Episode 17: Deep Dive-Water 1
We find out about water worldwide and the history of water in the US with implications for the present. Find links to our guests, their work, and the important sources they refer to in Episode 17.
Show Notes
Podcast: Episode 17: Deep Dive-Water 1 First air date: July 8, 2023
Host: Julie B Adler
Guests:
· Dr. Richard Johnston, Co-Lead, WHO/UNICEF joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene.
· Dr. Char Miller,IV, Director of Environmental Analysis, W.M.Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, Pomona College
Heather Venhaus, Ecological Consultant, Regenerative Environmental Design
United Nations Goals and Projects Discussed:
o UN Sustainable Development Goals
· Sustainable Development Goal 6.
Books by Dr. Char Miller, IV referenced
Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril (2022)
· Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land (2018)
· West Side Rising (2021)
Guest Bios:
Links to the guests’ bios are provided above.
Resources:
Resources are referenced above:
Questions for discussion:
Did you know there are global goals for water, sanitation and hygiene set by all the nations of the world. The Joint Monitoring Project of the World Health Organization and Unicef measures the goals and targets.
What is the reason for the measurements?
Are there programs that seek to implement the goals with respect to water and sanitation?
How do you measure the programs’ successes?
What have they found?
What are the competing interests for water? Agriculture, cities, rich vs. poor, homes, lawns, schools, the environment?
How many people around the world are without adequate water or sanitation?
What are the numbers in the US?
What are the health implications of lack of adequate water and sanitation?
Is progress being made to the goals?
How have extremes of weather affected the availability of water and adequate sanitation?
Why did the UN declare the right to adequate water and sanitation a human right?
2. Where the sources of water for human consumption, agriculture, and the environment in your community?
How have competing interests been made in the past as to how the water is allocated? How and where dams and/or levees have been constructed? Is there enough for all?
Have there been climatic circumstances like those we are now that have led to action?(causes of the dust bowl?)
Is there enough water. for the forseeable future? What steps are being taken to protect it, if any.
Given the differences in geography and climate in states and communities solutions to water issues would be different in every part of the. country, how can we make sure that across the US that there is safe and adequate water for all uses.