Can the Great Lakes continue to fend off an increasingly thirsty world?


The Great Lakes contain 84 percent of the surface freshwater in North America—a staggering 21 percent of the surface freshwater worldwide. To manage the resource sustainably, all eight lake-bordering states, Congress, and Canadian provinces created the Great Lakes Compact in 2008, which has regulated and curbed water use. An evaluation of the agreement ten years later shows promising yet mixed results. And critically, it asks whether strong policies can withstand a future of growing water scarcity.

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