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The United Nations has declared 2005-2015 the "Water for Life Decade."
World Water Day at AMNH features a series of panel discussions on water issues facing New York City, developing countries, and the global community.
The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life will be the setting for a special Water Resource Fair geared toward the whole family. Museum and local scientists will be on hand, along with representatives from water conservation organizations including WaterAid America, Food & Water Watch, Riverkeeper, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and others. Children can explore water and conservation through hands-on activities.
The Water Resource Fair will be held under the blue whale in the dramatic Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The Fair will focus on water and conservation and include resource materials and interactive displays and activities. Meet Museum science staff and learn about their water-related research. Participants include New York City Department of Environmental Protection, New York State Environmental Conservation, New York City Soil & Water Conservation District, Food & Water Watch, WaterAid America, The Green Guide, and Riverkeeper. Children will learn about water and conservation through special activities and investigations.
Presented with WaterAid America, the first panel discussion will focus on the traditional role of women in managing domestic water resources in developing countries throughout Africa and Asia, and will explore how the participation of women in planning and managing community water services ensures sustainability.
Panel: Yassine Fall, Senior Economic Advisor, United Nations Development Fund for Women; Lydia Zigomo, WaterAid, UK;
Netsanet Mengistu, founder and Director, Zema Setoch Lefitih (Voice of Women for Justice), Ethiopia
Moderator: Carol Jenkins, President, The Women's Media Center and Board Member, AMREF/USA
Yassine Fall was previously Executive Director of the Association of African Women for Research and Development, and she facilitated policy dialogue between African governments and women's constituencies throughout Africa. In 2005, she helped launch the African Women Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights (AWOMI). Its objective is to empower and engage impoverished women and youth by fostering education and leadership and ensuring their access to economic opportunities.
Lydia Zigomo is WaterAid's Head of Region for East Africa where she manages strategic direction relating to increasing universal access to basic water sanitation and hygiene education, while championing equity and inclusion organization-wide. With 13 years of program and policy experience, Ms. Zigomo has focused on reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, rights-based approaches, gender mainstreaming, and women and children's rights in the African context.
Netsanet Mengistu is founder and Director of ZemaSef, a leading Ethiopian nongovernmental organization committed to empowering women by promoting education and technical training, increasing the awareness and active participation of women in human rights issues, establishing credit facilities and institutional support systems, designing and implementing support measures for food security, and, in general, sensitizing women to issues critical to family health and survival.
Carol Jenkins is President of the Women's Media Center and a Founding Member of its Board of Directors. She is an Emmy award-winning former news anchor and correspondent who covered presidential politics as well as international issues. Ms. Jenkins enjoyed a 30-year, award-winning tenure with several New York City news departments, including 23 years at WNBC-TV, where she co-anchored the pivotal 6 p.m. newscast. She hosted her own daily talk show, Carol Jenkins Live, on WNYW-TV.
New York City has the distinction of both being surrounded by water and having one of the finest drinking water supply systems in the country—but does that ensure our future? How do we maintain and expand our system for the needs of the 21st century? Learn about some of the exciting projects now under way.
Panel: Albert F. Appleton, International Consultant; Rolf Halden, Associate Professor, Arizona State University Biodesign Institute; Linda R. Cox, Executive Director, Bronx River Alliance
Moderator: Eleanor J. Sterling, Director, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, AMNH
Al Appleton is an international consultant whose most recent work includes developing a new system of financing environmental infrastructure for the City of Shanghai water and sewer system. Previously, Mr. Appleton served as Commissioner of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and Director of the NYC Water and Sewer system, where he developed and implemented NYC's comprehensive Catskill mountain watershed protection program and New York's water conservation program, reducing New York City's water use by 300 million gallons of water a day, or 20% of total consumption.
Rolf Halden, Ph.D., P.E., is Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute and Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Halden, who specializes in environmental exposure assessment and bioremediation, is best known for his work on the occurrence of organohalogens, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products in U.S. water resources and the body burden of these compounds in susceptible human populations such as children. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Halden was environmental scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
Linda R. Cox is Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance and Bronx River Administrator for the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. The Bronx River Alliance, a non-profit organization founded in 2001, works with a hundred partner organizations to restore, improve, and protect the Bronx River corridor and ensure that it serves as a resource for the communities along the river. A key element of its mission is the creation of the eight-mile-long Bronx River Greenway, which the Alliance undertakes in close partnership with NYC Parks. Prior to joining the Alliance and Parks Department in 2002, Ms. Cox directed the Urban Parks Program.
Moderator Eleanor Sterling directs the AMNH's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) and is curator of the current exhibition Water: H2O = Life. She has 25 years of field research experience in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where she has conducted behavioral, ecological, and genetic studies of both terrestrial and aquatic species. Since 1997, she has also served as Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, where she is Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology.
Panel: Azzam Alwash, Director, Eden Again Project, Iraq; Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch;
John Todd, Founder and President, Ocean Arks International, and Principal, John Todd Ecological Design Inc.
Moderator: Julie Burstein, Executive Producer, Public Radio International, WNYC
Azzam Alwash was born in Iraq and spent much of his youth in Nasseriya on the fringes of the marshlands. He left Iraq in 1978 as a result of the policies of the Baathist regime, and completed his studies in California, where he worked for 20 years as a soils engineering consultant. In 1997, he became active in Iraqi expatriate politics, and is now on the board of directors of the Iraq Foundation, a Washington, D.C. based NGO; is a board of trustees member of the newly established American University of Iraq–Sulimani; and is the CEO of Nature Iraq, an Iraqi environmental research and lobbying NGO which started as an outgrowth of the Eden Again project.
Wenonah Hauter of Food & Water Watch has worked extensively on energy, food, water, and environmental issues at the national, state, and local levels. Experienced in developing policy positions and legislative strategies, she is also a skilled and accomplished organizer, having lobbied and developed grassroots field strategy and action plans. From 1997 to 2005, Ms. Hauter served as Director of Public Citizen's Energy and Environment Program, which focused on water, food, and energy policy.
John Todd is one of the pioneers in the emerging field of ecological design and engineering. He is Founder and President of Ocean Arks International, a nonprofit research and education organization, and a Principal in John Todd Ecological Design Inc., an ecological design and engineering consulting firm based in Woods Hole, Massachussetts. His many awards include the Global Visionary Award from the City of Chicago (2006), the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award (1998), and the Charles and Ann Morrow Lindbergh Award for technological innovation on behalf of the environment (1998). In 1999, he was named a "Hero of the Earth" by Time magazine.
Moderator Julie Burstein created the weekly national radio program Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen in 2000, and continues to oversee its production as executive producer. A co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC, Studio 360 received a Peabody Award in 2004.
