If you run a company that stops without water.
The day your plant cannot get water, nobody will ask what you reported. Pay for delivered volume in the basins your plants and suppliers draw from, and claim only what you paid for.
Your way towards water security.
Clearing the way for finance and private investment into water security projects and technologies.
Tell us about your basin See how it works
Member of MIT Startup Exchange and Ignite London.
- Divide
- Stream
- Intermittent stream
- Contour
A basin, from its divide to its outlet. An illustration, not a real place.
Introducing the Water Security Certificate
One proof that works for whoever builds, buys or backs water security.
From proof to finance
Proof a buyer will pay for. Revenue a lender can lend against.
A Water Security Certificate is verifiable proof of one cubic metre of water benefit delivered. Governments, foundations, NGOs and responsible companies can commit to the certificates a project is expected to deliver and pay as the water arrives. Lenders and investors can finance the project against that commitment.
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Proof.
A Water Security Certificate is one cubic metre of water benefit delivered in a named basin: quantified under Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA) 2.0, signed by an independent assurance partner and recorded once. That is the proof.
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Commitment.
A buyer can commit to the certificates a project is expected to deliver, before the water arrives, and pay as it arrives, only for what arrives. The commitment is binding. The payment waits for proof.
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Finance.
The project takes those commitments to lenders and investors. A binding commitment is contracted revenue, and a lender can finance the project against it, as lenders do with power purchase agreements in energy.
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Delivery.
With finance in place, the project can be built. Each cubic metre that arrives becomes a certificate and is paid for once. Blue Lifeline keeps a record both sides can rely on.
Why now
The water is going, and you can see it
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4 billion
people live under highly water-stressed conditions for at least one month of the year. That is at least half the world.
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1 billion more
people are expected to be living with extremely high water stress by 2050, even in an optimistic climate scenario.
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US$70 trillion
of the world’s economic output, 31% of the total, will be exposed to high water stress by 2050. In 2010 the figure was US$15 trillion.
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Top ten
Half of humanity already lives under water stress, and there is no architecture to manage it. Eurasia Group put water among its ten biggest risks for 2026.
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US$7 trillion
needs to go into water infrastructure by 2030, on the World Bank’s upper estimate.
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Under 2%
of annual water spending in developing countries comes from the private sector. About 91% is public money.
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September 2026
In September 2026, Texas halted every state permit for new data centres until regulators finish auditing how much power and water they will draw. Fewer than a third of the state’s data centres had answered its water use survey.
Office of the Texas Governor and Texas Tribune, 21 September 2026
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59 of 98
priority basins on the CEO Water Mandate’s list are labelled High or Extremely high for water stress, on Blue Lifeline’s reading of WRI Aqueduct data. Every one of them is on the map below.
Water Action Hub, 100 Priority Basins, read 4 October 2026
Priority basins
Where the world’s priority basins stand on water stress
The CEO Water Mandate and its Water Resilience Coalition publish a list of 100 Priority Basins. This map shows each one with its baseline water stress from WRI Aqueduct. Select a basin to see where it is, how large it is and what condition it is in.
Use two fingers to move the map
- Low, under 10%
- Low to medium, 10 to 20%
- Medium to high, 20 to 40%
- High, 40 to 80%
- Extremely high, over 80%
- Hatched: mostly arid and low water use
Select a basin on the map, or choose one from the list.
59 of the 98 basins are labelled High or Extremely high.
How to read this map
- The basins. The list is called 100 Priority Basins. The Water Action Hub publishes it as 98 basin units, which are the 98 shown here. A unit can be wider than the river it is named for: a coastal unit takes in every river that drains to that coast. Outlines are simplified for the web.
- Water stress. Baseline water stress compares total water demand with the renewable surface water and groundwater available. WRI Aqueduct gives each catchment one of five classes: Low (demand under 10% of supply), Low to medium (10 to 20%), Medium to high (20 to 40%), High (40 to 80%) and Extremely high (over 80%). Dry catchments with little water use are classed Arid and low water use.
- One label for each basin. Aqueduct classes catchments, and a basin holds many of them. The label here is the highest class that covers at least a quarter of the basin’s classed area, counting the classes above it. The classed area is the part of the basin that has one of the five classes. That one label is Blue Lifeline’s summary. Select a basin to see its full mix of classes.
- Arid basins. Hatched basins are mostly Arid and low water use. Their label describes the rest of the basin.
- Priority area. The countries and districts shown for each basin are the ones named on the list. They are not every country the basin touches.
All 98 basins as a table
| Basin | Region | Priority area on the list | Size, km² | Water stress | High or Extremely high | Arid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chao Phraya | East Asia and Pacific | Thailand: Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, Suphan Buri | 158,000 | Extremely high | 75% | 0% |
| Java | East Asia and Pacific | Indonesia: Jawa Timur | 90,700 | Medium to high | 19% | 0% |
| Mekong | East Asia and Pacific | Vietnam, Laos, Thailand | 784,000 | Low to medium | 6% | 0% |
| Min River | East Asia and Pacific | China: Fujian | 290,000 | Low to medium | 6% | 0% |
| Murray-Darling | East Asia and Pacific | Australia | 1,056,000 | Medium to high | 17% | 17% |
| Xiang Jiang | East Asia and Pacific | China: Hunan | 261,000 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Yangtze | East Asia and Pacific | China: Jiangsu, Anhui | 1,164,000 | Low | 4% | 0% |
| Yellow River | East Asia and Pacific | China: Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu | 963,000 | Extremely high | 45% | 12% |
| Zhu Jiang | East Asia and Pacific | China: Guangdong | 445,000 | Low | 1% | 0% |
| Ziya He, Interior | East Asia and Pacific | China: Beijing, Henan, Hebei | 1,046,000 | High | 50% | under 1% |
| Aral Sea and Amu Darya | Europe and Central Asia | Uzbekistan: Jizzax, Samarqand | 805,000 | Extremely high | 55% | 16% |
| Aral Sea and Syr Darya | Europe and Central Asia | Uzbekistan: Jizzax, Samarqand | 413,000 | High | 48% | 18% |
| Barbate, Guadalete, Guadiana Delta, Mira, Sado, Tagus | Europe and Central Asia | Spain: Andalucía | 34,100 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Bosporus | Europe and Central Asia | Turkey: Istanbul | 109,000 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Danube | Europe and Central Asia | Bulgaria: Sofija | 442,000 | Medium to high | 18% | 0% |
| Düden River | Europe and Central Asia | Turkey: Antalya | 105,000 | Extremely high | 99% | 0% |
| Euphrates and Tigris in Asia | Europe and Central Asia | Turkey: Mardin; Iraq; Syria | 545,000 | Extremely high | 56% | 14% |
| Euphrates and Tigris in Europe | Europe and Central Asia | Turkey: Mardin; Iraq; Syria | 318,000 | High | 49% | 7% |
| Gravina di Picciano | Europe and Central Asia | Italy: Puglia | 75,900 | Extremely high | 98% | 0% |
| Guadalquivir | Europe and Central Asia | Spain: Andalucía | 56,700 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Júcar, Segura, South Spain Coast, Balearic Islands | Europe and Central Asia | Spain: Valenciana | 86,700 | Extremely high | 82% | 0% |
| Kura and Aras | Europe and Central Asia | Armenia: Aragatsotn | 191,000 | High | 50% | 0% |
| Maritsa River | Europe and Central Asia | Bulgaria: Yambol, Haskovo, Plovdiv | 52,800 | Extremely high | 90% | 0% |
| Murgab River | Europe and Central Asia | Turkmenistan: Mary | 548,000 | Extremely high | 90% | 24% |
| Nestos and Struma River | Europe and Central Asia | Greece: Anatoliki Makedonia Kai Thraki | 23,100 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Penios | Europe and Central Asia | Greece: Thessalia | 77,700 | Extremely high | 82% | 0% |
| Po | Europe and Central Asia | Italy: Emilia-Romagna | 73,400 | Medium to high | 9% | 0% |
| Rhine | Europe and Central Asia | Germany: Nordrhein-Westfalen | 135,000 | High | 31% | 0% |
| Rhône | Europe and Central Asia | France: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 96,500 | Low to medium | under 1% | 0% |
| Sakarya River | Europe and Central Asia | Turkey: Ankara | 299,000 | Extremely high | 66% | 0% |
| Sicily | Europe and Central Asia | Italy: Sicilia | 26,700 | Extremely high | 100% | 0% |
| Thames and Anglian | Europe and Central Asia | England | 51,900 | High | 25% | 0% |
| Tyrrhenian Sea, Ligurian Sea | Europe and Central Asia | Italy: Campania | 72,300 | Extremely high | 91% | 0% |
| Grande | Latin America and Caribbean | Brazil: São Paulo | 144,000 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Guayas | Latin America and Caribbean | Ecuador: Guayas | 108,000 | Low to medium | 3% | 6% |
| Iguazu | Latin America and Caribbean | Brazil: Parana | 67,300 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Magdalena | Latin America and Caribbean | Colombia: Caldas, Valle del Cauca, Cundinamarca | 261,000 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Maipo River | Latin America and Caribbean | Chile: Región Metropolitana de Santiago | 222,000 | Extremely high | 70% | under 1% |
| Parana | Latin America and Caribbean | Argentina: Santa Fe, Córdoba, Corrientes | 534,000 | Low to medium | 3% | 4% |
| Piura | Latin America and Caribbean | Peru: Lambayeque, Piura | 270,000 | Extremely high | 71% | 2% |
| Rio Grande / Bravo | Latin America and Caribbean | Mexico: Nuevo León, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Chihuahua; USA: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado | 675,000 | Extremely high | 79% | 31% |
| Rio Lerma-Santiago | Latin America and Caribbean | Mexico: Puebla, Jalisco, Michoacán, Sinaloa | 803,000 | Extremely high | 58% | 15% |
| Rio Verde | Latin America and Caribbean | Mexico: Veracruz, México | 506,000 | Extremely high | 49% | 3% |
| Rio das Velhas | Latin America and Caribbean | Brazil: Minas Gerais | 554,000 | Low to medium | 1% | under 1% |
| Rio de la Plata | Latin America and Caribbean | Argentina: Buenos Aires | 427,000 | Low to medium | 3% | under 1% |
| Río Achiguate | Latin America and Caribbean | Guatemala: Escuintla | 19,100 | High | 43% | 0% |
| Salado, Colorado and Negro | Latin America and Caribbean | Argentina: San Juan | 536,000 | Medium to high | 16% | 15% |
| San Juan | Latin America and Caribbean | Nicaragua: Managua | 41,500 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Tiete | Latin America and Caribbean | Brazil: São Paulo | 72,100 | Low | 15% | 0% |
| Tijuana | Latin America and Caribbean | Mexico: Baja California | 4,400 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Uruguay River | Latin America and Caribbean | Brazil: Santa Catarina | 229,000 | Low | under 1% | 0% |
| Dez River | Middle East and North Africa | Iran: Fars, Khuzestan | 167,000 | Extremely high | 88% | 0% |
| Djaderoud River | Middle East and North Africa | Iran: Tehran, Kerman, Fars | 817,000 | Extremely high | 79% | 11% |
| Guir, Daoura and Draa | Middle East and North Africa | Morocco: Drâa-Tafilalet | 268,000 | Medium to high | 2% | 4% |
| Jordan River | Middle East and North Africa | Israel, Jordan, Syria | 53,800 | Extremely high | 98% | 29% |
| Karun | Middle East and North Africa | Iran | 72,300 | Extremely high | 96% | 0% |
| Mediterranean Sea (104) | Middle East and North Africa | Algeria: Aïn Témouchent, Tipaza; Tunisia: Bizerte | 146,000 | Extremely high | 72% | 0% |
| Mejerda | Middle East and North Africa | Tunisia: Nabeul, Sfax, Le Kef | 2,378,000 | High (mostly arid and low water use) | 37% | 81% |
| Moulouya | Middle East and North Africa | Morocco: L'Oriental | 54,400 | Medium to high | 4% | 0% |
| Nahal Beersheva | Middle East and North Africa | Israel, Syria | 66,000 | Extremely high | 100% | 36% |
| Nile | Middle East and North Africa | Egypt, Sudan | 1,161,000 | High (mostly arid and low water use) | 30% | 55% |
| Orontes | Middle East and North Africa | Syria: Hims, Halab | 47,300 | Extremely high | 60% | 0% |
| Tennsift River | Middle East and North Africa | Morocco: Marrakech-Safi, Casablanca-Settat | 3,363,000 | Extremely high (mostly arid and low water use) | 61% | 85% |
| Amargosa River | North America | USA: Nevada, California | 521,000 | High | 49% | 1% |
| Arkansas and White River | North America | USA: Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico | 485,000 | High | 28% | 5% |
| Colorado | North America | USA: Arizona | 661,000 | High | 36% | 13% |
| Delaware River | North America | USA: New Jersey, Pennsylvania | 398,000 | Medium to high | 4% | 0% |
| Gulf of Mexico (450) (Rio Grande) | North America | USA: Texas | 513,000 | Medium to high | 23% | under 1% |
| Michigan | North America | USA: Illinois | 184,000 | Low | under 1% | 0% |
| Mississippi (419) | North America | USA: Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois | 447,000 | Medium to high | 19% | 0% |
| Mississippi (427) | North America | USA: Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois | 159,000 | Medium to high | 15% | 0% |
| Missouri | North America | USA: Missouri, Nebraska | 525,000 | High | 39% | under 1% |
| Ontario | North America | Canada: Ontario | 83,900 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| San Joaquin and Sacramento | North America | USA: California | 387,000 | Extremely high | 45% | 0% |
| St. Johns River | North America | USA: Florida | 352,000 | High | 26% | 0% |
| Chenab | South Asia | Pakistan: Punjab | 88,200 | Extremely high | 81% | 0% |
| Ganges | South Asia | India: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh | 386,000 | Extremely high | 74% | 0% |
| Godavari | South Asia | India: Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka | 309,000 | Extremely high | 41% | 0% |
| Gogra River | South Asia | India: Uttar Pradesh | 132,000 | Extremely high | 60% | 0% |
| Gomati | South Asia | India: Tripura (Agartala, Udaipur) | 82,000 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Indus | South Asia | India: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana; Pakistan: Punjab | 842,000 | Extremely high | 83% | 0% |
| Krishna and Cauvery | South Asia | India: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka (Krishna) | 757,000 | Extremely high | 61% | 0% |
| Meghna | South Asia | Bangladesh: Dhaka | 84,600 | Low to medium | 0% | 0% |
| Ravi | South Asia | Pakistan: Punjab | 38,200 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Sutlej | South Asia | India: Himachal Pradesh, Punjab | 113,000 | Extremely high | 47% | 0% |
| Yamuna | South Asia | India: Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana | 353,000 | Extremely high | over 99% | 0% |
| Berg, Breede, Olifants, Sondag | Sub-Saharan Africa | South Africa: Western Cape | 427,000 | High | 48% | 12% |
| Chad | Sub-Saharan Africa | Nigeria: Yobe, Kano, Jigawa | 2,470,000 | Medium to high (mostly arid and low water use) | 23% | 50% |
| Densu River | Sub-Saharan Africa | Ghana: Greater Accra, Eastern, Central; Nigeria: Lagos, Ogun, Asun, Oyo | 388,000 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Kagera | Sub-Saharan Africa | Rwanda | 59,100 | Medium to high | 0% | 0% |
| Lake Victoria | Sub-Saharan Africa | Kenya: Homa Bay | 192,000 | Low | 0% | 0% |
| Limpopo | Sub-Saharan Africa | South Africa: Limpopo, North West | 412,000 | High | 71% | 25% |
| Niger | Sub-Saharan Africa | Niger: Maradi; Nigeria: Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara | 1,786,000 | Medium to high | 23% | 35% |
| Orange | Sub-Saharan Africa | South Africa: North West | 977,000 | High | 38% | 39% |
| Senegal | Sub-Saharan Africa | Senegal: Thiès, Dakar, Saint-Louis | 212,000 | Low to medium | 18% | under 1% |
| Tana | Sub-Saharan Africa | Kenya: Lamu, Kilifi, Nairobi | 1,530,000 | Low to medium | 7% | 8% |
| Webi Shabeelle | Sub-Saharan Africa | Somalia | 299,000 | Medium to high | 21% | 25% |
| Zambezi | Sub-Saharan Africa | Zambia: Lusaka | 1,216,000 | High | 26% | 3% |
Sources: 100 Priority Basins list and basin outlines, CEO Water Mandate, Water Action Hub (wateractionhub.org). Baseline water stress, WRI Aqueduct, as published on the Water Action Hub. Land outline, Natural Earth. Read on 4 October 2026. Shares are measured from the published outlines and are approximate. Blue Lifeline is not affiliated with these organisations.
Everyone is waiting for someone else
- The company waits for the utility.
- The utility waits for the budget.
- The foundation waits for proof.
- The project team waits for a funder.
Nobody owns the problem, because everybody shares it.
Act now, at the size you can afford, with others
If you run a company that acts on its values.
You fund water work because it is right, and all you can report is what you spent. Pay for delivered, independently assured volume where it matters to you, and say only what the record shows.
If you run a city or a water authority.
You have the plan and not the budget. Bring private money to the projects you have already chosen, paying only for what gets delivered.
If you run a foundation.
Years of water grants, and what changed? Fund results instead of proposals, with an independent record of every cubic metre.
If you run water projects.
You have the project and the people, and it waits in a funding queue. Get paid for what you deliver, by more than one funder.
A platform, independent by design
Blue Lifeline operates the registry and is independent of sponsors, buyers, assurance partners and lenders. It works with the sponsor’s assurance partner of choice and does not replace it.
Sponsors build the projects, assurance partners sign the volumes, and buyers and lenders bring the money.
Tell us about your basin
Or your project, or your technology. A few lines will do.