Without drinking water, neither humans nor animals could live, and neither livestock farming nor agriculture would be conceivable. Water is a giver of life, but water can also threaten life: Floods – like the one in the Ahr valley – claim lives in Germany. Droughts threaten agriculture and fuel conflicts – such as the one between Egypt and Ethiopia over the construction of dams on the upper reaches of the Nile – and not just in the Global South. Water scarcity has long threatened the harvests of farmers in Brandenburg, and water is a long-established political issue in Germany too, as the recent protests against the water consumption of the Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin have demonstrated.

As a network of excellence driving the major transformations of our time, the Berlin University Alliance has made the water-related risks of climate change one of its research priorities – for example, with the Einstein Research Unit “Climate and Water under Change” (CliWaC). And this network of excellence has continued to shape policy for many years, with stellar research results. For example, a legal opinion by CliWac researcher Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess from the Free University of Berlin convinced the Senate to drop data protection concerns about the publication of heavy rain hazard maps for the capital. The water researchers at the Berlin University Alliance also seek out a dialog with politicians and the wider civic society in other ways: through newsletters, network meetings – and a large exhibition that will soon be on display at the Humboldt Forum.