Getting water into everyone's hands

Introduction

No one can survive more than three days without water, but a quarter of the world is running out of it. It’s a scarcity crisis on the rise, compounded by climate change. How do we get water into everyone’s hands? Who is best equipped to solve the challenge?

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Framing the debate

The debate speakers differs on how to solve the challenge. Yana Abu Taleb, co-director of EcoPeace Middle East in Jordan, emphasizes cross-border cooperation, or “ecological peacekeeping,” in the face of crises that aren’t contained by borders or nationalities. South African activist and education advocate Obakeng Leseyane calls for a wider social justice movement to improve the inequality underpinning water scarcity, highlighting the fact that there’s more than enough water in most countries to meet needs, but that water is disproportionately consumed by the wealthy, leading to shortages for people in poverty. Georgie Badiel, a model, former Miss Africa, and founder of the Georgie Badiel Foundation, calls attention to the burden placed on women to gather water in water-scarce places, while many resource-rich nations turn a blind eye to the crisis that they could help solve.