The quality of the environment affects human health and the productivity of people and resources. Effective, safe and equitable management of water is central to maintaining and improving quality of life. Agriculture, fishing, tourism all depend on good water management. Preservation of much of the natural beauty within APEC economies also depends on good water management. As demand for water increases, managing competing demands for water effectively will become an increasingly serious issue.
Water pollution is the most widespread environmental problem in Asia.
Water is a particularly easy medium of waste disposal. It is highly mobile, making it a particularly likely medium through which farms and firms can impose, inadvertently or otherwise, costs on others. Lack of water quality is responsible for substantial sickness and mortality, especially amongst children, with the poor typically suffering far worse than other groups. For many illnesses which are chronic in developing countries, improving water quality is the most, or one of the most, important steps which can be taken to improve public health. Improved urban water management was crucial to the dramatic improvement in European life expectancy over the nineteenth century.