TRANSCRIPT: We need to do things that really reflect the lives of the community and that means a few things at a minimum to provide the base of that. Water is pertinent in this regard. Of course, water is life. It is not only recognized in every culture and society, but we know biologically, it’s true that, within a space of two or three days for each of us, so safe drinking water absolutely is vital. But as you are aware, about 70% of the water use of humanity is for agriculture. When water fails for the crops, that’s also devastating. it’s not like dying of thirst, but ultimately it is ultimately dying of disease or acute under-nutrition in some horrible famine, and the water issue, I have found to be the toughest in all of the development challenges I see. Because you can bring in new crops or you can bring in business or you can get microfinance, but transporting water is hard, and managing water is hard, and storing water can even be expensive. of course, there are many specific techniques, but if you look at the drylands of the world, that don’t have any of the irrigation available, either they have oil under the ground so that they have some other way to “get by” – let’s put it that way – or they have diamonds under the ground, so they have some other way to “get by,” or they’re impoverished. and so a lot of the poorest places in the world are places like Niger and Chad and Mali and Ethiopia and northern Kenya, northern Uganda, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and so forth. and I keep saying to the policymakers, look at the map! That’s where the conflicts are! Don’t misunderstand this thing! You keep calling it Islamic extremism or something else. These are hungry people! And they’re hungry because there’s not enough water. And their crops are dying and their livestock are dying and their climates are becoming even drier. And it’s hard to get the politicians to understand this, by the way. So we end up with drone missiles, rather than bore wells. Which is crazy, because a drone missile is going to solve no problem in this world, and a bore well just might.
Monday, August 6, 2012
POLICY: Jeffrey Sachs Sees Water as Key to Community Development and Solution to Conflict
At a meeting of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and RESULTS,
Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs, author of The
End of Poverty, spoke on how essential water is to life and community
development, and the lack of water as the root of hunger and conflicts around
the world.
TRANSCRIPT: We need to do things that really reflect the lives of the community and that means a few things at a minimum to provide the base of that. Water is pertinent in this regard. Of course, water is life. It is not only recognized in every culture and society, but we know biologically, it’s true that, within a space of two or three days for each of us, so safe drinking water absolutely is vital. But as you are aware, about 70% of the water use of humanity is for agriculture. When water fails for the crops, that’s also devastating. it’s not like dying of thirst, but ultimately it is ultimately dying of disease or acute under-nutrition in some horrible famine, and the water issue, I have found to be the toughest in all of the development challenges I see. Because you can bring in new crops or you can bring in business or you can get microfinance, but transporting water is hard, and managing water is hard, and storing water can even be expensive. of course, there are many specific techniques, but if you look at the drylands of the world, that don’t have any of the irrigation available, either they have oil under the ground so that they have some other way to “get by” – let’s put it that way – or they have diamonds under the ground, so they have some other way to “get by,” or they’re impoverished. and so a lot of the poorest places in the world are places like Niger and Chad and Mali and Ethiopia and northern Kenya, northern Uganda, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and so forth. and I keep saying to the policymakers, look at the map! That’s where the conflicts are! Don’t misunderstand this thing! You keep calling it Islamic extremism or something else. These are hungry people! And they’re hungry because there’s not enough water. And their crops are dying and their livestock are dying and their climates are becoming even drier. And it’s hard to get the politicians to understand this, by the way. So we end up with drone missiles, rather than bore wells. Which is crazy, because a drone missile is going to solve no problem in this world, and a bore well just might.
TRANSCRIPT: We need to do things that really reflect the lives of the community and that means a few things at a minimum to provide the base of that. Water is pertinent in this regard. Of course, water is life. It is not only recognized in every culture and society, but we know biologically, it’s true that, within a space of two or three days for each of us, so safe drinking water absolutely is vital. But as you are aware, about 70% of the water use of humanity is for agriculture. When water fails for the crops, that’s also devastating. it’s not like dying of thirst, but ultimately it is ultimately dying of disease or acute under-nutrition in some horrible famine, and the water issue, I have found to be the toughest in all of the development challenges I see. Because you can bring in new crops or you can bring in business or you can get microfinance, but transporting water is hard, and managing water is hard, and storing water can even be expensive. of course, there are many specific techniques, but if you look at the drylands of the world, that don’t have any of the irrigation available, either they have oil under the ground so that they have some other way to “get by” – let’s put it that way – or they have diamonds under the ground, so they have some other way to “get by,” or they’re impoverished. and so a lot of the poorest places in the world are places like Niger and Chad and Mali and Ethiopia and northern Kenya, northern Uganda, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and so forth. and I keep saying to the policymakers, look at the map! That’s where the conflicts are! Don’t misunderstand this thing! You keep calling it Islamic extremism or something else. These are hungry people! And they’re hungry because there’s not enough water. And their crops are dying and their livestock are dying and their climates are becoming even drier. And it’s hard to get the politicians to understand this, by the way. So we end up with drone missiles, rather than bore wells. Which is crazy, because a drone missile is going to solve no problem in this world, and a bore well just might.
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