Asked to describe water, most people will probably start talking about the ocean, rivers, or perhaps transparent liquid in a glass. Groundwater, clouds or soil moisture are far less likely to be top of mind. But that may be about to change as scientists and politicians increasingly eye this type of “invisible” water in their search for answers to difficult questions.

Dr Wang-Erlandsson, Dr Cherry and Dr Brutsaert will all be speaking at the world’s leading water conference, World Water Week 2022, which this year has chosen “Seeing the unseen water” as part of the theme for the event. The world’s invisible water is rapidly becoming much more visible.