for food.

Coming Together to Protect Our Water

The bottom line is that water doesn’t abide by property lines. Rivers and lakes lace people together across state and country boundaries, from cities to farms, from factories to backyards. The best way, then, to protect the water resources we all must share is for us to work together, learn how to take care of our rivers and lakes, and get personally involved in protecting them.

American Standard has contributed one million dollars to support the Conservancy's efforts to protect water for people and nature.