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WATER RESOURCES

January 2016 | Volume 18 | Number 1

AmericAn WAter resources AssociAtion

Hydrophilanthropy

Volume18•Number1www.awra.org•3

FEATURE ARTICLES 8 Hydrophilanthropy Gone Awry

Efforts to enhance water quality and quantity, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) around the globe, also known as hydrophilanthropy, can be hindered by a variety of factors.

14 Hydrophilanthropy in Honduras Since 2001, Michael Campana has worked in Sierra de Omoa in northwestern Honduras to help with their potable water problems

17 The University of Oklahoma WaTER Center - Water Security: Quantity, Quality, Equity The mission of the WaTER Center at Oklahoma University is water and sanitation for all, and the vision is the pursuit of improved health, education, development and peace.

C O N T E N T S

20 Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Water Resources and Treatment in Developing Countries Unsafe and unsustainable drinking water systems in developing countries require a transdisciplinary approach for evaluation and successful intervention.

22 Engaging Undergraduate Students into Hydrophilanthropy in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Since 2012, undergraduate students have worked with Centers for Appropriate Technology and Indigenous Sustainability to aid communities in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico with groundwater testing and filtration.

25 Running for Water: A Brief History and Reflection Allowing individuals to run and see that water is crucial for survival and movement enables people to see, feel, and understand that water is necessary for human survival.

29 Hydrogeologists Without Borders and the GW2.0 Project The hydrophilanthropy community has clearly articulated the need for potable water, but it has less effectively conveyed the value of groundwater.

OTHER FEATURES Messages

5 Editors’ Message Eric Fitch, Editor-in-Chief and Christine

McCrehin, Managing Editor

6 President’s Message Martha Narvaez, AWRA President

Columns

31 The New Economics of Water: Investors Seek Strategies for Identifying Water Risk

32 What’s Up with Water? Wheelbarrows, Alfalfa and Commoner’s Laws

AWRA Business

7 AWRA Launches National Leadership Institute

34 Highlights of the JAWRA Technical Papers

34 2016 Editorial Calendar

34 Advertising Opportunities in IMPACT

35 2016-2017 Richard A. Herbert Memorial Scholarship Opportunities

About this issue Issue theme: Hydrophilanthropy Associate Editor: Mae Davenport, University of MinnesotaDavidKreamerfirstcoinedtheterm“hydrophilanthropy”todescribeinitiativesthatpromotehumanwelfarewithregardtowateraccess,security,andequity.Today,thisworkcontinuesonaglobalscale,asthearticlesinthisissueillustrate,butnotwithoutchallengesandconflict.Thearticlesidentifyopportunities,constraints,andrecommendationsforfuturehydrophilanthropicwork.Authorsexploreemergingstrategiesassociatedwithinnovativefundraising,transformativelearning,andcreative

problem-solvingthatinspirecompassionacrosswide-rangingconstituents.Authorsalsoexaminepotentialunintendedconsequencesofthisworkandacknowledgeongoingchallengessuchaspoliticalinstability,urbanization,andclimatechange.Authorsurgehydrophilanthropiststoconsiderlong-termoutcomesinprojectplanningandtoengagelocalstakeholdersandendusersthroughoutprojectdesignandimplementation.Carefulplanningandmeaningfullocalengagementholdspromisenotonlytooptimizecleanwateroutcomes,butalsotoempowerlocalcommunitymembersandbuildcommunitycapacitytosustainthisbasichumanrightfarintothefuture.

4 •WaterResourcesIMPACTJanuary2016

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: ERIC J. FITCH Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Leadership Chair, Department of Biology and Environmental Science Director, Environmental Science Program Marietta College, 215 Fifth St., Marietta, Ohio 45750 (740) 376-4997, Fax: (740) 376-4753 E-Mail: [email protected]

AWRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2016

VOL. 18 • NO. 1 • January 2016 •ISSN 1522-3175

Have Questions About IMPACT? Contact AWRA HQ (540) 687-8390, Fax (540) 687-8395 [email protected], www.awra.org

MARTHA C. NARVAEZ President

RAFAEL E. FRIAS III President-Elect

NOEL GOLLEHON Secretary-Treasurer

JOHN C. TRACY Past President

BRENDA O. BATEMAN Director

LISA BEUTLER Director

BETSY A. CODY Director

L. DONALD DUKE Director

LAUREL E. STADJUHAR Director

WAYNE S. WRIGHT Director

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IMPACT isamagazineofideas.Authors,AssociateEditors,andtheEditor-in-Chiefworktogethertocreateapublicationthatwillinformandwillprovokeconversation.TheviewsandconclusionsexpressedbyindividualauthorsandpublishedinWater Resources IMPACT shouldnotbeinterpretedasnecessarilyrepresentingtheofficialpolicies,eitherexpressedorimplied,oftheAmericanWaterResourcesAssociation.MentionofanytrademarkorproprietaryproductinworkspublishedintheWater Resources

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Associate EditorsJOE BERG ([email protected]) Biohabitats, Inc. – Baltimore, Maryland

LISA BEUTLER ([email protected]) MWH – Sacramento, California

MAE A. DAVENPORT ([email protected]) University of Minnesota – St. Paul, Minnesota

JONATHAN E. JONES ([email protected]) Wright Water Engineers – Denver, Colorado

CLAY J. LANDRY ([email protected]) WestWater Research – Boise, Idaho

RICHARD H. MCCUEN ([email protected]) University of Maryland – College Park, Maryland

E. TIM SMITH ([email protected]) Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable

MICHAEL CAMPANA ([email protected]) American Water Resources Association Middleburg, Virginia


If you recall, in the July 2015 issue of IMPACT (pg.23), AWRA published a brief article summarizing the state of the magazine industry in general and the state of Water Resources IMPACT specifically.

WHILE THE MAGAZINE industry as a whole seems to be going the route of digital publication, IMPACT readers have continually and consistently expressed a desire for the magazine to continue to offer a print copy, most recently in a readership survey conducted in summer 2015.

2015 Readership Survey SummaryThe majority of respondents to the summer

2015 IMPACT readership survey placed a high value on the magazine–62% indicated that they were very/extremely satisfied with IMPACT –however, 31% of respondents did indicate that they were only somewhat satisfied with the magazine. For both groups, layout and design were the lowest rated features of the magazine, while cover and writing scored the highest.

An impressive 72% of respondents always/usually read every issue of IMPACT, while 22% only read the magazine occasionally. Of those, 45% spend 15-30 minutes reading the magazine, 31% spend 30-60 minutes and only 11% spend more than 60 minutes reading Water Resources IMPACT. Interestingly though, the survey also found that 32% of respondents share their copy of IMPACT with 1-2 colleagues.

Regarding delivery of the magazine, 69% of respondents indicated that they would like to receive either print only, or a combination of print and online, while 17% preferred to receive the magazine online only. A surprising 14% had no preference. In addition, when asked how often they access IMPACT online 42% of respondents said never, 40% said occasionally and 18% said every issue. When asked how often they accessed the IMPACT online archives, 46% of respondents replied never, 51% occasionally and only 4% indicated that they access the IMPACT online archives on a monthly basis.

New Year, New Production Partner, Same Great Articles

E D I T O R S ’ M E S S A G E

In response to questions asking what readers would like to see more of in the magazine, a vast majority of survey respondents (89%) expressed that they would like to see more information on AWRA activities and business, with 71% specifically seeking AWRA State Section and Student Chapter news. Other areas of interest included features on successful water resources management programs and people in water resources management, respectively.

Reader Requests Lead to New Publishing Relationship

In light of the survey results, AWRA determined that not only do we need to continue offering a print copy of IMPACT to all members and subscribers, but we also want to make the changes in design and add the editorial features requested by readers, as well as updates to online archiving of the magazine.

It was also recognized that we need to do all of this as economically as possible. To that end, after conducting a nationwide search, AWRA has chosen to partner with Naylor Association Solutions (Naylor) for production of Water Resources IMPACT. As a long-time publisher of magazines in the association industry, Naylor has conducted the redesign of IMPACT and will be producing, printing and mailing each issue under the editorial direction of AWRA staff and the IMPACT Editor-in-Chief. They will also be conducting the sale of advertising for Water Resources IMPACT. All of this at a lower production cost, and hopefully a higher revenue stream, than before.

So, page through and take a look, notice the difference in design and flow of the magazine, and watch future issues for the added features (State Section and Student Chapter News, AWRA Activities and more) that you have requested. Be proud of what you have accomplished and keep giving us your thoughts on how to continue improving the magazine.

Thank you,

Eric Fitch, Editor-in-Chief Water Resources IMPACT [email protected]

Eric Fitch, Editor-in-Chief and Christine McCrehin, Managing Editor

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Christine McCrehin, ManagingEditor Water Resources IMPACT [email protected]

After conducting a nationwide search, AWRA has chosen to partner with Naylor Association Solutions (Naylor) for production of Water Resources IMPACT


AT THE RISK of using a cliché one too many times, this upcoming year is a watershed moment for me. For many years I have worked with AWRA on a national, state and regional level, first as a student and then professionally. I have seen several sides of the organization, formed multiple valuable relationships and received countless benefits through my different roles. It is now that I realize how much both AWRA and I have evolved during our relationship. When I initiated my AWRA membership almost 15 years ago, I did not realize the importance AWRA would play in my professional and personal development. The benefits and opportunities that have come from my association with AWRA are numerous. In May 2014, I wrote then-president Mark Dunning my letter to accept the position as president-elect. At that time I felt much anticipation and excitement over the opportunity to serve in this role. As I sit today and write my first President’s Message, I feel this same excitement for what lies ahead in the coming year.

Since I am the new president of AWRA, I think you should know a bit about my background. I happened into the field of water resources after graduating from Lehigh University with a BS in biology. I wasn’t quite sure who or what I wanted to be when I grew up. Through the kindness of the city of Wilmington, Delaware’s public works director, who was willing to hire a recent graduate with little or no knowledge of water resources, I quickly learned the value, necessity, and complexity. I realized it was a field I wanted to pursue.

I then pursued my MPA degree from the University of Delaware where I specialized in watershed management. My academic advisor at the time—an instrumental mentor and my current director and a dedicated AWRA member—was the first to make me aware of this great organization and the benefits and opportunities that result from membership. Throughout my career, my AWRA membership has served as a solid resource and community as I pursued positions with federal, nonprofit and private organizations in Maryland, Florida and Delaware. In my current position, policy scientist at the University of Delaware Water Resources Center, I am responsible for providing regional

A Watershed Moment

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

watershed technical, policy and research support to state and local governments, University staff and faculty, and nonprofit organizations in the mid-Atlantic region. Through it all AWRA has continued to be my mainstay.

During my tenure I hope to build on the momentum of past presidents and strengthen AWRA. Overall, I feel it is important to address the most pressing water resource issues and to continue AWRA’s strong reputation as a multi-disciplinary water resources association that is well-respected and inclusive of students and professionals. More specifically, I believe it is critical for AWRA to be an organization that is attractive to all levels of professionals in the water resources field, cutting across generations as well as disciplines. It is important for AWRA to continue the practices that have been successful while also being f lexible in the way we provide information, present our science, and network with each other. In order to continue to be the preeminent association for young and established water resource professionals, it is critical to establish new and innovative ways to reach our existing and potential members. Finally, it is one of my biggest goals to bring greater recognition to and form a stronger connection with the 23 state and local sections. The individuals that make up these groups are experts in the field, connected in their communities, and valuable assets to our association. I would like to see this relationship strengthened.

Before signing off, I would be remiss if I did not thank the immediate past presidents John Tracy and Mark Dunning for their leadership over the past two years. John and Mark have used their experience and dedication to AWRA to implement numerous initiatives that have enhanced AWRA and its role in the water resources community. I would also like to thank those presidents I have had the pleasure to serve with over my tenure on the Board of Directors. So many of you have had a positive and direct impact on shaping AWRA and making it the amazing organization that it is. I feel honored that I can call so many of you not only colleagues but friends and I thank you for the example you have set and the actions you have taken to make this organization great! It is my goal to advance your efforts and make my own valuable contributions to AWRA. ■

Martha Narvaez, President, AWRA [email protected]

During my tenure I hope to build on the momentum of past presidents and strengthen AWRA.

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EIGHTEEN STATE OFFICIALS from 14 different states met over a three-day-period in November 2015 to participate in the launch of the American Water Resources Association’s (AWRA) new National Leadership Institute, a gathering place for peer groups of water professionals to share and learn from each other’s experiences in face-to-face venues.

The 2015 Workshop for State Officials was the first event held under this Institute, and was designed for those responsible for developing state water plans.

Participants came from Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Such workshops fill a critical need, providing a comfortable atmosphere where state leaders can meet their counterparts, compare notes, share experiences and ask “what if ” questions. Facilitators and presenters offered participants the latest in water resources decision-making tools, funding sources, water management policies, and public involvement practices. Presenters provided updates on the U.S. Water Census (U.S. Geological Survey), Clean Water Act (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), Endangered Species Act (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), and the Farm Bill (U.S. Department of Agriculture).

The three-day workshop included a variety of learning techniques, including

BRENDA BATEMAN AND TOM CECH

polling and surveys, panel discussions led by peers, small breakout groups, presentations from nationally renowned experts, and an evaluation of learning objectives and program design.

Much of the discussion focused on opportunities and challenges that have emerged as states have set about developing their water plans. Some states do not yet have such a plan, while others have components that they will build into a long-range plan over time. The resulting content of these efforts also differ greatly, as some have taken a purely water quantity and supply approach, while others have built water quality and ecosystem requirements into their final products.

Participants found that while they were operating under very different sets of legal, political, and budget parameters, they also had a number of similarities. These public officials are all deeply committed to producing the best water plans possible; all are facing resource constraints in terms of funding, data, and time, and all were interested in learning about effective and improved techniques for public involvement.

Some themes that emerged during these discussions involved resiliency of the environment, of public health systems, and economic development. Other common themes focused on collaboration with both public and private sector partners.

Participants were treated to a brief preview of the roll-out of the Colorado State Water Plan. Officially presented to

Governor Hickenlooper on November 19, 2015, the Plan represented more than a decade of outreach and communication with water users and stakeholders of Colorado’s river basins. Hailed as Colorado’s first water plan “written by Coloradans for Coloradans,” the document emphasizes and supports the development of water projects, identified by Basin Roundtables, to help meet the state’s water needs by 2050.

AWRA's National Leadership Institute will welcome a new cohort of state leaders from November 9-11, 2016 in Orlando, Florida, immediately preceding AWRA’s 2016 annual conference. The 2016 Workshop for State Officials will open for registration on May 1, 2016.

Special thanks to Tom Cech and Sarah Harmon of MSU Denver, the Oregon Water Resources Department, and the AWRA staff and Board of Directors, for hosting the group and ensuring the successful launch of AWRA’s National Leadership Institute. ■

Dr. Brenda BatemansupervisestheOregonWaterResourcesDepartment’sscientists,engineers,programmers,GISspecialists,anddatacenter,astheAdministratoroftheTechnicalServicesDivision.Previously,sheservedastheDepartment’sSeniorPolicyCoordinator,developingOregon’sfirstIntegratedWaterResourcesStrategy,whichwasadoptedinAugust2012.SheservesontheBoardofDirectorsoftheAmericanWaterResourcesAssociation.

Contact InformationBrendaBatemanAdministrator,TechnicalServicesDivisionOregonWaterResourcesDepartment725SummerSt.,NE,SuiteASalem,[email protected]

TomCechDirectorOneWorldOneWaterCenter(OWOW)forUrbanWaterEducationandStewardshipMetropolitanStateUniversityofDenverCampusBox8,P.O.Box173362Denver,[email protected]

AWRA Launches National Leadership Institute

2015StateWaterLeadersLefttoright:KelvinHickenbottom(Nevada),AlyssaMucken(Oregon),JamesVocolina(Connecticut),DeniseRuzicka(Connecticut),PatFridgen(NorthDakota),CorinneFitting(Connecticut),BrendaBateman(Oregon),TomCech(Colorado),MichaelDowney(Montana),ScottKudlas(Virginia),TomFransen(NorthCarolina),GailCowie(Georgia),SueLowry(Wyoming),SteveWolff(Wyoming),TimFreed(Nebraska),KayWhittington(Mississippi),EdSwaim(Arkansas),andDaveChristensen(Washington)

Hydrophilanthropy Gone Awry

How People Promoting Clean Water Availability, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Can Actually Injure Communities

F E A T U R E

DAVID K. KREAMER

HYDROPHILANTHROPY EMBODIES HUMANITARIAN actions that increase and sustain clean water in areas of need. On the whole,

hydrologists, water engineers, and social scientists dealing with water are, by nature, inclined to improve the human condition.

Often by dint of their professional vocational choice alone, they have motivation to address resource problems of global

import. Likewise, many members of the general public are inspired to lend a hand in tackling world-wide water,

sanitation, and hygiene challenges (often referred to by the acronym WASH). The scale of those challenges

can be enormous. While health figures do not do justice

to individual suffering, and irreparable environmental damage is not adequately reflected

in statistics, the numbers can be staggering. While estimates vary, the World Health Organization

and UNICEF (WHO 2014) calculate that 748 million people do not have

access to clean drinking water. The mortality attributed to lack of



clean drinking water is estimated at 3.4 million deaths per year, or roughly 10,000 a day, many of which are children (2.2 million) (Sauer 2010). According to the World Bank (2014), one billion people practice open defecation and those without access to improved sanitation number over one-third of the earth’s population – about 2.5 billion. These approximations, and others like it, do not show the whole picture, as clean water scarcity can have far-reaching and cascading effects. These effects include malnutrition caused by agricultural shortages and lack of irrigation water, population displacement and migration in response to drought, economic losses due to worker illness and absenteeism, and lack of educational opportunities for children who must collect household water from a distance (often with gender-bias harming young girls). Water scarcity and poor water quality not only profoundly affects human communities, but ecosystems throughout the world.

Water professionals and the general public respond to this continuing humanitarian and ecological crisis with hydrophilanthropic efforts, which can range from successful sustained activities (that improve the well-being of villages and municipalities and produce healthy biotic communities), to dismal failures, which can produce more harm than good. Understanding the many pitfalls of engaging in WASH efforts, and conversely, realizing

the strategies for successful clean water projects, can better prepare well-motivated people to create lasting resources and encourage

community capability and self-sufficiency. This article is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach to

describing the many pitfalls of hydrophilanthropy, drawing on admittedly questionable analogies with historical figures and events, and fictional characters. The attempt here is to approach a deadly serious topic in a lighthearted way, by focusing on the human failings and inadequacies of many “do-gooders” who blunder into communities and situations they often do not understand. These well-intentioned individuals are sometimes out of their depth, sometimes blindly and patronizingly holding their cultural, religious and societal

values to be superior to the communities they are attempting to serve. And they

sometimes do more harm than good. In writing this, the author

appreciates and gratefully recognizes that many WASH efforts achieve

positive and sustainable results that improve the world, community by


community. The topic of WASH failure is approached here in a very casual, allegorical fashion. Nevertheless, the article does not lose sight of the irony of how the comedy of befuddled, naïve, inexperienced and/or ill-prepared hydrophilanthropists, convinced of their own good works and superior methodologies, can add to the tragedy and dire circumstances of their individuals in recipient (or should I say “victim”) communities. The light-hearted tone belies the more sober and urgent message: the need to carry out philanthropic WASH projects in a considered, effective and sustainable way.

SELECTED ALLEGORICAL WAYS HYDROPHILANTHROPY CAN BE BUNGLED

The Antonie van Leeuwenhoek View – Not Looking at the Broad Picture

A well-meaning person or group of people can put in a perfectly good borehole in a village, which is drilled and constructed perfectly, placed in a high-quality productive aquifer, close to residents it is intended to serve, producing clean water in abundant quantities, in a community that is in great need of the resource. But if the well is placed in the backyard of someone the community hates, the well-intentioned hydrophilanthropist can start a water war that can last generations. Like van Leeuwenhoek, the father of microbiology, peering into his creation, the microscope, these folks might see their objective clearly, but miss the bigger picture in their periphery. Their tunnel vision might match that of Antonie, the first to view single celled organisms he called “animalcules,” who was probably not aware of his surroundings as he stared into his magnifying lens. There is real importance outside the immediate scope of WASH endeavors, and the human and ecological environment for these activities, is not an isolated animalcule in magnification, but they are linked, expansive and multifaceted systems that change with time.

Not anticipating all possible outcomes of WASH undertakings can cause unforeseen societal harm on either a small or far-reaching scale, and even cause massive calamity resulting in the illness and death of many innocent individuals. A classic example of the van Leeuwenhoek WASH syndrome (sic.) is the case of arsenic in boreholes in Bangladesh and India. Inadequate pre-testing, and the absence of any data on aqueous arsenic

groundwater concentrations in reports by the British Geological Survey, led to the drilling of thousands of contaminated tube wells for potable water supply in Bangladesh and India in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of these boreholes were drilled by UNICEF and other philanthropic groups. Over 100,000 people are projected to have been sickened by high concentrations in shallow wells regionally (Brahic 2004), and according to Hossain (2006), arsenic poses a hazard to an estimated 57 million people in Bangladesh. Each year, another 270,000 have been calculated to have had associated cancer deaths, because long term ingestion of arsenic has been related to cancer of the kidneys, lungs, bladder and skin (Brahic 2004). The human suffering caused by what some have called “one of the largest mass poisonings in history” has been tremendous, and in the words of Richard Wilson of Harvard University, “Bangladesh makes Chernobyl look like a Sunday-school picnic” (Clarke, 2001). Clearly in their limited assessment of the large flood-plain groundwaters of Bangladesh and India, the British Geological Survey did not foresee complicating factors, or reflect those uncertainties in their technical reports.

Mr. Magoo Myopia – Not Planning and Anticipating the Future

Or maybe the analogous eye disorder should not be van Leeuwenhoek’s tunnel vision (Kalnienk vision), but myopia, a clear vision of what’s up close but fuzzy at distance. In this case the unseen distant view would be adverse future implications to a community resultant from an individual water or sanitation project. Older readers might know of a classically nearsighted cartoon character created in 1949 by the United Productions of America studio, Mr. Magoo, who might well serve as the standard bearer for this affliction. This character was unaware of his limitation and made a mess of various day-to-day projects. In WASH projects there is a need for clear vision, insight, and long term planning for sustainability.

The Neville Chamberlain Approach – Doing the Minimum and Hoping It Will Be Okay

Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement in 1938 and forever would be known as having a policy of “appeasement” toward Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. His expectation was that this concession of ceding the Czech region of the Sudetenland

to Germany would be enough to bring future peace. The analogous expectation, that any WASH effort, however minimal or stopgap, will always be beneficial, is equally unrealistic. Incomplete projects with no follow-through can experience physical breakdowns in pumps, well casings and screens, leaving resultant water quality and quantity more diminished than before the project was initiated. This, unfortunately, is the case in much of the developing world. For example, a survey of 21 African nations conducted from January 2009-December 2011 found that 36% of installed well pumps were non-functional (Rural Water Supply Network Work Plan) and more specifically, the Institute for Environment and Development (IIED 2009) reported that in the Menaca region of Mali, 80% of water points are “dysfunctional,” and 58% are in need of repair in northern Ghana. According to the Netherland’s International Water and Sanitation Centre (2009), concerning wells, “In the last 20 years, 600,000–800,000 hand pumps have been installed in sub-Saharan Africa, of which some 30 percent are known to fail prematurely, representing a total failed investment of between $1.2 and $1.5 billion.”

By not mounting a full and sustained effort, WASH “appeasement” undertakings might have short term gain, but long term ruin.

The “Twerking” Approach – Not Respecting Local Cultural and Religious Norms

At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, singer Miley Cyrus took to the stage in a nude-colored bikini, “twerking” suggestively. The term “twerk,” which was added to the Oxford dictionary that same year, is a type of provocative dance, with hip thrusting and suggestive movements. The widely viewed performance of Ms. Cyrus, mildly discomfiting and somewhat off-putting to some viewers, is chosen here to represent analogous, and more egregious, behavior by hydrophilanthropists who do not respect and/or are not aware of societal norms in the communities in which they work. Transgressions of this type undermine positive activities and can indicate a lack of respect for a local community and their values. Hydrophilanthropic “twerks” can include inappropriate attire or speech, and actions that are in opposition to community customs, mores and traditions. Underlying these insensitive actions is often an inability


or an unwillingness of the would-be hydrophilanthropist to understand and fully empathize with local values and circumstances.

Crusaders After the Holy Grail – Trying to Convert Those Who Just Want Clean Water

Some hydrophilanthropists have a second agenda in their WASH efforts, and that is to impose their religious beliefs on a foreign community. While many individuals and faith-based charities are inspired by a religious world view that positively motivates their actions, there are some who thoughtlessly shove their convictions and dogmas down the throats of those they are attempting to assist. Similar to the previous section, this activity effectively disrespects local values and perspectives, to the detriment of clean water projects.

Seal Team Six Approach – Short-Term In and Out, Epitomizing a Lack of Follow Up

Many professionals, students and other individuals who donate their service and resources on WASH projects overseas have severe financial limitations and time constraints. Like the group SEAL Team Six, popularized in the movie Zero Dark Thirty that chronicled the raid on Osama Bin Laden, many volunteers feel like they are inserted into a foreign country and then extracted on a predetermined schedule. (SEAL Team Six is the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, NSWDG, which specializes in rapid surgical military operations). This creates a tendency to have incomplete projects with no follow through. Writing about groundwater management needs, Burke and Moench (2000) stated, “needs cannot be viewed as ‘problems’ that, once ‘solved’, require little attention. Instead, current problems signal the emergence of management needs that will require long-term attention.”

Beyond groundwater management, their comments are appropriate to address shortcomings that plague the larger arena of WASH management as well. The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Rotary Action Group of Rotary International (WASHRAG 2014) points out: “The world is discovering that effective programs take three to five years to be sustainable – local community engagement and appropriate technologies are keys to success.”

Another strategic error made by many groups is measuring success by the number of beneficiaries, not the long term sustainability of a project. Ned Breslin (2010) writes, “Despite the images that dominate the sector – pictures of children happily gulping water from a new tap or the counter-image of women collecting water from dirty puddles – the real image should be the one that plays itself out every day all over the world of the woman walking slowly past a broken handpump, bucket at her side or on her head, on her way to (or from) that scoop hole or dirty puddle that she once hoped would never again be part of her life.”

Hopefully that paradigm, of beneficiaries before sustainability, is changing.

The Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme – Depending on Resources That Aren’t There

Bernard L. Madoff was arrested in 2008, convicted on conducting the largest securities financial fraud in history, a “ponzi” scheme where he gained investors, while at the same time made no tangible investments. While WASH groups do not conduct ponzi schemes, some similarly venture into new projects with a dependence on nonexistent resources. This includes unrealistically high standards of expected transportation and shipping, unfounded trust in local availability of supplies and services, reliance on a non-existent workforce, and false confidence in projected government cooperation and easy permitting. The quixotic quest of these well-motivated hydrophilanthropists often ends abruptly or becomes mired in unforeseen complications.

The “Balrog Got Gandalf” Eventuality – Missing Oversight or Leadership

Some WASH projects either begin with poor leadership or lose a central organizing leader due to unanticipated events (e.g. illness). Like wandering people, dwarfs and hobbits from Tolkien, the once-straightforward water and sanitation undertakings can begin to meander. Out of the Mines of Moria the leaderless hydrophilanthropists can find themselves running from the wargs of lost language translational skills, the orcs of missing personal contact information, and/or the goblins of derailed logistics. Contingency planning can avoid this.

Additionally, inherent project weaknesses can be exacerbated due to the very nature of their volunteers. Breslin (2010) points out the example of engineering students implementing projects in developing countries, where they would never be allowed to implement an engineering project in their more affluent home country. But fundamental mistakes have even been made by experienced professionals without proper guidance, oversight and leadership.

The Peter Pan, Playpump People Diversion – Inappropriate Technology

Peter Pan’s ardent wish to never grow up is reflected in the PlayPump technology, where the energy from a spinning playground roundabout disk is used to pump water from a well. The image of playful children having a great time and simultaneously pumping needed water in a developing nation is a happy image that has engaged many donors. The reality is more moderate (Chambers 2009). In some cases, like elementary schools with abundant children and plentiful shallow groundwater, this technology may be very beneficial. However, PlayPumps are less efficient hand pumps or treadle pumps, and are ill-fitting for many target communities. This top-down, donor pleasing idea fails significantly in rural communities, where people do not ride on this contraption for what would be sickening hours, but struggle to turn these by hand. Many claim that the marketing claims have been overblown, and some charities flat-out refuse to install them. Some of their reasons are: the cost (four regular pumps could be installed for the price of one PlayPump), complex pump mechanisms that are hard to maintain and repair, dependence on child labor, the community need for water at times when children would not be playing (during school hours, during inclement weather, and in the early morning), and injury risk. The PlayPump is symptomatic of many different applications of inappropriate technology to WASH effort.

Relics of other forms of inappropriate technology litter the landscape in the developing world. Examples include: motorized well pumps that have broken down in short order and were unable to be repaired, then scavenged for parts, (where a repairable hand pump would have been more appropriate); and toilets installed in places where no toilet paper is available and the


facilities quickly become blocked with refuse and then overflow.

The Superman Syndrome – I Can Do It All!

Too many WASH programs do not engage the local communities in which they operate, for shared success. They swoop in, “fix” a problem, and swoop out, supplying free water or sanitary systems, and not providing a basis for community stewardship and sustainability. The stated goal of many non-government and service organizations (NGOs) is to “help the poor,” but too often this does not include providing the continuing educational and entrepreneurial resources to ensure sustainability. Perhaps this dilemma is best stated by Breslin (2010): “This story plays out day after day in Africa despite the compelling stories told by the NGOs and service organizations who demand more money to help the poor. The underlying message of free water systems is that communities are “too poor,” “too disorganized,” or (dare we say what all this truly means) “too incompetent” to actually lead their own development. The undertones are patronizing without exception. The reality is that most NGOs and almost all hands-on practitioners do not have the time, patience or the real access and understanding of community development to establish the sound financial underpinnings critical to project success.”

So the Superman (woman) hydrophilanthropist, who is not cognizant of his/her underlying patronizing attitude, zooms in, installs a system, and zooms out, not working with the locals. It is a quick trip with Supermen and Superwomen not drawing on the community’s knowledge and abilities, and without attempting work together for sustainability. One can imagine a statement from one of these Superheroes (such as the words of the comedian Christopher Titus’s anti-hero) wafting back through the air as they fly away: “My work here is done – when your self esteem returns, so will I!”

Suggestions for a Way ForwardThere is no single approach to WASH

development that fits all situations, but some basic principles create common themes for success. Taking a broad view, and anticipating future contingencies for a project is an excellent start. This includes a proper hydrogeological evaluation for future well sites. Respecting the indigenous culture and mores

of societies that hydrophilantropists visit can go a long way into building good-will. Divesting practitioners of the need to their own impose separate belief systems on the populace allows trust to develop. A crucial building block is performing comprehensive, on-the-ground pre-evaluation that includes consideration of each community’s abilities, resources, and potential development. That robust understanding of local resources can foster a genuine appreciation of the abilities and potential for what the community can be, tying hydrophilanthrophy into overall economic and human development. Following up WASH projects with post evaluation activities that promote sustainability is critical. One example would be linking WASH projects with community education and self-education responsive to arising needs and community responsibility for stewardship. Another essential element is using appropriate technology that permits easy system repair and maintenance. Importantly, assisting the community in taking on the responsibility for future WASH success—handing the baton over—is one of the best gifts hydrophilanthropists can give. For those who serve throughout the world, you deserve admiration and support.

This has been an attempt to present, in a facetious way, the potential foibles and stumblings of professionals and nonprofessionals who engage in profoundly important WASH activities. The preceding heuristic exercise is meant to illustrate and underline some basic suggestions for WASH improvement. The author wishes to express his apologies to the historical and literary figures he has bashed and ill-used in the quest of establishing their admittedly tenuous links with hydrophilanthropical misdeeds and ineffective action. ■

David KreamerisaProfessorofGeoscienceandispastDirectoroftheinterdisciplinaryWaterResourcesManagementGraduateProgramattheUniversityofNevada,LasVegas.HisPh.D.isinhydrologyfromtheUniversityofArizona,andhewasanAssistantProfessorinCivilEngineeringatArizonaStateUniversity.David’sresearchincludesenvironmentalcontamination,springsustainability,andcleanwatersupplyindevelopingnations.Hehasgivenover150invitedlectures,seminarsandworkshopsinformanygroupsincluding:theU.S.EPA,U.S.BLM,NationalGroundWaterAssociation,andshortcoursesforoverhalfthestatesintheU.S.Hehasgiveninvited

presentationsatover50Universities,andhasspokeninEurope,Asia,theCaribbean,Pacificislandnations,SouthAmerica,AfricaandtheMiddleEast.HeservesasVicePresidentforNorthAmericafortheInternationalAssociationofHydrogeologists,andPastPresidentoftheUniversitiesCouncilonWaterResources.

Contact InformationDavidK.KreamerProfessor,UniversityofNevada,LasVegasVicePresidentforNorthAmerica,InternationalAssociationofHydrogeologistsPastPresident,UniversitiesCouncilonWaterResourcesDepartmentofGeoscience,UNLV4505MarylandParkwayLasVegas,NV89154-4010001(702)[email protected]

References Brahic,C.,2004,CourtclearsgeologistsinBangladesharseniccase.ScienceandDevelopmentNetworkwebsite.http://www.scidev.net/global/pollution/news/court-clears-geologists-in-bangladesh-arsenic-case.html(accessedOctober27,2014).

Breslin,E..2010,Rethinkinghydrophilanthropy.UCOWR.JournalofContemporaryWaterResearchandEducation.v.145,August2010.P.65–73.Articlefirstpublishedonline:9SEP2010.doi:10.1111/j.1936-704X.2010.00084.

Burke,J.J.,andMoench,M.H.,2000,Groundwaterandsociety:Resources,tensions,Opportunities,UnitedNationspublicationno.E.99.II.A.1,NewYork,ISBN92-1-104485-5,pp.170.

Chambers,A.2014,Africa’snot-so-magicroundabout.TheGuardian,November25,2009http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/24/africa-charity-water-pumps-roundabouts(accessedNovember2,2014).

Clarke,T.2001,Bangladeshistosueoverarsenicpoisoning,Publishedonline11October2001|Nature|doi:10.1038/news011011-14http://www.nature.com/news/2001/011011/full/news011011-14.html(accessedOctober2,2014).

Hossain,M,.2006,Arsenic-poisoninglawsuitrejectedbyBritain,July10,2006,MailandGuardian.http://mg.co.za/article/2006-07-10-arsenicpoisoning-lawsuit-rejected-by-britain(AccessedOctober27,2014).

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Sauer,J.2010,WhyUSphilanthropistsshouldcareaboutwaterandsanitation.TheHuffingtonPost,June22,2010.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-sauer/why-us-philanthropists-sh_b_548221.html(accessedOctober28,2014).

WASRAG,2014,WaterandSanitationRotaryActionGroup.http://www.wasrag.org/index.aspx(accessedNovember.4,2014).

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WHO,2014,Progressondrinkingwaterandsanitation–2014update.WorldHealthOrganization.UNICEF.ISBN9789241507240(NLMclassification:WA670)WHOPress,WorldHealthOrganization,Switzerland


Hydrophilanthropy in HondurasAPotableWaterSystemPartnershipforRuralMountainCommunities

To help address the problem, I have worked in the area since 2001 assisting Hondurans Rolando López, Alex del Cid Vásquez and local villagers construct community water systems in the Municipio (similar to a county) de Omoa, a jurisdiction of about 30,000 residents. These water systems are simple gravity-flow systems that distribute water from high elevation springs to a 5,000 or 7,500 gallon chlorinator-equipped ferroconcrete tank via PVC and/or GI (galvanized iron) piping and then to individual households to provide each residence with a tap. Water is to be used for household use only; irrigation using project water is proscribed. Villagers build the systems themselves, with guidance from Alex del Cid Vásquez.

University of New Mexico students worked in these areas with me from 2001

Michael Campana

Recollection

Few politicians and agencies find it worth their while to help the residents scattered among the rugged Sierra de Omoa in northwestern Honduras with their potable water problems. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

find the topography and limited access challenging with a high risk of project failure – anathema to donors. Politicians find the sparsely-populated region infertile ground for votes. Many rural communities (populations about 100 to 400) have been without reliable, safe potable water supplies for their entire existence.

through 2005. Each of the five student cohorts spent time each June during those years working side-by-side with villagers building the water systems. The students’ work in-country and additional tasks formed the basis for the capstone field course in the Master of Water Resources (MWR) degree. Money to fund the trips was raised from a variety of sources. Detailed descriptions of these trips can be found in Campana (2010a; 2010b).

RealityThe last of the aforementioned

student trips ended in 2005; I moved to Oregon State University (OSU) in May 2006. Had I remained in New Mexico, the trips would not have continued. I had concerns about sustainability and other issues (Campana, 2010a; 2010b). I worried whether we were ‘do-gooders’

F E A T U R E

who did not contribute much to the well-being of the villagers. Another unexpected issue would also arise, one that I had not imagined. More on that later.

During the period from 2006 -2010, I made few trips to Honduras because I had no projects there. The Ann Campana Judge Foundation (ACJF), which I founded in 2002, had accrued adequate funds to enable me to support the work of other groups, mainly in Honduras (Texas Water Mission, PREDISAN, Northlake Church of Christ, Living Water) and Nicaragua (El Porvenir, Agua Para La Vida). Note that the ACJF did not support the student trips.

As the first decade of the 21st century ended, I was considering resuming student trips to Honduras. The ACJF was now in a financial position to support the construction of potable water systems in Honduras. I had satisfied myself that the work was sustainable and a real contribution to the well-being of the rural hondureños and hondureñas. I had also received many inquiries from students around the country asking when I would start the trips again, including many inquiries from those at OSU.

One inquiry was particularly intriguing. It came from an engineering professor at a U.S. public university. She wanted to know if I would take 6-8 junior engineering majors to Honduras to work on a water project of my choosing. Her


school would pay our expenses. An offer I could not refuse! But that ‘unexpected issue’ to which I alluded earlier arose: Taking students to Honduras became almost impossible because Honduras had the highest murder rate of any country on Earth. Unbeknownst to me, Honduras had claimed the #1 spot, and had become a pariah for university administrators. To make matters worse, San Pedro Sula, the country’s economic hub and the city into which I f lew, had the world’s highest murder rate. An official at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa strongly advised

us not to bring students. Even Peace Corps was abandoning Honduras.

With no students, my wish to continue helping to build potable water systems was a non-starter. Or was it?

ReduxWhile I pondered my future in

Honduras from the comfort of the U.S., things besides the murder rates were on the move in Honduras. Rolando López was adding more contacts to his already-prodigious list. He is a superb facilitator and manager. The Municipio de Omoa had a new mayor: Prof. Ricardo Alvarado, a teacher. Alex del Cid Vásquez was elected to Omoa’s municipal council and it was Alex who convinced Mayor Alvarado that it was in his best interests to bring potable water to his constituents. Not only was it a vote-getting strategy, but it also would burnish his reputation as a ‘man of the people’, which could lead to a higher political office. It would also enhance his stature among women, who would benefit most from potable water systems. The mayor was indeed convinced; he even formed a municipal

Office for Women (Oficina de Mujeres) that dealt with all women’s affairs, not just water and sanitation.

With Alex and Rolando’s help, the ACJF partnered with Omoa and Mayor Alvarado to bring potable water to three communities: Brisas del Rio Cuyamel, Los Mejias and Las Palmas. Rolando López and Alex del Cid Vásquez continued to play major roles: the former as a manager and facilitator and the latter as the project engineer/trainer and Omoa municipal councilor (through 2014). Mayor Alvarado marshaled the

RolandoLópez(left),RobertoMejias, andJorgeChávez-LosMejiastank

AlexdelCidVásquez(righthandonpipe) andLosMejiasvillagers.


forces of the municipal government to provide transportation, road maintenance, human power and assistance with other jurisdictions. The director of the Oficina de Mujeres was an ally in promoting community water systems; she knew how much women and girls were adversely impacted by unsafe water and a lack of sanitation. The successful work in the aforementioned villages prompted Mayor Alvarado and the ACJF to continue their partnership. The agreement to do so was by handshake; no written agreement exists.

The ACJF-Omoa partnership village water projects worked as follows. Each village must request a system and exhibit strong support for same; no village is forced to accept a water system nor will a village receive one without overwhelming community support. Before a project is started or even designed, the community’s residents are organized, a junta de agua (water committee) formed with tasks, training, financing and responsibilities identified. Watershed stewardship and elementary sanitation (latrines, etc.) are also introduced. At that point, SANAA (Servicio Autónomo Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados), the Honduran government agency responsible for rural water supply, approves each project and agrees to provide support (via its circuit rider system) after the project’s completion to ensure a measure of sustainability.

The partnership provides benefits beyond potable water. For example, road maintenance needed for equipment access assists villagers in getting their products to market; students traveling to school; and transportation and commerce in general. Politicians benefit by acquiring political capital. In particular, they are seen helping their constituents obtain one of the necessities of life ‐ a reliable supply of potable water.

The ACJF has started working in the Municipio de Choloma, a large (c. 225,000 residents) municipality north of the city of San Pedro Sula. Both

Omoa and Choloma are municipalities in the Departamento (equivalent to a U.S. state) de Cortés. Choloma also has villages in the Sierra de Omoa. We have recently finished a project in the village of El Tamarindo and are contemplating a project in another Choloma village but do not yet have a partnership with the Municipio de Choloma. Talks are in progress. We are also considering more projects in Omoa as well.

ReflectionsThe partnership with the Municipio

de Omoa has worked well. It is based upon mutual trust among individuals; it is not institutionalized. Elections in November 2014 could possibly change things. Alex del Cid Vásquez is no longer on the municipal council, but is working for Mayor Alvarado, who was re-elected in 2014. Rolando López and others in the region aligned themselves with a new political party, the PAC or El Partido Anti Corrupción (Anti-Corruption Party), that ran against the mayor’s party. As of this writing I am unsure how this will affect the partnership. I am optimistic.

Rolando López and I are also looking beyond Omoa and Choloma. We are developing plans to once again include students in the projects to provide experiential learning and cross-cultural experiences for both US and Honduran students. Security issues continue to hamper efforts to bring US students to the area.

Our vision extends to the establishment of a school, Escuela Técnica de Agua Potable (ETAP), or Technical School for Drinking Water, to train local students to meet rural potable water needs in Honduras. Such a school exists in Nicaragua, as part of Agua Para La Vida’s operations there. There is ample need for such a school in Honduras, which would enable Hondurans to solve their own rural water problems. After all, building capacity is really what our work in Honduras is all about.

Is there an ETAP in Honduras’ future? Both Rolando and I hope that at least one more partnership involving the establishment of an ETAP is in the offing. ¡Buena suerte! ■

Michael E. CampanaisProfessorofHydrogeologyandWaterResourcesManagementatOregonStateUniversityandAWRATechnicalDirector.PriorappointmentswereattheUniversityofNewMexico,wherehedirectedtheWaterResourcesProgramandisnowEmeritusProfessorofHydrogeology,andtheDesertResearchInstitute.HeisaformerAWRAPresidentandanaviddevoteeofsocialmedia,havingbloggedatWaterWiredsince2007andtweetedsince2009.Dr.CampanaisPresidentoftheNationalGroundWaterResearchandEducationalFoundation,a501(c)(3)nonprofitandservesontheboardofHydrogeologistsWithoutBorders.HeisactiveinWaSH(water,sanitation,andhygiene)issuesandprojectsindevelopingregions,especiallyCentralAmerica.Tothatend,hefoundedtheAnnCampanaJudgeFoundationin2002,a501(c)(3)hydrophilanthropicnonprofitthatconductsandsupportsWaSHprojectsinHonduras,Nicaragua,Guatemala,andElSalvador.HisSpanishisstillmarginal.

Contact Information MichaelE.Campana,Professor CollegeofEarth,Atmospheric,andOceanSciences OregonStateUniversity 104CEOASAdministrationBuilding Corvallis,OR97331-5503 Cell:+15416024085Skype:aguadoc Email:[email protected] OSUWWWsite:http://ceoas.oregonstate.edu/profile/campana/ WaterWiredblog:http://www.waterwored.org WaterWiredTwitter:http://twitter.com/WaterWired ACJFoundation:http://www.acjfoundation.org

References Campana,MichaelE.,2010a.HydrophilanthropyandExperientialLearninginHonduras.WaterResourcesIMPACT12(5):6-8.http://bit.ly/9ColgZ

Campana,MichaelE.,2010b.Hydrophilanthropy,WaSH,andExperientialLearninginDevelopingCountries.JournalofContemporaryWaterResearchandEducation145:36-44http://bit.ly/1MfE6hO

Each of the five student cohorts spent time each June during those years working side-by-side with villagers building the water systems. The stu-dents’ work in-country and additional tasks formed the basis for the cap-

stone field course in the Master of Water Resources (MWR) degree.

❝

❞


F E A T U R E

The University of Oklahoma WaTER Center – Water SecurityQuantity, Quality, EquityDavid Sabatini, Jim Chamberlain, Robert Dreibelbis, Yang Hong, Randy Kolar, Robert Knox, and Robert Nairn

History of the OU WaTER Center

We in Oklahoma have a long history of dealing with water challenges. The severe drought of the 1930s (the “Dust Bowl”), and the subsequent construction of water

impoundments and advances in agriculture practices, are part of our history and culture. We also have experience with water quality issues, ranging from groundwater tainted with naturally occurring arsenic and fluoride to surface water contaminated by historic mining practices. At OU, the Environmental Science degree program began in 1958, with the School of Civil Engineering becoming the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science in 1967. In 1979, OU became part of the National Center for Ground Water Research, an EPA Center of Excellence, with the OU Environmental and Ground Water Institute established in 1983. In 2006, in response to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and in an effort to become more global and holistic in focus, EGWI became the WaTER (Water Technologies for Emerging Regions) Center, which focuses on water and sanitation issues in developing countries, as well as in resource-challenged communities in the U.S. The mission of the WaTER Center (WaTER.ou.edu) is water and sanitation for all, and the vision is the pursuit of improved health, education, development and peace. The WaTER Center strategic plan targets activities in education, outreach and research.

Education – WaTER Minor/Service LearningSince 2006, we have offered an introductory course

on water, sanitation and health (WASH). In 2014, we established an undergraduate minor in “Water and Sanitation for Health and Sustainable Development” (aka, the WaTER Minor), which is open to students from any major. All WaTER Minor students take the introductory course and a hands-on field methods course, and they complete an intercultural immersion experience in a developing country or region. Recognizing that sustainable solutions fall at the nexus of appropriate technology, cultural sensitivity and a viable market-based model, students also take courses in each of these areas. The curriculum helps to prepare students for the Peace Corps, NGOs or graduate level work in sustainable development. Just in its first year, the WaTER Minor already has 20 students enrolled. More recently, the WaTER Center is part of a university-wide program to establish a service-learning course focused on work at St. Monica’s girl’s school in Gulu, Uganda; projects include tutoring students, developing plans for improved drinking water provision, and building lodge huts using plastic bottle construction techniques. The multidisciplinary team will work together while being immersed in a rich African culture that is recovering from the reign of terror of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Outreach – Water Prize/Conference & SWBOne of the first outreach activities of the WaTER

Center was the establishment of the OU International Water Prize in 2008. It was inspired by OU’s highly-visible Neustadt International Prize for Literature, which is approaching the Nobel Prize in Literature in importance, with 30 Nobel laureates coming from the Neustadt program over the past 40+ years. Thus, inspired by this success, the OU Water Prize was formulated to “recognize and honor an individual, acting alone or as a leader of an organization, who has made significant contributions, either through


research, teaching or service activities, in the field of water supply and sanitation, particularly for small villages/communities in rural or remote regions.” In talking to Professor R.C. Davis, who administers the Neustadt Prize, it became clear that the prize’s prestige is due largely to the selection process, which we adopted with only minor modifications. Briefly, the WaTER Center Directors choose a panel of five to seven jurors, who themselves are prominent in the field; they are charged with each nominating one candidate for the prize. Jurors are brought to campus for collective deliberations, where a positive elimination process is used, i.e., rounds of dialogue and voting are used to eliminate one nominee at a time so that a consensus can be formed around the winning nominee. The four prize recipients to date have been: 2009 – Dr. Steve Luby, Bangladesh; 2011 – Mr. Ben Fawcett, Australia; 2013 – Ms. Ada Oko-Williams, Burkina-Faso; and 2015 – Mr. Peter Lochery, CARE International/Atlanta.

The Water Prize, which includes a substantive cash award and a custom glass globe in the shape of a water drop, is awarded at our biennial WaTER Conference. The conference brings together people from diverse backgrounds (countries, disciplines, experience) and allows our students to learn from, and

interact with, these leaders. Conference sessions include the following: Assessment of WASH Interventions, Groundwater Resources and Well-Drilling Challenges, Fluoride Effects and Mitigation, Capacity-Building, Water Resiliency and Reuse, Gender and Social Equity, Social Entrepreneurship and Market-Based Approaches, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. Conference participation has ranged from 170-200 participants from 25-30 countries and 5-6 continents; the next conference will be in September 2017 (WaTER.ou.edu).

Sooners Without Borders (SWB), our successor to EWB, is a service organization on campus that promotes activities and awareness regarding development challenges, such as clean water, sanitation and health. The group has sent students to New Orleans (hurricane rebuilding projects), Bolivia (passive mine drainage remediation), Guatemala (school construction), and El Salvador (water supply and irrigation). SWB students also plan activities for local K-12 students, including a water walk, water pipe rally to demonstrate hydraulics and a poster contest to increase awareness of water scarcity and the importance of clean water.

WaTER Center Research The WaTER Center has a growing

research portfolio focusing on water quantity, water quality and water equity at scales ranging from the village to the global scale, with WaTER Center faculty conducting research in N. America, S. America, Africa and Asia.

Research – Water Quantity: While the U.S. and Europe are well-instrumented for gathering weather data, this is not true for large portions of the world, especially in developing countries. This missing data is critical for assessing global weather and climate patterns and for predicting the near- to long-term hydrologic impacts of natural and anthropogenic conditions. Remote sensing data (e.g., satellite data) has the exciting potential to help fill data gaps and thereby help develop, calibrate and validate hydrologic models to predict drought or flooding scenarios, both near-term and in the future under climate change scenarios. With support from USAID, NASA, and NSF, faculty and students from the OU WaTER Center and the OU HyDROS Lab (http://hydro.ou.edu) have developed advanced modeling capabilities and training materials for use in capacity building workshops, which have been held in numerous emerging regions, including Namibia, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Nigeria, Colombia, and Rwanda. The technologies transferred to governmental agencies and research institutions include the Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (CREST) hydrologic model, the Ensemble Framework for Flash Flood Forecast (EF5) system, and the coupled CREST/landslide model iCRESLIDE.

Research – Water Quality: In the high desert near Potosi, Bolivia, mineral extraction activities have significantly degraded precious water resources. Subsistence farmers (campesinos) irrigate with mine impacted waters containing metal concentrations well above global standards (e.g., arsenic, lead, cadmium, zinc). This leads to elevated ecotoxic concentrations in staple crops (e.g., potatoes) and resultant human health concerns. Faculty and students from the OU WaTER Center, along with partners from the OU Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds, St. Francis University (Loretto, PA), Universidad de Autonoma Tomas Frias (Potosi), Engineers in Action, Rotary International and others, have implemented a pilot scale passive treatment system to

WaTERCenterConferenceandPrize:(LefttoRight)JimChamberlain,RobertKnox, DavidSabatini,RandyKolar,PeterLochery(PrizeRecipient),RobertDreibelbis,YangHong,andBobNairnat2015OUInternationalWaTERConferenceandWaterPrizeCeremony. (AndbronzewoolymammothinthebackgroundattheOUSamNobleMuseumofNaturalHistory,venuefortheplenarybanquetandtalk–seeWaTER.ou.eduforPrizeLecture.)


address such waters in the Rio Juckucha watershed, Bolivia. A full-scale passive treatment system is currently being planned.

The WaTER Center’s fluoride work in Ethiopia helps to address the needs of an estimated 10-12 million people in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia that are exposed to naturally occurring (geogenic) fluoride at levels that cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. Our work, conducted in collaboration with Addis Ababa University, the Ethiopia Ministry of Water and Energy, and local NGOs (OSHO, CRS), focuses on developing low cost fluoride mitigation systems that are appropriate in the Ethiopian context (using locally available and locally produced materials). This research has led to concepts that are helping local villages while in Ethiopia and that may ultimately be applicable in other developing countries (an estimated 200 million globally), as well as in the United States.

Research – Water Equity: An emerging focus area for WaTER Center research is the equitable allocation of water and sanitation resources within and between populations and ensuring that improvements benefit those most in need. Two examples of this research include a focus on gender equity relative to sanitation, and equitable allocation of scarce water sources between competing demands for human consumption, energy production, and agricultural production. Relative to gender equity, ongoing research is seeking to understand the gender-specific sanitation needs of women in India where only one-third of the population has access to an improved toilet facility. In particular, researchers with OU WaTER Center, along with its

anticipate and avoid water-caused instability in the future, on a local and global scale. The WaTER Center seeks to play a leadership role in pursuit of such a water secure future, so that we can live in harmony with one another, and with our planet. ■

David Sabatini isDavidRossBoydProfessorandSunOilCompanyEndowedChairofCivilEngineeringandEnvironmentalScienceatUniversityofOklahoma,whereheisDirectoroftheWaTERCenter.Hiscurrentresearchincludessustainabledrinkingwatersystemsfordevelopingcountries.HeisformerEditor-in-Chief/currentAssociateEditorofJournal of Contaminant HydrologyandEditorialBoardmember,Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development.Hehascoauthoredorcoeditedfourbooksandover190refereedjournalpublications.Hisawardsinclude:OUDavidL.BorenAwardforOutstandingGlobalEngagement(2015),theinauguralPursuitofExcellenceAward,OUGalloglyCollegeofEngineering(2015),DistinguishedAlumnusAward,UniversityofIllinoisCivilEngineering(2012),WaterEnvironmentFederationMeritAwardforWorkinDevelopingCountries(2011),andSeniorFulbrightScholarattheUniversitaetTuebingen,Germany(1997/98).HereceivedhisBSCEfromIllinois,hisMSCEfromMemphisStateandhisPhDfrom IowaState.

Contact Information DavidSabatini OUWaTERCenter SchoolofCivilEngineeringand EnvironmentalScience UniversityofOklahoma Norman,OK73019 [email protected];WaTER.ou.edu

research and implementation partners, are examining the social and psychological effects of constrained resource access on women and girls, and then measuring the success of interventions to improve psychological, behavioral, and reproductive outcomes. Understanding these impacts on marginalized women and marginalized communities is an explicit focus area.

Further, beyond human consumption and hygiene, water is also needed for food and energy production. Exploring ways to equitably distribute our precious water resources at this human/energy/food nexus is an area of growing research interest in the WaTER Center, trying to maximize development benefits while minimizing unintended consequences.

Looking aheadWhile the WaTER Center was partly

established in response to the UN MDGs, we now find ourselves at the threshold of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; 2015-2030). Achieving these goals requires transformational changes in how we approach water and WASH to maximize progress while minimizing unintended consequences in pursuit of a water secure world. In the past, lower human population often rendered water relatively abundant, and consequently, water stewardship less critical. Urbanization and climate change have and will continue to exacerbate the water security challenges experienced in isolated cases today. It is thus imperative that we learn from recent pioneering efforts developed for water-stressed environments so that we can

WaTERCenterinElSalvador:SoonersWithoutBorder (SWB)studentsworkingonawaterproject.

WaTERCenterinEthiopia:TeshomeLemma,JimChamberlainandDavidSabatini,alongwithlocalchildren,inaremotevillageinthe

RiftValleyworkingonpoint-of-usefluoridetreatment.


Waterborne disease is a global public health problem, especially in developing countries like Haiti and Bangladesh. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, globally, 748 million people lack

access to a safe drinking water sources and 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation (1). This lack of sanitation infrastructure and clean water led to widespread diarrheal disease a reduction in economic productivity. Unsafe and unsustainable drinking water systems in developing countries are the result of a complex set of economic, ecologic, geologic, sociocultural, and political factors, which require a transdisciplinary approach for evaluation and successful intervention.

Peter J. Wampler, Azizur R. Molla and Richard R. Rediske

Cultural perceptions of water in many developing countries are based on a combination of religious beliefs, education and common practice, which can lead to dangerous misconceptions about the safety of water being consumed, and often a lack of acceptance of effective safe-water interventions. Despite this important association between water safety and cultural perceptions, the cultural perspective is often neglected in water resource assessments and intervention planning and implementation. A transdisciplinary approach provides a means to enhance our understanding of the social landscape and ecological contexts of water borne infectious disease, improving prevention and control of emerging infections and pathogens (2, 3, 4).

The nature and impact of water-related infectious diseases on human health are mediated by both ecologic and sociocultural processes (5, 6). Transdisciplinary teams of public health, natural, social and physical scientists should focus on integrating

The anthropological concepts of emic and etic viewpoints, originally proposed by Pike, provide a useful framework for understanding the complex relationship between water and culture. These concepts have been refined and expanded in the concept of indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) (7). Both IEK and the emic concept represent the intrinsic set of cultural beliefs and traditions that shape the way a given society or community views and interacts with their natural surroundings. This is in contrast to the scientific (etic or external) perspective, which is comprised of empirical information that can inform and influence behavior if successfully communicated to a receptive community. The scientific view of water resources includes water quality data, pathogen abundance and classification, geology, ecology, hydrology, and water treatment information (Fig. 1). In most developed nations, advances in science and engineering knowledge are rapidly incorporated into the society when critical human health impacts are involved. In contrast, the intrinsic cultural context and traditions in many developing nations results in a view of disease and water resources through a different cultural prism, which may be disconnected from, and unresponsive to, empirical scientific data.

For example, in Bangladesh, some villagers believe that evil power causes disease and holy words can get rid of the evil power. The villagers go to religious healers to get treated, and are asked to bring with them a glass or a bottle of water. The healer then whispers some holy words and blows on the water. The idea is that if the patient drinks the water, the evil power will leave the body and the patient will be cured. Viewed scientifically, the water may be clean and safe, or it may contain pathogens that can kill. Blowing onto it may introduce germs into the water which makes it less safe

F E A T U R E

Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Water Resources and Treatment in Developing Countries

empirical science, sociocultural and health data. By focusing on all the facets of the problem, research teams can more effectively combine their respective expertise and arrive at sustainable solutions that are compatible with the cultural context in which they are being implemented. This approach has been used successfully in rural Haiti by Paul Farmer’s organization, Partners in Health, to explore linkages between societal perceptions and disease.

Transdisciplinary perspectives and methods are needed to provide cultural context for empirical water quality and resource data. The understanding of how perceptions of water relate to empirical information can then be used as a road map to empower the local community, institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and water resource professionals. Implementing this road map will result in socially suitable training, education, and a set of realistic tools to provide safe water supplies in developing countries.


or have no effect at all. But from the point of view of the culture of the village, the water with holy words has the power to remove the evil that is causing the disease.

In Haiti, a similar cultural code exists with the Voodoo and Catholic culture, which has a profound impact on the consumption and perceptions of water. The dissonance between cultural concepts and empirical scientific data can result in the failure of an intervention strategy if conflicts are not understood and resolved in a culturally appropriate manner. While IEK and empirical scientific perspectives often are in conflict, their respective strengths can be used to produce more effective outcomes. What is needed is more than just physical water quality interventions, such as filters and chemicals, installed in homes and schools. Influential leaders within the local community must be enlisted to serve as catalysts for transforming cultural perceptions regarding water by incorporating and disseminating empirical scientific information. Empowering influential leaders within the local community with data and culturally suitable education will allow these leaders to help rather than hinder the efforts to provide sustainable water quality interventions.

In developing countries like Haiti, the need for sanitation, safe water supply programs, and effective water quality interventions have become acute due to the outbreak of cholera after the 2010 earthquake. The geology of Haiti is particularly prone to contamination, and recontamination, with water-borne pathogens. One of the

major strategies used to address this problem is the installation of protected sources, such as capped springs or wells, and point-of-use water quality interventions. There is empirical evidence in Haiti that some water quality interventions may actually increase the likelihood of contamination. For example, a solar powered water filter was installed in rural Haiti to treat contaminated water from a spring. Local community resources were not provided with socially suitable maintenance information and education. The filter became contaminated with bacteria, resulting in the filtered water being more contaminated than the source water. In order to be effective, water interventions must be designed to be socially suitable and sustainable for the target population, and coupled with public health education involving influential community leaders. Discussion and collaboration with these individuals may also provide important cultural insights into lifestyle issues that can be used to recommend the most appropriate intervention technology.

It is crucial to understand the underlying cultural framework of traditions and beliefs when undertaking water quality interventions because these factors influence decisions about water resource use. Sustainable water quality intervention decisions need to be made based on a collaborative combination of empirical, social and health sciences that include quantitative resource assessment and public health education consistent with cultural practices. In order to support and facilitate the transdisciplinary approach, more data and transdisciplinary studies are needed; including ethnographic surveys, public health surveys, hydrogeologic assessments, and water quality testing. This

approach will empower developing countries to better understand links between safe water and health through collaborations between international researchers, NGOs, governmental agencies, community leaders and stakeholders ■

Dr. Peter J. Wamplerisabroadlytrainedenvironmentalgeologistandgeomorphologistwithabackgroundinbothacademicandgovernmentregulationofminingandstormwater.HereceivedaPhDin2004forworkonhuman-andclimatic-inducedchangesalongtheClackamasRiverinOregon.WampleracceptedanassistantprofessorpositionatGrandValleyStateUniversity(GVSU)in2004.AsaprofessoratGVSU,hehasworkedwithundergraduateandgraduatestudentsonappliedwaterresourcesresearch:1)evaluatingGVSU’sstormwaterrunofffootprintandassistingindesigningBestManagementPractices(BMP)forGVSU(www.gvsu.edu/stormwater);2)investigatingwaterresourcesandgroundwatercontaminationpathwaysinruralHaiti(www.gvsu.edu/haitiwater);andevaluatinghumanimpactstoriversystemsresultingfromdamsandotherstructures(http://faculty.gvsu.edu/wamplerp/).HehastravelledtoHaiti10timessince2007toworkonwaterresourcesissuesandsafewaterinterventions,andrecentlybeganpreliminaryworkonwaterresourcesandtreatmentinGhana.

Contact Information Dr.PeterJ.Wampler AssociateProfessorofGeology PadnosHallofScience OneCampusDrive OfficePhone:(616)331-2834 OfficeFax:(616)331-3740 E-mail:[email protected]

References1WHO,UNICEF.“Progressondrinkingwaterandsanitation–2014update.”Retrievedfromhttp://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/112727/1/9789241507240_eng.pdfNovember2015(2014).

2J.Eisenbergetal.,Environmentaldeterminantsofinfectiousdisease:aframeworkfortrackingcausallinksandguidingpublichealthresearch.EnvironmentalHealthPerspectives.115(8),1216–1223(2007).

3S.Battermanetal.,Sustainablecontrolofwater-relatedinfectiousdiseases:areviewandproposalforinterdisciplinaryhealth-basedsystemsresearch.EnvironmentalHealthPerspectives.117(7),1023-1033(2009)

4A.J.McMichael,Thebiosphere,healthandsustainability.Science.297(5584),1093(2002).

5N.D.Lewis,Isthesocial—ecologicalframeworkusefulinunderstandinginfectiousdiseases?ThecaseofHIV/AIDS.Ecohealth.2(4),343–8(2005).

6M.L.Parkesetal.,Allhandsondeck:transdisciplinaryapproachestoemerginginfectiousdisease.EcoHealth2(4),258–272(2005).

7A.Davis,andK.Ruddle,Constructingconfidence:rationalskepticismandsystematicenquiryinlocalecologicalknowledgeresearch.EcologicalApplications.20(3)(2010).

Figure1.Conceptualmodelforthe transdisciplinaryapproach.


Since 2012, 23 undergraduate students from Northern Illinois University (NIU) have worked with Centers for Appropriate Technology and Indigenous Sustainability (CATIS-Mexico), a local non-governmental organization (NGO), to aid communities in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico with groundwater testing and filtration. Arsenic

and fluoride levels in the groundwater around San Miguel de Allende have risen to alarming concentrations (Ortega, 2009). In some wells, concentration of fluoride is as high as 17 ppm where the maximum contamination level (MCL) authorized by the Mexican government is 1.5ppm; arsenic has been recorded as high as 60 ppb, far exceeding the 25ppb MCL (Figure 1). This project introduced undergraduate students to water issues in indigenous communities that required sampling water quality, design and evaluation of low-cost solutions, and opportunities to aid the NGO with business strategies.

Engaging Undergraduate Students into Hydrophilanthropy in San Miguel de Allende, MexicoMelissa Lenczewski and Nicholas Pohlman

F E A T U R E


Why Mexico?One of the aims of this project is

to increase the number of Latino/as in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields by introducing students to field work in Mexico, and by demonstrating linkages between water resources, the environment and the history and culture of Mexico. As of 2006, American Geosciences Institute (AGI) found that only 6 percent of Bachelor of Science degrees in earth science were awarded to minorities, half the rate for all other STEM fields (Gonzales, 2006). Because this project is in Mexico and

undergraduate students – many of whom are first-generation in college – the field experience was their first opportunity to travel internationally, which can be a worrisome experience. Mexico allows for easy introduction to international travel by being similar enough to the USA to reduce student anxiety but different enough to make it exciting. In our past instances of taking students to Mexico, students felt that the experience helped make them confident to travel to other parts of the world (Benton, 2006). The cost for travel to and from U.S. to Mexico is modest (around $525/ticket at the time of the project) compared to other international destinations. Multiple daily direct flights to and from the airport allow for quick departure if illness or other unforeseen circumstances necessitate a return home. In addition, food and lodging are inexpensive.

Located in San Miguel de Allende, CATIS-Mexico focuses on sustainability and appropriate technology for economically-limited communities. By partnering with an NGO that has offices within the communities and has been continuously connecting with those communities, students, from the moment they land in the Mexico, get to work directly with the people they are helping. The students, in collaboration with CATIS-Mexico, also observe how to build long-term capacity with the communities that continues after they leave. The technical assistance students provide is community driven and uses sustainable technologies. Projects to evaluate contaminant mitigation or design of components are brought back to the U.S. to be accomplished during the academic term. This allows for the next group of students to begin work on a project and then get to see it implemented the following summer. The NGO supports the students by answering questions, providing guidance and introducing them to the people they will be helping.

Undergraduate Research ProjectsEngaged learning activities such as

hydrophilanthropy bridge the theory students learn in the classroom to practice into the real world. This project is unique in that it brings together students from different disciplines including engineering,

science, public health and business, to work towards a common goal. Focusing on student organizations instead of classroom or independent research allows the individual passion to germinate and continue growing after graduation by encouraging participation in organized philanthropy. Unfortunately, memberships are declining in many philanthropic organizations due to aging of participants. Millennials believe they can improve the world and hopefully projects like these help 18-24 year old students recognize the benefit of joining these organizations, plus develop a lifelong habit of giving. Past success will be described, yet the field-work continues as an ongoing project that attracts students from various skill and academic levels who fit the current needs of CATIS-Mexico. Currently three areas identified by the NGO which require student support include: 1) testing water quality in communities; 2) developing of an attachment for fluoride and arsenic removal; and 3) assisting in development of business related activities.

The first project was a student team comprised from NIU’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native American Students in Science (SACNAS), and Geology Club. They completed a comprehensive survey of water quality with over 50 rural community wells at varying elevations across Guanajuato and throughout the Independence Aquifer (Figure 2). Anion analysis was done on an ion chromatograph (IC) and metals were analyzed via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Sixty percent of the communities tested exceeded Mexican standards for fluoride and arsenic in drinking water. In most of these communities, this was the first time they had their water tested and concentrations reported back to them. By providing the results, leaders within communities can understand their health problems and then defend against over exploitation of their drinking water supply by large agribusiness. The undergraduate students realize that the water quality testing and public health implications they learned about in the classroom have real- world impact.

In a second on-going project, students are working with CATIS-Mexico’s ceramic

encompasses a cultural aspect, we have attracted 5 Latino/a students to the project. In addition, because of the focus on the geographic area from which many of the student’s families originate, they do not feel added pressure to justify to their families the reasoning behind their decision to pursue this opportunity, which otherwise might seem untraditional and foreign to their parents (Hurtado et al., 2008).

An additional benefit of hosting the project in Mexico is the easier introduction of international travel and philanthropy projects. For some of the

Figure1.Distributionoffluorideinthe IndependenceaquiferinMexico (courtesyofCATIS-Mexico).

Figure2.StudentsworkingwithCATIS,a localorganization,examinewaterquality inawellbuiltin1884(depth75ft)inExhaciendadeJesus.Fluoridelevelswerebelow1.5ppmandarsenicwasnotdetected.Anewdeep(500ft)wellinstalledacross thestreetcontainedfluoridelevelsat 18ppmandarsenicat60ppb.


passive filtration system (Figure 3), which has proven to remove turbidity and pathogens from drinking water. CATIS-Mexico already had developed a successful ceramic filter and how to construct a filter system for home use when students were introduced to the project. The students were challenged to improve the filter system to decrease arsenic and fluoride levels that were identified by the initial project team. The criterion for an in-line attachment or passive reservoir addition is that it must be cheap, low technology, sustainable, fabricated from local materials, and be socially conscious. Currently, the students and CATIS are evaluating pyrolized bonechar to decrease fluoride and arsenic concentrations (Brunson and Sabatini, 2009). As an example, the 2015 EWB cohort developed a cookstove-pyrolsis chamber as a smaller-scale companion to CATIS-Mexico’s community-scale pyrolysis system. The students gained field experience from CATIS-Mexico on how to build from locally sourced materials. Initial results for removal of fluoride from bonechar use look promising (between 50-95% removal). While the full water-quality benefits are still pending, students were able to demonstrate real-time problem solving and creativity within the constraints of a limited resource environment, all of which will benefit their long-term commitment to hydrophilanthropy.

The last on-going project involves business students in the Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Entrepreneurs (CAUSE) to market the existing filter systems (Figure 3), develop business plans, and create more social entrepreneurs in the region. Business student can help small NGOs with many issues associated with running an organization. While attempting to apply their knowledge from classroom into practice, many students learned that theories learned in the classroom are not universally applicable. One example was the CAUSE team’s suggestion for social network marketing, which is very effective in suburban Chicago but not possible in

San Miguel de Allende or rural Mexico due to lack of internet services and cell phone ownership. Despite some setbacks, business students have been helping with fundraising for the organization in the Chicago metro area learning that tactics and approaches necessary for NGOs and other philanthropic organizations.

ConclusionOver the last four years, working in

Mexico on a hydrophilanthropy been a great success but there were many challenges that had to be overcome. Many of our students do not speak Spanish, or if they have conversational understanding they do not know specific terms. We have overcome this in two ways. First, partnership with CATIS-Mexico provides excellent translators for the students. Second, by having a diverse student population the students can translate business, science, and engineering for each other. Additionally, camaraderie and safe travel practices were developed. Safety while travelling aboard is always a concern in Mexico. Discussions with students and their parents that San Miguel de Allende has a large American retirement community and has been voted the best city in world by CNN (2013) mitigates some of the worries. All students are required to register with US Department of State and attend a safety lecture provided by NIU’s International Office. The entire group of students shared one house in Mexico to build camaraderie and community. The accommodations were large but shared living, dining, and sleeping spacing required everyone to work as a group to maintain the house (dishes, cleaning, etc.) and manage personal conflicts while working towards a collaborative goal. One recommendation for the future is to limit the number of students to 4-7 per team so that all students get to be involved in all aspects of the projects.

We believe that this project has increased the number of undergraduate students interested in hydrophilanthropy. The number of Latino/a students has increased in EWB, SACNAS, CAUSE, and geology clubs, bringing about a greater diversity in club memberships. As highlights of prior trips are mentioned, more undergraduate students inquire about these opportunities in Mexico, including many Latino students that have volunteered for subsequent field work and research. The students have learned to work

and live together in rural communities and see first-hand the struggles of local people. It is truly an opportunity to unite STEM, business and culture in an immersive, life-changing experience for students.

AcknowledgementsFunding for this project was provided

by Mercola. Mexico support was provided by CATIS-Mexico, especially Dylan Terrell and Jennifer Ungemach, and its board of directors. The authors would like to thank all of the students that have been involved in this project over the last 4 years. ■

Melissa LenczewskiisanassociateprofessorinthedepartmentofGeologyandEnvironmentalGeosciencesatNorthernIllinoisUniversity.SheisalsocurrentlythedirectorfortheinterdisciplinaryInstitutefortheStudyoftheEnvironment,Sustainability,andEnergy.Herresearchfocusesoncontaminatehydrogeology,andshehasbeenworkinginMexicofor15years.

Contact Information: MelissaLenczewski,AssociateProfessor NorthernIllinoisUniversity GeologyandEnvironmentalGeosciences DeKalb,IL60115 [email protected] 815-753-7937

NicholasPohlman,AssociateProfessor NorthernIllinoisUniversity MechanicalEngineering DeKalb,IL60115 [email protected] 815-753-9913

ReferencesBenton,M.J.2006.Ethnicitymatters;rethinkinghowBlack,Latino,andIndianstudentsprepareforandsucceedincollege.NewYork:PeterLang.ISBN-10:0820476021

Brunson,L.andD.A.Sabatini.2009.AnEvaluationofFishCharasanAppropriateArsenicandFluorideRemovalTechnologyforEmergingRegions.EnvironmentalEngineeringScience.26(12):1777-1784.doi:10.1089/ees.2009.0222.

Gonzales,L.M.2006.TrackingtheDynamicsoftheGeoscienceWorkforce.AmericanGeosciencesInstitute. www.agiweb.org/workforce/BV_Gonzales_final.pdf

Hurtado,S.,N.L.Cabrera,M.H.Lin,L.Arellano,andL.Espinos.2008.“Diversifyingscience:underrepresentedstudentexperiencesinstructureresearchprograms,”ResearchinHigherEducation,50(2),pp.189-210

Ortega-Guerrero,M.2009.Presencia,distribucion,hidrogeoquimicayorigendearsenic,fluoruroyotroselemoentostrazadisueltosenaquasubterranean,aescaladeCuencahidrologicatributariadeLarma-Chapala,Mexico.RevistaMexicanadeCienciasGeologicas.26:143-161.

Figure3.CATIS-MexicoCeramicwaterfilter:A)Point-of-usecompletesystem; B)Ceramicfilter

A B


F E A T U R E

Running for Water: A Brief History and ReflectionKyle Bunds

I woke up the morning of Sunday, May 26th with what felt like a large butterfly sitting in the pit of my stomach. I had never run an event beyond a 5K, and I have never been a good runner. So, despite the training regimen and the hours spent putting my feet to the

pavement, the half marathon seemed like a tall task. I went down to the lobby for the free continental breakfast and grabbed a banana nut muffin. I love banana nut muffins, and although I hate running in the morning, muffins seem to be good fuel for me while I run. I went back to my room, grabbed my raincoat, iPod, headphones, and room key and started the one and a half mile walk to the race.


On my way to the race, it poured down rain and was in the mid-40s Fahrenheit – keep in mind I lived in Florida, which is often in the 80s in the month of May. By the time I made it to the tent to check my coat and room key, my feet were soaked. I took this as a bad sign for the race. Looking around at the booths set up with information on anything from nutritional bars to athletic wear to water poverty in Ethiopia, I was taken aback by the resolve of these 5,000 participants and, roughly, 1,000 other community members there to support one another and the organization. At one of the booths, many of the participants and I took turns carrying a yellow 5-gallon jug of water along a roughly fifty meter path, a tactic used by many water charities to help participants understand what it is like to be a person in a developing nation who has to fetch and carry water, possibly for miles a day. This activity and running in the event made me feel like I was doing something good for people. By running and raising money for people in Ethiopia to have clean drinking water, I felt good, and I finished the race.

Numbers vary depending upon the organization, however, it is generally estimated that between 750 million and 1 billion individuals lack access to clean drinking water. This “crisis” has resulted nearly 200 (according to GuideStar, 2015) non-profit organizations operating as water charities. The water charities raise money from donors in the developed world and help build water systems in the developing world. Presently, community-based running events are fast becoming one of the most popular fundraising options for water charities. Team World Vision, for example, engages with teams of people running assorted marathons and half marathons including, but not limited to, The Allstate New York City Half Marathon and The Bank of America Chicago Marathon. These teams come together to raise money for water projects by providing money themselves and soliciting donations. Team Living Water International works in a similar way by participating in events such as The Chevron Houston Marathon, the Go! St. Louis Marathon and Half Marathon, and The Bolder Boulder.

Sport events offer water charities a potentially lucrative way in which to collect funds to combat the international water crisis. Indeed, Hamilton (2013), writing for the magazine Runner’s World, reported that “U.S. road races pulled in $1.2 billion for nonprofit organizations in 2012, more than double the amount from a decade ago” (para. 6). The organizations put on running events and participate in larger, established marathon events in an effort to attract volunteers and donors willing to contribute to the cause of providing people in impoverished areas with clean drinking water. These events can facilitate strong volunteer and donor attachment, possibly turning one time volunteers or donors into life-long organizational partners, as has been the case with other charitable running events (See: Filo, Funk, & O’Brien, 2009). Sport events can also create opportunities for water charities to transcend geographic boundaries and connect individuals in one community with individuals in another regardless of the socioeconomic gaps or the geographic proximity between the communities (See: Kellett, Hede, & Chalip, 2008). This is exactly what water charities attempt to do when putting on an event: make individuals in developed countries feel connected to those in developing countries so they will donate and fundraise again and again. This idea builds upon a burgeoning industry of running for charity.

A Brief History of Running for Charity

Overcome with grief after seeing pictures of Ethiopians starving to death during the famine of 1983-1985, Bob Geldof decided to start a band in 1984 comprised of British musicians to assist the famine in Ethiopia and surrounding countries (Bobgeldof.com, 2013). The band, Band Aid, formed the Band Aid Charitable Trust in order to make money for the famine relief. The group, which was organized by Geldof and Midge Ure and included well known superstars such as Sting, Phil Collins and Bono, recorded a song called, “Do They Know it’s Christmas” as their first attempt at raising relief funds. The fasted-selling single in

United Kingdom history raised £8 million for African relief and inspired the group to try something bigger (Bobgeldof.com, 2013). From this success, Geldof decided to have a worldwide concert series called Live Aid.

On July 13, 1985 at 12:00 (GMT), Live Aid kicked off from Wembley Stadium in London and continued at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Dubbed the “global jukebox,” the event including 60 live acts was broadcast live on BBC in the United Kingdom and Europe and parts of the concert were shown on ABC in the United States (Bobgeldof.com, 2013). Although Geldolf initially hoped to raise £1 million for citizens in Ethiopia, the concert event raised £150 million for famine relief. The success of “Do They Know it’s Christmas” and the Live Aid event sparked other recordings globally including the famous USA for Africa “We Are the World” sung by superstars such as Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder. Further, the success of Live Aid made Geldof seek other avenues for raising money for famine relief. His next venture would be to raise money through sport at an event known as Sport Aid.

Choosing running in the mid-1980s made a lot of sense considering what was going on with the running community at the time. According to Christopher McDougall, best-selling author of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, running for exercise was popularized in the 1970s. Many factors played a part in running becoming a more mainstream activity outside of pure competition. Kamal Jabbour (1997) detailed various reasons that running became popular on a broader scale in the United States. Specifically, he believed that the 1972 success of Olympic Marathon gold medalist, American Frank Shorter, ushered in the “start of a national running boom.” Further, women were first allowed to compete in the 1500 meter race at the 1972 Munich Olympics and quickly gained a new superstar in Mary Decker. Other women played a huge role in the movement toward equality including Kathrine Switzer, who in 1967 triumphantly defied the rules of the Boston


Marathon by entering under the name “K.V. Switzer” and later went on to win the New York City Marathon in 1974. These actions and triumphs opened up the door for the introduction of women into the recreational running world and were a part of the overall boom of running.

Although the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer awareness held its first road race and walk, The Race for the Cure, in 1983 with 800 Dallas residents participating, the Live Aid event was the first one held internationally on a wide scale and intended for a broad audience. The Live Aid event reportedly brought in $100 million from sporting activities held in 78 countries and 274 cities. In those cities 20 million participants came together for a single cause. Additionally, television viewers witnessed the public display of affection toward those in need as almost half of the money raised came from broadcasters who televised the worldwide event for two hours reaching 750 million people worldwide. The success of Live Aid gave those seeking to gain more funding for their non-profit organization a reason to partner with running races.

These running for charity initiatives have been highly successful in raising money for causes. As Hamilton (2013) explains, “The rise in cause running isn’t surprising. Since the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society launched Team In Training in 1988, race-charity partnerships have been wildly successful…Runners have raised $875 million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society over its 25-year history (para. 6-7).”

With the obvious growth in fundraising potential, it should be of little surprise that charities continue to become involved in raising money through sport and particularly road races. The successes of other runs for charity paved the way for water groups to raise money through races in an effort to bring clean drinking water to people in need.

Running for Water: Benefits and Challenges

Utilizing running events to try to connect individuals in developed

nations with those in developing nations has some clear benefits but also some challenges. I have worked with numerous water charities and development groups across multiple continents and have had the opportunity to work with those using sport to raise money and those who have not. Working in London with a water charity, I began to see why sport could be a good way to raise funds.

The fundraising arm of the organization in which I worked focused heavily on corporate donations, foundations and trusts. It was a general consensus among individuals with this organization that operating on a corporate level was not as sustainable as having devoted individual donors. This is part of the reason I was working with the organization, to raise the profile of the organization amongst individual

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donors who would participate in running races, bicycle races, mud runs, etcetera to raise money. The problem with many of the larger funding agencies was the demand that the funding agency see a return on investment within a one to two-year window. Realistically, reaching a sustainable solution often requires three to five years of community interaction, training and facilitating implementation. Therefore, sport, as an arena attracting devoted individuals giving non-earmarked funding, can provide a good avenue to develop sustainable water systems.

On the other hand, conducting research with individuals running for water with three different organizations, and having the opportunity to run and raise money myself, I have witnessed the interesting internalization of the cause by those running for water. That is, those running for water have often been told the story of water poverty by either an individual working with a water charity or by a video commissioned by a water charity. Then, this individual becomes involved with running and fundraising and tells his or her story to others.

Importantly, when the individual tells others about water poverty, invariably, the story is about the individual fundraiser or donor, not about the water system in peril. This necessarily disconnects the donor and fundraiser from the problem and makes it about those in developed nations, not those in need. However, this also works as a fundraising tactic, people report giving more when they feel connected to the cause.

Sport for Hydrophilanthropy: Bodies in/of Action

Looking around the village near Arba Minch, Ethiopia, I was glad I ran the half marathon. The money I raised and paid for participation in the event went directly to those in this village. The community health officer I was working with grabbed my attention as we climbed two kilometers up the mountain to the clean water source: “See, this is where he shits, in that pit. That stream, a meter away, is where he got his water before they came and built the new system.” I stared at the pit with the see-through eucalyptus branches surrounding its perimeter and the murky water filled with donkey and goat excrement. We made it to the spring where the officer explained how metal piping implemented by those in the community allowed for clean drinking water to be distributed to three reservoirs and 45 water points. This allowed the entire community to have clean drinking water. The successes of the water systems in this village hinged on the fact that there were dedicated, local individuals working with the water charity to implement sustainable solutions and the funding from individuals allowed the development agency to work with the community for over three years to build systems the community could operate themselves and train individuals to maintain the systems.

The water charity I worked with has now held running events for eight years. Each year they have raised more money, and this year, they are taking people to Ethiopia to run there with people in the villages. Allowing individuals to run and see that water is crucial for survival and movement enables people to see, feel, and understand that water is necessary for human survival. Thus, raising funds through running is going to continue and offers a good opportunity for helping people receive clean drinking water. ■

Dr. Kyle BundsiscurrentlyanAssistantProfessorinParks,Recreation,andTourismManagementatNorthCarolinaStateUniversity.Kylehasspentthelastfiveyearsresearchingandworkingwithinternationalwateraidorganizationsthatoperateindevelopedcountriesforthepurposeofraisingmoneytobuildwatersystemsindevelopingcountries.IncollaborationwithwateraidorganizationsbasedinMiami,Vancouver,andLondon,UK,andworkinginHaiti,Malawi,ZimbabweandEthiopia,Dr.Bundshasevaluatedandstudiedcharityfundraising,charityparticipantmotivation,communitydevelopment,organizationalcultureandleveraginginformaleventssuchasrunningracesforthepurposeofeducatingindividualsaboutwateraccess.Hiscurrentfocusisonutilizingimmersivetechnologiestoeducateindividualsaboutwateraccessbothdomesticallyandinternationallyandhowthesetechnologiescanbeutilizedateventsandinformalspacestocreateinvestedcitizenscientists.

Contact Information KyleS.Bunds,Ph.D. AssistantProfessor-SportandSustainableCommunityDevelopment DepartmentofParks,RecreationandTourismManagement CollegeofNaturalResources Box8004,3028EBiltmoreHall NorthCarolinaStateUniversity Raleigh,NC27695 919.515.7935

ReferencesBobgeldolf.com(2013).LiveAid.RetrievedonOctober28,2015from: http://www.bobgeldof.com/

Filo,K.,Funk,D.C.,&O’Brien,D.(2009).Themeaningbehindattachment:Exploringcamaraderie,cause,andcompetencyatacharitysportevent.JournalofSportManagement,23(3),361-387.

GuideStar(2015).Searchresultsfor“providecleandrinkingwater”.RetrievedonNovember15,2015from:http://www.guidestar.org/ SearchResults.aspx

Hamilton,M.(2013).Charityrunningmorecompetitivethanever.RetrievedonOctober29,2015from:http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/charity-running-more-competitive-than-ever?page=single

Jabbour,K.(1997).Runningboom,racingbust:Plentyofrunnerbutfewareelite.RetrievedonOctober28,2015fromhttp://www.jabbour.org/19970922.html

Kellett,P.,Hede,A.M.,&Chalip,L.(2008).Socialpolicyforsportevents:Leveraging(relationshipswith)teamsfromothernationsforcommunitybenefit.EuropeanSportManagementQuarterly,8(2),101-121.

780839_Editorial.indd 1 11/24/15 2:00 PM


Hydrogeologists Without Borders and the GW2.0 Project

The hydrophilanthropy community has clearly articulated the need for potable water, but it has less effectively conveyed the value of groundwater. Currently, at least half of the world’s drinking

supply comes from groundwater (UNESCO, 2015), and this percentage is increasing. Groundwater use is particularly high in many emerging areas (e.g., Asia, Africa, Latin America) where overexploitation is common. Increasing groundwater dependence can exacerbate inequities (Amichi et al., 2012; Srinivasan and Kulkarni, 2014) and be correlated with poverty (Moench, 2003). Groundwater is becoming critically important for potable water supply, irrigation and food production worldwide (Aeschback-Hertig and Gleeson et al., 2012), and to sustain ecosystems (particularly in the face of climate uncertainty; Bertrand et al., 2014). Unsustainable groundwater use is now documented globally and 20% of the world’s major aquifers are overexploited (Gleeson et al., 2012).

M. Cathryn Ryan and David Bethune

Groundwater (hydrogeological) expertise in emerging regions lags behind surface water expertise, just as it did in Europe and North America in past decades. In many emerging regions, relatively little attention is paid to groundwater resources beyond constructing boreholes. Although the vast majority of new community water supplies provided by charitable and international organizations worldwide are from groundwater, these efforts are rarely accompanied by significant groundwater expertise. In some instances the water supply efforts are combined with appropriate sanitation and hygiene programs, but they do not always consider associated groundwater contamination.

Hydrogeological expertise is needed in new water supply projects to i) understand the groundwater geology and background water quality (including natural water quality); ii) appropriately site new water wells, both hydrogeologically and in the context of contamination threats; iii) optimize the drilling, completion, and well construction; iv) test and monitor the new water supply for appropriate water quality parameters; and v) ensure sustainable groundwater pumping is maintained in a regional context. Hydrogeological expertise can be complex, involving geology, chemistry, physics, engineering, soil science, and more. Until recently, hydrogeology was mainly only offered at a graduate level in universities. The consequence of inadequate hydrogeological expertise in water well drilling programs can include legacies of public health impacts (e.g. Mukherjee and Bhattacharya, 2001), unsustainable groundwater use (Amichi et al., 2012), less than optimal results for the investment, and social conflict (Llamas and Martínez-Santos, 2005). Although hydrogeological expertise might be a relatively small budget component for a water supply project, its absence may be thwarting charitable water well projects worldwide, causing them to be less successful than they otherwise might be.

F E A T U R E

Table 1. Hydrogeologists without Borders Goals •EstablishHWBasthe“go-toportal”forpractitionersonbestpracticesfor

groundwater development and sustainability.•Facilitatethecreationofagrowingpoolofprofessionalandtechnical

hydrogeologists in regions of critical need. •Facilitateincreasedapplicationofsoundhydrogeologicalprinciplesandpractices

in aid and development programs.


Hydrogeologists Without Borders (HWB) is the only organization in the world specifically dedicated to linking hydrogeology to international development, with a particular interest in providing training tools for hydrogeology. Capacity building has long been recognized as a cornerstone for effective development, and this is particularly true for the water sector (Gumbo et al., 2005). Thus, rather than focus on individual communities or projects, HWBs overarching goal is to build hydrogeology capacity of individuals and organizations in emerging regions (including aboriginal communities) involved with groundwater-based community water supplies. Hydrogeologists Without Borders-UK is a sister organization that focuses on providing volunteer hydrogeologic assistance to charities working on individual community water projects.

Groundwater 2.0Currently HWB’s major project is

the creation of an online, interactive hydrogeology textbook that will eventually be available to anyone in the world in multiple languages. The ‘GW2.0’ textbook will build upon the well-known textbook by R. Alan Freeze and John A Cherry (Groundwater, 1979; Figure 1). Despite its age, Groundwater (1979) continues to be a highly cited and much-used text. The re-developed text will be written, as the original text was, for a broad range of practitioners, including geologists, hydrologists, soil scientists, agricultural engineers, ecologists, sanitary engineers, petroleum reservoir analysts, and others.

Some parts of Groundwater (1979) are still directly relevant today, while other parts will require updating as the field of hydrogeology has advanced considerably since 1979. In addition, new sections will be developed on current topics such as climate change, integrated water resource management and community water/sanitation. This effort will be initiated in early 2016 by posting of Groundwater (1979) on the HWB website. This will be possible due to the generosity of Pearson Education (Dunaway, 2015), John Cherry, and Alan Freeze, who collectively have

provided copyright to HWB. In addition to new written material, interactive teaching tools will be added on an ongoing basis so that GW2.0 evolves and grows with time. The new development of the wiki-text will occur under the auspices of an editorial board that includes Drs. Alan Freeze and John Cherry and a select group of internally recognized hydrogeologists. The editorial board will invite subject matter experts to develop new sections of the textbook, which will be crowd-edited on an ongoing basis. New areas of interest can be determined by the editorial board as expressed by the world-wide groundwater community. The online format will display animations and instructional videos.

Our experience from decades of capacity building efforts in Latin America (Bethune and Ryan, 2010; Figure 2) is that students benefit significantly from materials in their first language. We envision that ‘crowd sourced translation’ of GW2.0 will occur on an ongoing basis into as many languages as are sustained by interest. The GW2.0 effort is wholly not-for-profit, however, funds will be required for website and some personnel costs. The project will be funded mainly by donations (at www.hwbwater.org) initially, then on an on-going basis via annual subscriptions to obtain access to GW2.0. The cost of subscriptions will be nil or minimal to people in emerging regions and higher for wealthier countries. In summary, we are excited about the potential to adapt a long-time favorite textbook for many hydrogeologists into a new type of training tool that has the potential for lasting and worldwide impact. Consider joining us! ■

Cathy RyanhasbeenaProfessorinGeoscienceattheUniversityofCalgarysince1997.HerexperiencewithintheCARANetworkhighlightedtheneedforgoodhydrogeologycapacitytoolsinmultiplelanguages.Ryan’sdiverseresearchislargelydrivenbycommunityandsocialneeds.ShehasconductedresearchwithherstudentsinChina,CostaRica,Guatemala,Mexico,andNicaragua.Cathy

isapastAssociateEditorofGroundWater,andcurrentlyontheBoardofDirectorsfortheScienceandEngineeringDivisionoftheNationalGroundWaterAssociation.

Contact Information M.CathrynRyan,PhD,P.Geo.,P.Eng. Geoscience,UniversityofCalgary 2500UniversityDrNW CalgaryABT2N1N4 403.220.2793 [email protected]

References:Aeschback-Hertig,W.,andT.Gleeson,2012.Regionalstrategiesfortheacceleratingglobalproblemofgroundwaterdepletion.NatureGeoscience.5:853–861.

Amichi,H., S.Bouarfa,M. Kuper,O.Ducourtieux,A. Imache,J.Fusillier,G.Bazin,T.Hartani,and F.Chehat,2012.Howdoesunequalaccesstogroundwatercontributetomarginalizationofsmallfarmers?ThecaseofpubliclandsinAlgeria. IrrigationandDrainage.61(S1):34-44.

Bethune,D.N.andM.C.Ryan,2010.TheCARANetwork:BuildingLatinAmericancapacityinhydrogeologyandwaterresourcemanagement.J.Contem.WaterResearchandEducation.145:45-50.

Dunaway,A.,2015.SeniorAcquisitionsEditor,PearsonEducation.Personalcommunication.

Gleeson,T.,Y.Wada,M.F.P.Bierkens,andL.P.H.vanBeek,2012.Waterbalanceofglobalaquifersrevealedbygroundwaterfootprint.Nature.488:197-200.

Gumbo,B.,L.Forster,andJ.Arntzen,2005.Capacitybuildinginwaterdemandmanagementasakeycomponentforattainingmillenniumdevelopmentgoals.PhysicsandChemistryoftheEarth,PartsA/B/C. 30:984–992.

Kløve,B.,P.PerttiAla-Aho,G.Bertrand,J.J.Gurdak,H.Kupfersberger,J.Kvæner,T.Muotka,H.Mykrä,E.Preda,P.Rossi,C.BertacchiUvo,E.Velasco,andM.Pulido

Llamas,M. and P.Martínez-Santos, 2005. IntensiveGroundwaterUse:SilentRevolutionandPotentialSourceofSocialConflicts.J.WaterResour.Plann.Manage. 131:337–341.

Moench,2003.Groundwaterandpoverty:Exploringtheconnections.Ch.21in:IntensiveUseofGroundwater:ChallengesandOpportunities.EditedbyM.R.LlamasandE.Custodio.pp.441-455.

Mukherjee,A.B.,P.Bhattacharya,2001.ArsenicingroundwaterintheBengalDeltaPlain:slowpoisoninginBangladesh.EnvironmentalReviews.9:189-220.

Srinivasan,V.andS.Kulkarni,2014.ExaminingtheemergingroleofgroundwaterinwaterinequityinIndia.WaterInt.39:172-186.

Velazquez,2014.Climatechangeimpactsongroundwateranddependentecosystems.J.Hydrol.518:250-266.


GLOBAL WATER CONCERNS have caused some investors to reassess how they are accounting for risk. Drought, aging water infrastructure, or a lack of reliable water supplies may limit a company’s ability to operate efficiently and negatively impact the firm’s bottom line. From California to India, global investors are incorporating water supply analysis to screen potential investments. A recent report focusing on water risk management was released by Ceres, a non-profit organization providing guidance on sustainable investing. The report was developed through interviews with 35 asset owners and fund managers from around the world, each managing assets of at least $100 million, and offers insight into strategies used by investors around the world to monitor water risk. The report defines key elements in corporate water risk and recommends framework for analyzing a company’s exposure to water risk.

Ceres recommends evaluating a company’s water risk based on three categories: water dependency, water security, and management response. Companies operating in water intensive industries such as agriculture, power production, mining, utilities, and beverage bottling have the highest water dependency and the greatest exposure to water risk. Water security focuses on the reliability of a firm’s water supply based on local water availability and regulatory factors. For example, investors may analyze the percentage of a firm’s operations that occur within water scarce regions. It is also important to evaluate a company’s response to water risk and effectiveness in water supply planning. Corporate managers that have taken a proactive approach toward securing

Investors Seek Strategies for Identifying Water RiskTanner Ketellapper, Anthony Beckham and Matt Payne

T H E N E W E C O N O M I C S O F W A T E R

reliable long-term water supplies and have invested in water conservation may provide a competitive advantage to the company and bolster investment returns.

Although many investors are making water a higher priority in investment research, numerous fund managers have yet to incorporate water risk into investment criteria. The report identifies certain barriers that have prevented more widespread integration of water risk analysis. One major challenge is a lack of consistent, comparable data on corporate water use. Requiring corporations to disclose water data in regulatory filings would facilitate more efficient analysis. In addition, fund managers indicated that even with proper data, water risk is difficult to quantify, and there is little consensus among the investment community about which metrics are most appropriate for measuring water risk. Some fund managers also noted that there is a lack of a mandate from asset owners to incorporate water analysis, and investors have chosen to focus their resources on other sustainability issues such as carbon emissions or fossil fuels.

Despite these challenges, water risk is an important factor to consider in the investment decision process.

As population growth and economic expansion place increasing demand pressure on global water supplies, water risk will continue to impact investment returns. It is prudent for investors to incorporate water risk analysis into investment and asset management strategies to maximize returns over the long-term. Sophisticated investors and forward-thinking industries are beginning to search for financial and physical hedges for water-related risks, which may catalyze development of new markets and financial products. This presumes that the “Godzilla”1 El Niño forecasted to hit the western United States this fall does not cause widespread drought amnesia. Instead of kicking the can down the road, investors and industry would do well to forge ahead with addressing water risks. ■

ReferencesAnInvestorHandbookforWaterRiskIntegration:Practices&IdeasSharedby35GlobalInvestors.Ceres.March2015.

(1)Rong-Gong,LinII,andChristineMai-Duc.“’Godzilla’ElNiño:UnbelievableRainforCalifornia,DryWinterforMidwest.”LosAngelesTimes,21Aug.2015.Web. 11Nov.2015. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-godzilla-el-nino-winter-california-20150821-htmlstory.html>.

Figure1:KeyElementsofaCorporateWaterRisk:WaterDependency,Security&ResponseRisks1


W H A T ’ S U P W I T H W A T E R ?

Wheelbarrows, Alfalfa and Commoner’s Laws

Eric J. Fitch

“Some of us are like wheelbarrows - only useful when pushed, and very easily upset”

– Jack Herbert

THERE’S AN OLD story that has bounced around so long that there seems to be no definitive authorship even though it carries a valuable lesson about appearances and assumptions. It goes like this.

Once upon a time there was a very large factory that was busy 16 hours a day, six days a week. The overnight shift and Sunday were by comparison very quiet with only maintenance and security working. Security was fairly tight because, from tools to raw materials, there were many valuable

things which could be taken out of the plant and sold for a pretty penny. The new Chief of Security at the plant was the former police chief of the town that the factory was in and he knew from his years on the job pretty much everyone with a checkered past in the town. He changed many procedures for the night shift, even making all the maintenance crews have the wheelbarrows that they were using to push waste down the hill to the dumpsters take them past the guard shack for inspection. The chief was sure that a particular worker, let’s call him “Bob”, was stealing from the plant. The chief suspected Bob because he had busted him for petty larceny many times over the years. The Chief

worked the night shift for months and personally inspected Bob’s wheelbarrows. The Chief never found anything of value in any of the loads Bob was taking out. Finally, the Chief called Bob in to his office and interrogated him for an hour trying to find out what Bob was taking. Bob even went so far as to tell the Chief that he would no longer have to worry about him because he’d proven to be such an excellent worker that he was being promoted to the production line and was being sent to the local college to get his degree. He would no longer even have a “hypothetical” reason to augment his income by stealing. The Chief then asked Bob flat out, with a full promise of amnesty, what “hypothetically” he’d


been stealing all this time that got past the stringent inspections. Smiling, Bob answered “hypothetically, I’d have been stealing wheelbarrows.”

Very often it seems, societies build safeguards for precious limited water supplies, but by looking at the superficial conditions, we miss putting in deeper safeguards to protect against the clever. There is little official denial of anthropogenic climate change in the Middle East, in large part because much of the region has been drying and warming from centuries and therefore even relatively small increases in annual mean temperature push whole regions into extremes where humans and human societies cannot exist. At the end of October 2015, research by scientists at Loyola Marymount and MIT released projections/model/studies indicating that unless increases in global climate are not significantly curtailed, mean temperatures in the Persian Gulf would literally become uninhabitable before the end of the century. This year and recent years have been brutal in this area; with temperatures topping 120o F for days at a time. The regional climate would have by late in this century “wet bulb temperatures”; combined background temperatures with humidity which would superheat humans and not allow us to throw off excess heat via evaporation.

In the more near term, Persian Gulf countries have been trying for years to augment fresh water supplies, exploring options from towing icebergs to large scale desalinization. The United States and other nations have been unwilling to export fresh water to drought stricken areas even if the economics would justify it. Unconventional thinking has however found loopholes in even the tightest of these protections.

In Saudi Arabia, there are long abiding traditions of animal husbandry, with the raising of certain animals almost considered sacred. Camels, sheep, goats, horses and cattle, especially dairy cattle, are an essential set of traditions and economy of Saudi Arabia. In recent years, with rising numbers of cattle and rising temperatures, raising fodder for cattle has

depleted precious groundwater resources, some used by humans from before Biblical times. Groundwater depletion forced the government to order private landowners to get their animal feed from outside the country. This threat to the long term viability of dairy cattle ranching was real and needed a real time solution.

A leading dairy company in Saudi Arabia, Almarai, came up with an innovative solution very much outside the box. They bought up large amounts of land in the state of Arizona, upgraded the 15 wells on this property, which allows each to produce up to 1.5 billion gallons of water. The Saudis converted all the land which had been in corn, cotton and other crop production into alfalfa production. The Saudis knew from their experiences at home that the desert environment yields three to four times as much alfalfa as similar temperate environments because of the long growing season. The key to taking advantage: plentiful water. Arizona has comparatively good water resource statutes and regulations, but they did not anticipate foreign companies using agricultural exemptions to get around them. This Saudi company is exporting water from Arizona to home; it’s just in the form of a deliquescent crop – alfalfa! And this may only be the beginning. The reporters who uncovered this found a company from the United Arab Emirates setting up shop down the road from the Almarai operation; this time to grow hay to export to China!

In another news release, around the beginning of November, NASA researchers released a report that indicated the snowfalls in Eastern parts of Antarctica are producing comparatively thin new ice layers over very large areas. In recent geologic periods, these areas had not received a great deal of new snowfall and resultant ice creation; they were too

cold and too dry. With climate change, these areas are getting more precipitation. This is creating vast amounts of new ice. Climate change deniers hopped on this, basically hearing what they wanted, and reported that Antarctica is gaining ice rather than losing ice. The authors of the study came out immediately saying that clearly this interpretation was wrong and that the Antarctic ice in the West is still rapidly melting and raising sea level. Even the most optimistic interpretation of the data of this one study indicated that at best there would be an offsetting impact for a few years.

These two examples demonstrate in my mind that we are thinking too small both with regard to addressing problems of climate change and especially fresh, potable water. I would hope that in addressing these problems and needs that we remember the wisdom of Barry Commoner. Here are Barry Commoner’s Four Laws of Ecology:1. Everything is connected to everything

else. There is one planet, one biosphere and any true solution to global problems must address the whole at least to some degree.

2. Everything must go somewhere. There is no “away” where negative impacts can go.

3. Nature knows best. More often than not, human systems and technology transfer problems rather than resolving them.

4. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.Keeping these concepts in mind

and dealing realistically with the transformations that are occurring to our home world are essential for creating a sustainable future. Otherwise alfalfa and other “wheelbarrows” will be the least of our losses. ■

Very often it seems, societies build safeguards for precious limited water supplies but by looking

at the superficial conditions, we miss putting in deeper safeguards to protect against the clever.

❝

❞


In two companion papers, one by Domagalski and Saleh and the other by Saleh and Domagalski, the authors use SPARROW models to simulate annual phosphorus loads and concentrations and to evaluate the spatial distribution of total nitrogen sources, loads, and watershed yields of streams in California and adjacent states. •Pendergrasset al. examine the influence of bird habitation of bridges on stream bacteria.•Zhanget al. assess long-term nitrogen and sediment trends in non-tidal Chesapeake watershed rivers. •Brodyet al. analyze the effects of land use and land cover on flood losses along the Gulf of

Mexico coast from 1999 to 2009.•McCandlesset al. present bank-full regional curves for the Alleghany Plateau, Valley,

and Ridge; Piedmont; and Coastal Plain regions of Maryland.•Pradhanangaet al. evaluate landowner motivations for civic engagement in water

resource protection.•Hancocket al. develop a geospatial method to identify locations of concentrated runoff from

agricultural fields. •Tanget al. use fly ash as a marker to quantify culturally-accelerated sediment accumulation in

playa wetlands.•Villineset al. use GIS to delineate headwater stream origins in the Appalachian coalfields of Kentucky.•Petersen-PerlmanandWolfidentifystrategiesforinitiatingcooperationandenhancingsecurity

in transboundary river basins.•Reiteret al. examine spatio-temporal patterns of open surface water in the Central Valley of

Calfornia during 2000-2011 and evaluate the influences of drought and land use. •Williamsonet al. develop a TOPMODEL-based approach to classify ephemeral, intermittent,

and perennial stream reaches.

2016 Editorial CalendarJANUARY 2016 Hydrophilanthropy

MARCH 2016 Drought, Response, Adaptation and Long Term Planning in a Changing Environment

MAY 2016 National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

JULY 2016Water Reuse and Recycling: Once Is Not Enough

SEPTEMBER 2016Issues in National Water Governance

NOVEMBER 2016Morality, Ethics and Water Resource Management

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DECEMBER 2015

AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION

Print ISSN: 1093-474XOnline ISSN: 1752-1688 J

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Highlights of the JAWRA Technical Papers

WATER RESOURCES

Volume 51, Issue 6, December 2015


BackgroundIn 1980, AWRA established the Endowment-

Memorial Fund to be used for the enhancement of education in water resources. The fund has since been renamed the Richard A. Herbert Memorial Educational Fund to honor Richard A. Herbert – a champion for water resources education – who passed away in 1994. In order to carry out his vision, AWRA is proud to announce the availability of scholarships derived from the proceeds of this fund.

Eligibility & Awards AvailableEach applicant must be a national AWRA member.

At least one $2,000 scholarship will be awarded to a full-time undergraduate student working toward his/her first undergraduate degree and who is enrolled in a program related to water resources for the 2016-2017 academic year. At least one $2,000 scholarship will also be awarded to a full-time graduate student enrolled in a program relating to water resources for the 2016-2017 academic year.*

Selection CriteriaThe undergraduate scholarship will be awarded to

the student most qualified by academic performance. Measures of academic performance include the cumulative grade point average, relevance of the student’s curriculum to water resources, and leadership in extracurricular activities related to water resources. The graduate scholarship will be awarded to the student most qualified by academic and/or research performance. The measures of academic performance are identical to those of the undergraduate scholarship with the addition of the quality of the student’s research and its relevance to water resources. Recipients will be selected by the AWRA Student Activities Committee and announced during summer 2016.

2016-2017 Richard A. Herbert Memorial Scholarship Opportunities

Application ProcessA complete application packet contains:

•Titlepagethatincludestheapplicant’sfullname,permanent mailing address, email address, phone number where he or she may be easily reached, and the type of scholarship (undergraduate or graduate).

•Two-pagesummary(approx.500words)ofhis/heracademic interests and achievements, extracurricular interests, and career goals as they relate to the above selection criteria.

•Resumeorcurriculumvitae.•Threesignedlettersofreferencefromprofessorsand/

or advisors. Letters of reference MUST include the signatures of the referee – PDFs of the signed letters work best.

•Transcriptsofallcollegecourses(undergraduateand graduate). Legible copies of “Issued to Student” transcripts are acceptable to save on fees but unofficial grade reports (such as those students can access from their online student accounts at the university) are unacceptable. Application packets that include unofficial grade reports will not be considered.

•Applicationpacketsshouldbesubmittedelectronicallyto [email protected] and limited to 5mb in size to ensure delivery. All applications must be submitted in their entirety. AWRA will provide an acknowledgement of receipt of your application but will not provide updates to your application status or request missing information. Please make sure your application is complete when it is submitted. We look forward to hearing from you.

Deadline: All applications and supporting materials must be received electronically by APRIL 22, 2016.Questions? Call AWRA at (540) 687-8390 or send an e-mail to [email protected] ■

*The AWRA Board of Directors may, at its sole discretion, approve additional scholarship awards, based upon the performance of the Memorial Fund.

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