Powering Progress: Access to Clean Water

This workshop explores a science-based, interdisciplinary approach to water access, combining engineering, environmental science, data, and community-based practices to deliver innovative, resilient, and scalable solutions. Discussion will show how advances in access to clean water and electricity in rural and underserved communities are supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Participants will learn how the application of standards-based technologies can drive measurable impact, enhance resilience, and support sustainable development.

Clean water access is vital for the health, well-being, and economic development of rural communities in developing nations. However, challenges like limited infrastructure, resource constraints, and energy scarcity continue to hinder progress. Access to clean water is a critical enabler of public health and economic development in rural communities. Despite its importance, over 2 billion people globally still lack safely managed drinking water services. The disparity is particularly acute in rural areas where infrastructure is limited, resources are scarce, and climatic challenges are exacerbating water insecurity. Technology can accelerate progress, but only if solutions are interoperable, scalable, and sustainable. Using a clean water project in the Himalayas as an example of what can be accomplished through a multidisciplinary approach, this workshop explores how the impact of deforestation and development has adversely affected the springs in Himalayan rural communities.

The Himalayan range is one of the most unstable and fragile mountain areas in the world. Environmental degradation reduces available resources. Deforestation and loss of vegetation have led to severe water challenges, as groundwater is only available in the form of natural springs. Climate change and increases in temperature contribute to reduced water resources, thus making water availability and access to support the people and the industry in the region a challenge. Addressing this challenge requires a multidisciplinary collaboration between engineers, environmental scientists, data analysts, and community-based practices to deliver a scalable, sustainable, and technology-driven clean water solution for the Himalayas.

Access to clean water is fundamental to life and a cornerstone of sustainable development. The discussion will examine how deforestation and development have adversely affected the springs in the Himalayas impacting rural communities. These rural areas are disproportionately affected by water scarcity and contamination due to poor infrastructure, and environmental degradation, including identification of constraints that prevent effective delivery of rural clean water services.

This interactive workshop will:

• Examine how deforestation and development have adversely affected the springs in the Himalayas, impacting rural communities
• Provide a grounded understanding of the systemic barriers to clean water, particularly the climate change impact on the rural communities in the Himalayas
• Explore the urgent global challenge of clean water access in rural communities
• Look at the interdependency between energy and water, and the opportunities to develop new approaches addressing water use and electric power generation