Since 1993, the UN has designated March 22 as "World Water Day," or a day for people around the globe to join together for an international discussion about protecting the world's most valuable resource.
Currently, more than 650 million people worldwide live without clean water, and an estimated 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation. And moving forward, as pollutants continue to threaten water systems and climate change causes severe droughts as well as extreme flooding, people in both developed and developing countries must unite to address a breath of water-related challenges.
To celebrate World Water Day 2016 and to recognize the many different ways people around the world are fighting for clean water, the following experts have offered to share the insight and inspiration they've gained while working out in the field.
(The following interviews have been edited for length and brevity.)
Kalyan Paul, Executive Director of the Pan Himalayan Grassroots Foundation
Kalyan, along with his wife Anita, founded Grassroots in 1992 to improve the quality of life for people in villages across the central and western Himalayan Region of India. Through education and self-help participation, their team provides rural communities with improved sanitation, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and access to safe drinking water.
How does Grassroots improve access to clean water?
When we began, the biggest crisis for communities was drinking water. So we started a dialogue and set a long-term solution: a community forest project. We started a large number of small village nurseries to grow trees and shrubs, about 20-25 native species, to plant on degraded hillslopes to help protect and recharge important water sources. Today, we've planted over two million mature saplings.
We were also lucky to have the help of a geohydrologist named Tim Rees, who conceived an idea for an infiltration well that collects water from subterranean water capillaries and can be created and maintained by the villagers themselves. Tim trained a few of us, and then we started implementing the wells in local communities.
What are the most dire threats to clean water in your region of the world?
Much of the water available to mankind is quite polluted. And the largest polluter, at least in India, is the private sector industry. Whether factories are making cars or airplanes or shirts, they'll discard their waste into streams, which lead to big rivers. In our country, some rivers are flowing as black sludge because of the influence from factories, and what's really alarming is that so little is being done to fix it. There's a lot of talk going on, but we don't see much real action.
We're also losing forests at a rapid rate, and it's going on at a global scale. If we don't stop that, and if we don't reverse the process by growing a lot of native trees around the globe, we're not going to be able to renew our water resources.
What can people in developed countries do to help?
Dedicate yourself to planting ten trees. It's the least you can do, and it's easy enough. Either do it in your local community or, if that's not possible, support the planting of ten trees somewhere else.
What inspires you to remain passionate about conservation?
I grew up in the city, in Kolkata. But once I started working with rural people, their sheet poverty really hit me. I work with people who have two sets of clothes, three pots and pans. And they're so beautifully warm and loving. I don't know how to explain it, but that's the biggest impact I've had in my life. You learn humility. It's a privilege. It's a privilege to do what we do.
To support Grassroots India, visit grassrootsindia.com.
Kaitlyn Jankowski, Supporter Experience Manager at charity: water
Founded in 2006, charity: water is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. In the field, the group works with local partners to build sustainable, community-owned projects. Online, they gather funds and raise awareness through visually driven storytelling and social media campaigns.
How does charity: water help people?
We have a really amazing water programs team who work in the field with local partners. We get grant proposals from our partners, raise money toward the proposals, and send 100% of public donations directly to fund those clean water projects.
What's your fundraising philosophy?
We're completely transparent about how we use the funds we raise, and our campaigns highlight our local partners -- not us. They're the real heroes.
We're very visually driven, and a lot of our campaigns include beautiful storytelling, often in the form of video content in addition to articles and social media. But we don't objectify the people we serve. A lot of the stories we tell, or the pictures we use, depict a person or community only after they get clean water. We focus on the celebration.
What are some of your favorite memories from working out in the field?
I went to Malawi and got to see how water had transformed a community there. We asked a group of people, "What has clean water meant to you?" A woman stood up and said, "It makes me a better wife; now I don't have to walk for water and stand in line for hours every day. I have more time to spend at home." That was something that touched me.
We also went to Ethiopia last year and visited some of our oldest projects that we'd funded back in 2007. Since those projects were completed so long ago, I met kids who'd never had to go through what their parents went through, who'd never had to drink dirty water a day in their lives. I met one boy whose favorite subject is physics, and he spent all of his time talking to me about how much fun he has at school. He just gets to go to school every day, and doesn't have to walk for water or miss class. It was a cool experience to see that.
What's next for charity: water?
We're focusing a lot of sustainability. It's amazing that we have all of these completed projects, but a water project is only good if clean water is actually flowing from it. So we got a grant from Google, partnered with some other people, and built centers that help us measure water flow. Now we know how our projects are functioning at any given point in time, and if there's a problem we can mobilize local mechanics to fix it.
We're also launching "Fight Dirty," a new campaign to celebrate our tenth anniversary as an organization and to reflect on all we've accomplished so far.
Michael Reuter, Director of Water (North America) at The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a nonprofit organization founded in 1951 to help protect ecological systems around the world. In his role as Director of Water, North America, Michael oversees water management and sustainability projects across the continent.
What are some of the most urgent water-related threats currently facing North America?
An enormous challenge we face is flooding (especially in the eastern part of the U.S.) and the costs associated with it. We're requiring substantially new ways of thinking about how we manage water, including connecting floodplains so that rivers have room to expand during high water periods. We see these kinds of conversations after a significant weather event, but they don't last very long, and usually the public just moves quickly on to the next event.
Another issue is figuring out how to get ahead of major water quality challenges. We see things like what's happening in Flint, Michigan and what happened recently in Toledo, Ohio, and it's a set of issues that's growing across the country. There's a big gap in this country around the renewal of the infrastructure supporting clean drinking water.
What can the average person do to help?
Know where your water comes from. Be an active watershed resident, ask how your water is allocated, encourage wise agricultural practices, and advocate for the adjustments necessary to monitor long-term water quality.
What are the most in-demand skills for aspiring conservationists?
Basically, we need civil engineers with MBAs. We need people who know how to engineer with concrete as well as with nature, and who can be creative in the design of water management projects. And that expertise needs to be combined with the business knowledge that attracts capital from the private sector. That's going to be the next generation of work. The challenge is to get these solutions scaled up to a size that matters for the big rivers and lake systems we're trying to preserve.
What project has inspired you the most?
In 2000, we acquired a large floodplain area, about 7,000 acres, along the Illinois River. It was once incredibly productive in terms of fish and wildlife, but it suffered severe degradation when pollution from Lake Michigan was redirected down the river. After we began restoring the area by putting water back into the property -- which by then been made into a corn and soybean farm -- we saw a tremendous recovery. Hundreds of different plants. Nearly the entire native assemblage of animals. We laugh now, and say that the recipe is to add water and stir. If you can get the water levels right, nature has an amazing ability to heal itself. That place always gives me a perspective of what is possible.
What does the future of water conservation look like?
I've been at this for 25 years now, and something I've become passionate about is that these problems are so complex that no single expert or organization is going to solve them. We recently undertook a project called America's Watershed Initiative, a collaboration in which hundreds of organizations came together to find solutions to manage the Mississippi River. To me, it represented the power of being a united voice behind water. So additionally, we need people who are really good at supporting conversation and real dialogue among people who have different needs and perspectives.
To support The Nature Conservancy, visit nature.org.
Gary Wockner, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Save the Colorado
Launched in 2010 as a philanthropic project of New Belgium Brewing, Save the Colorado is a proactive, nonprofit organization supporting restoration and fighting irresponsible water projects along the Colorado River and its tributaries.
How does Save the Colorado fight irresponsible projects?
When an entity such as a large utility company wants to take more water out of the river and build or expand a dam, they initiate a permitting process through the federal government. That triggers the National Environmental Policy Act, The Water Act and other federal laws. We spend a fair amount of time reviewing documents and responding with our own technical comments, with the hope that the permits will be rejected. If they're not, we engage in legal battles.
What are some other threats to water systems in your region of the country?
The biggest issue is climate change. The shorthand version is that most of the scientific predictions out there say dry areas are going to get dryer as the climate warms, and wet areas are going to get wetter. The other big threat is pollution. We're seeing increased pollution problems everywhere, much of it around industrial and agricultural pollution.
How should the general public address those threats?
With climate change, we must first accept that it's real. Then, we obviously need to do whatever we can to lessen it by stopping the burning of fossil fuels as soon as possible, in as many ways as possible. But increasingly, we'll just have to learn to adapt. Pollution continues to be a significant problem, but the only way we're really going to address it is to implement some changes in our federal laws.
What are the most in-demand skills for aspiring conservationists?
The most important skills are probably writing and critical thinking. Learning to write well helps to organize your mind and your thoughts. It makes you a more organized, articulate person who can better solve problems and better convey your concerns to the public and to decision makers.
What water issues should the general public be aware of?
Water is going to be an increasingly contested resource around the world. Of course, in some areas it's extremely contested right now. I think the biggest things for Americans to keep in mind is that the vast majority of the developing world lives on one tenth or one twentieth of the supply of water we use per day. We waste so much water, and we're not charged the true value of it. There are areas along the Colorado River Basin that are very depleted or drained bone dry, and that shows up on no balance sheet. Currently, no one has to pay the ecological cost to the environment of destroying rivers. I think we have a lot of challenges as well as many opportunities to learn and create more equitable systems, not just in the U.S. but around the world.
What's your favorite memory from working out in the field?
In 2008, we started fighting against a big dam project. There was a public hearing in which 800 people showed up, and probably 750 of them were on our side. It was just one of those moments where you're out there speaking about an issue, and you had no idea how many people you were speaking for. It's not about me. It's about the resource, the river, the community and culture I get to represent. I just try to do my best and I feel lucky to do it.
To support Save the Colorado, visit savethecolorado.org.