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More About Water

By Anna Mayor '09 and MA '12

Enhancing national security efforts through water sustainability

The health and stability of a human population depend on three things: water, food and energy.

Thomas Crisman, a joint professor in the USF College of Public Health and College of Arts and Sciences, is working on the forefront to promote public health by addressing issues with water sustainability in the Middle East.

Crisman works alongside the U.S. Department of State to promote NEXUS, a program addressing the interactions of energy, food and water access and how they impact the public's health.

For more than four years, he's implemented NEXUS for long-term sustainability in the Middle East and identified regions in danger of being affected by lack of water resources, focusing primarily on Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

"It's a basic human right that people have access to water," Crisman says.

He and Thomas Mason, also a professor at the College of Public Health, have conducted three international workshops at USF over the past decade examining sustainability issues and national security throughout the Middle East.

They've shared those findings with partners at the U.S. Central Command, government agencies, and in the private sector to discuss how water plays a key role in the health and stability of the population.

Those findings are now being compiled into a book, highlighting the intersection of NEXUS with health and water resources that will serve as a roadmap for reaching sustainability and political stability in water-scarce regions of the world.

With 30 years of research in the region to his credit, Crisman has noted that lack of access to clean water can be the leading source of collapse for countries in the Middle East.

He hopes to impact the health of individuals living in the region through NEXUS.

"When I was a kid, my father told me that if I ever make it to give back," he says. "So, for me, being a scientist all my life, the most important thing is to give back to people things that will help them on a daily basis."

Four satellite images of the Saudi Arabian desert.

Four satellite images of the Saudi Arabian desert show the increasing amount of irrigated land, indicated by the green circles. Due to increasing groundwater pumping, the region has become more dependent on desalination, leading to poor quality water and public health issues.

 

Creating tools for safeguarding our water

Kebreab Ghebremichael, PhD, demonstrates a biosand filter.

Visiting Assistant Professor Kebreab Ghebremichael, PhD, demonstrates a biosand filter for household water treatment.

Global water resources face threats on multiple fronts: climate change, the Earth's growing population, and the continued trend toward city life. Preserving the world's water supply and finding new ways to enhance it are urgent issues that prompted the creation of the Integrated Urban Water Management Toolkit, a collaboration of the Patel College of Global Sustainability, the Global Water Partnership and the World Bank.

Developed by Seneshaw Tsegaye, PhD '13, director of the climate change concentration and key researcher, on left, the toolkit's aim is to provide sustainable solutions to water scarcity. It includes diagnostic, technology
and mapping tools, in addition to tools designed to generate local buy-in. It has proved successful in several African communities, including Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

Cheap, clean water equals a healthier world

The digital toolkit was developed by Seneshaw Tsegaye, PhD ’13, (left) director of the climate change concentration.

The digital toolkit was developed by Seneshaw Tsegaye, PhD '13, (left) director of the climate change concentration.

Nearly 1 billion people around the world have no access to safe drinking water, and more than 2.6 billion lack appropriate sanitation systems. These basic needs lead to widespread preventable diseases and environmental pollution.

Because the problems are most prevalent in developing countries, researchers at the Patel College of Global Sustainability are focusing on devising affordable and locally appropriate technologies for water and wastewater treatment.

Research areas include enhancing the design and performance of the conventional biosand filter technology (a simple system used since the 1800s) for household water filtration; modifying locally available filters to remove contaminants such as fluoride, arsenic and pathogens; applying indigenous biomaterials, such as moringa tree seeds; and developing on-site wastewater treatment systems to remove pathogens (that affect people) and nutrients (that affect the environment.)