NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES UN World Water Development Report 2018 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002614/261424e.pdf ; WWAP (United Nations World Water Assessment Programme)/UN-Water. 2018. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2018: Nature-Based Solutions for Water. Paris, UNESCO. The need to ensure that adequate volumes of water of suitable quality are made available to support and maintain healthy ecosystems has long been established. But, nature also plays a unique and fundamental role in regulating different features of the water cycle, in which it can act as a regulator, a cleaner and/or a supplier of water. As such, maintaining healthy ecosystems directly leads to improved water security for all. As the fifth in a series of annual, theme-oriented reports, the 2018 edition of the United Nations World Development Report (WWDR) focuses on opportunities to harness the natural processes that regulate various elements of the water cycle, which have become collectively known as Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for water. This is not merely a ‘good idea’ (which of course it is), but an essential step to ensuring the long-term sustainability of water resources and of the multitude of benefits that water provides; from food and energy security to human health and sustainable socio-economic development. There are several different types of NBS for water, ranging in scale from the micro/personal (e.g. a dry toilet) to landscape-level applications that include conservation agriculture. There are NBS that are appropriate for urban settings (e.g. green walls, roof gardens and vegetated infiltration or drainage basins) as well as for rural environments which often make up the majority of a river basin’s area. As this report points out, there are a number of mechanisms that can be used to accelerate the uptake of NBS for water. Payment for environmental services schemes and green bonds have been shown to generate interesting returns on investment while lowering the need (and costs) for larger, often more expensive infrastructure required for water resources management and the delivery of water supply and sanitation services. Implementation of NBS involves the participation of many different stakeholder groups, thus encouraging consensus-building and helping to raise awareness about what NBS can truly offer to improve water security. We have endeavoured to produce a balanced, fact-based and neutral account of the current state of knowledge, covering the most recent developments pertaining to NBS for water, and the various benefits and opportunities they offer in terms of improving the sustainable water resources management. Although primarily targeted at national-level decision-makers and water resources managers, it is hoped that this report will also be of interest to the broader development community, as well as academics, professionals and anyone interested in building an equitable and sustainable water future with the support of NBS. Richard Connor Stefan Uhlenbrook This report will also be linked on the Reports Page 02 of the Sustainable Water Resources Site at https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ; Tim SmithSustainable Water Resources CoordinatorGovernment Web Site, https://acwi.gov/Sustainable Water Resources Site, https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ;