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Welcome Address at NYIT's International Water Conference at the United Nations
07/24/2008

Good morning. It is with great pleasure that I join in welcoming you all to this assembly focused on one of the most critical world issues of our times.

Just as access to water is a universal need, it will take the efforts and cooperation of all nations, united, to safeguard this planet's water resources, a fact that makes the United Nations the most appropriate location for our conference. With this in mind, we gathered together here, people of the United Nations, distinguished representatives of the UN Member States, World Bank, NGO leaders, academics, and leaders of several world's best-known water technology companies. On behalf of the 15,000 students and 77,000 alumni of New York Institute of Technology as well as our faculty, staff and board of NYIT, I would like to thank all of you for your participation in this important and timely conference in an effort to make a difference in world's water crisis.

I would especially like to acknowledge Dr. Harold Oh for spearheading and developing NYIT's involvement in this conference. Dr. Oh's efforts on behalf of NYIT and this our first international water conference has earned him -- at least for today -- a new name -- Dr. H-2-Oh. Thank you Dr. H2O.

We have all heard and read that "water is the new oil," and that phrase is becoming a harsh reality as droughts, weather shifts, pollution, and population increases have begun to pose a dire threat to the world's water resources. As a global university anchored in New York with campuses in North America, the Far East and the Middle East, an outgrowth of our mission at NYIT is to use technology as a tool to anticipate and address global issues … and to work toward finding sustainable solutions in areas such as energy and water. In doing so, we strive to fulfill both our mission to society and to our students, who, when they graduate, are entering a world different from that which greeted us at their age: one facing a scarcity of natural resources.

I am struck by the fact that the earth's population has doubled since 1950 -- a year close to many of our hearts -- while the amount of available fresh water, in the best-case scenario, has merely stayed the same. While that statistic alone is enough to raise concern, it is compounded by the fact that water use has tripled in the same amount of time. As you know, the world's freshwater supply is increasingly at risk of contamination by pollution, water-borne disease, and shifting rain patterns caused by global warming, according to the most recent report from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Forty percent of the world's population could suffer water shortages by 2050.

Here in New York we rarely confront water shortages first hand, though in America we experience current droughts and water shortages in the Southeast United States and California that have already begun taxing global food systems and more. But there are thousands of sites and images worldwide -- we saw some last evening -- that set off alarms in our minds and assault our humanity.

NYIT has a campus in Amman, Jordan, and I remember well my first visit six or seven years ago to the "mighty" and historic River Jordan, which today forms a part of the border between Jordan and Israel and, of course, is well documented and prominent in history and culture, including by the Romans as a large river with wide swampy banks. Today, to visit you have to pass through special military security to approach it within Jordan, where at the access point it is in an untouched natural state. Untouched in Jordan that is with riverside development or water and irrigation infrastructure. It's untouched there, but upriver and outside Jordan, this prime source of fresh water has been affected by development and has been siphoned off for irrigational systems. Net result: the "mighty" River Jordan that I saw was seemingly no wider than a traffic lane.

We know the rising middle classes of developing nations places increased pressure on the water infrastructure. The agricultural implications of water shortages alone are already beginning to take their toll as the cost of food staples such as bread, eggs, rice, and milk skyrocket.

On a promising note, researchers, scientists, agribusinesses, and tech start-ups are racing to find a solution, developing everything from energy-efficient filters to improve the desalination process to simple, effective purification systems and sensor-based technologies that enable accurate, remote monitoring of water supplies. Element Four's impressive device is actually making water from thin air.

Clearly, as with the efforts currently underway to address the energy crisis, conservation and innovation are both necessary in the fight to secure water resources for future generations. If we liken water shortages to a leaky bucket, it would be illogical to simply add more water without plugging the existing holes. And, of course, technology can help both efforts.

At Threemile Canyon Farms, a 110-square-mile farm in Oregon, for example, farmers are now using a high-tech system comprised of sensors and Wi-Fi to monitor moisture levels in the soil and automatically trigger the irrigation system to turn on and off. The system also monitors water pressure, alerting staff when a pump or sprinkler is broken, and saving the farm thousands of gallons of water annually. New applications of existing technologies such as this, along with many of new technologies that will be discussed here today, will be a crucial component to addressing the impending water crisis.

In order to ensure that the water resource technologies that make it to market are not only the most profitable, but the best for both the planet's and the public's health, those in the academic, governmental and non-profit realm must also continue to support research into water-focused technologies. For our part at NYIT, we intend to organize this conference annually, and to support water-related research and technologies through our interdisciplinary graduate centers and at NYIT's Center for Water Resources Management -- the mission of which is to connect developing nations in need of clean and sustainable water resources with the individuals and businesses that have the technology and technical knowledge to meet that need.

NYIT's commitment to addressing water scarcity issues is representative of the university's commitment to creating a better future for its students and its global communities. To that end, we look forward to speaking frequently with the thought-leaders gathered here today to share ideas and progress. We also hope to enable further collaboration and conversations in the "water world," beginning with this week's conference. We had the pleasure last night of seeing some previews from Running the Sahara, a visual and emotional cue to all of us to accept the important task at hand. And we have the honor of having visionary Jim Thebaut wrap up our program later this afternoon. His film, Running Dry, was a tipping point in making the world all too aware of the crisis we have in sustaining water supplies.

Now I am looking forward to our first speaker and to a meaningful day.