As the Well Runs Dry

By Amy Westervelt

Millions of people start their day with a cup of coffee. But more than a billion walk miles just for a few drops of clean water.

According to the Blue Planet Run Foundation, two-thirds of the world’s population will suffer water shortages by 2025. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an only slightly more optimistic report on water in 2007 indicating that 40 percent of the world’s population could suffer shortages by 2050. One in six people worldwide do not have access to clean water, and 1.8 million children die each year from waterborne illness, the root of 80 percent of illnesses in the world.

And that’s before we factor in the domino effect of the water shortage, including its impact on the global food supply and the potential for “water wars,” both of which will unquestionably add to the death toll.

Doing its part to mobilize solutions, NYIT and its Center for Water Resources Management brought together representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international corporations, and universities at the United Nations in New York City on July 23-24 to discuss the issues surrounding the impending water crisis at NYIT’s first annual International Water Conference. The event was co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations.

“Just as access to water is a universal need, it will take the efforts and cooperation of all nations to safeguard the planet’s water resources,” said NYIT President Edward Guiliano, Ph.D., in his welcoming address. He cited the doubling of the Earth’s population, as well as the tripling of the world’s water use since 1950 as being among the most troubling indicators that we are facing an imminent global health threat. Moreover, industrialization and severe weather caused by climate change have contaminated a sizeable portion of what were once clean water sources.

The conference began with an evening reception on July 23 that included presentations presided by Elaine Valdov, Ph.D., secretary-general of International Peace Ambassadors at the United Nations. The welcoming ceremony on July 24 included remarks by President Guiliano, NYIT Dean of University Advancement Harold Oh, Ph.D., Valdov, and U.N. Assistant Secretary-General H.E. Thomas Stelzer.

The event itself was the brainchild of Oh, who also served as conference chair. Acknowledging that the shortage of safe drinking water has become a world issue that affects billions of people daily, he says his aim was to “create a substantive discussion among experts to find workable solutions.”

Oh certainly achieved this, as representatives from the United Nations, NYIT, General Electric (GE), Dow Water Solutions, and the World Bank, among others, brought greater technological and cultural awareness of this vital issue.