The Global Water Policy Project, now based in Los Lunas, New Mexico, aims to promote the preservation and sustainable use of Earth’s fresh water through research, writing, outreach, and public speaking. Founded in 1994 by Sandra Postel, a leading authority on international freshwater issues, the project fosters ideas and inspiration for redirecting society’s use and management of fresh water toward conservation and ecosystem health.

Sandra Postel, who has worked on water issues for more than twenty-five years, issued a clarion call for the emergence of a water ethic in her award-winning book, Last Oasis. Through the GWPP, she now works to translate this ethical precept into policy and action. Postel’s books and numerous scholarly and popular articles on the world’s fresh water provide valuable insights into the nature of global water challenges and constructive solutions to them. In 2002 she was honored by Scientific American for promoting "sweeping changes aimed at preserving the world's dwindling supplies of freshwater."