Peter Debaere – Global Water Blog

Infrastructure, Innovation, Water & Society, Water Policy, Water Productivity

Q&A with Chandler Brenneman about Aqua America

The United States faces a water infrastructure crisis. While people in developed countries still have significantly better access to safe water than do people in emerging economies, the lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan, showed that the nation’s water infrastructure is in bad shape in many places. Not surprisingly…

By Peter Debaere- November 1, 2018

Climate Change, Environment, Water & Society, Water Policy, Water Productivity, Water Scarcity

Q&A with Salvi Asefi on East Africa and Climate Change

The Global Water Initiative has supported Dr. Salvi Asefi for much of this year to do research on water and climate change. Dr. Asefi was a member of Professor Deborah Lawrence’s climate change research team. She has studied Lake Tanganyika watershed in East Africa, and its future water availability…

By Peter Debaere- July 16, 2018

Water & Society

Q&A With Marama Muru-Lanning About the Wakaito River

Dr. Marama Muru-Lanning from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, is the first Māori Anthropologist to be awarded a PhD in anthropology since Māori Studies separated from Anthropology in 1991. Marama Muru-Lanning heads the James Henare Research Center at the University of Auckland. She is the…

By Peter Debaere- June 15, 2018

Innovation, Water Markets, Water Scarcity

Q&A With Andrea Barrios on Impact Investing in Water

In April, the Global Water Initiative held a panel discussion at Darden on impact investing in water, a relatively new phenomenon. As a follow-up to the panel discussion, we had a conversation with Andrea Barrios (Darden MBA 2016) from The Rockefeller Foundation. Andrea Barrios participated in the panel and…

By Peter Debaere- May 16, 2018

Infrastructure, Water Quality

Q&A With George Hawkins About DC Water and Water Infrastructure

George Hawkins was CEO and General Manager of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, better known as DC Water, from 2009 until a couple of months ago. DC Water is one of the most innovative water utilities and its Blue Plains plant is the largest advanced wastewater treatment…

By Peter Debaere- April 16, 2018

Built Environment

Q&A With Tim Beatley About Ocean Cities

Tim Beatley’s new documentary, Ocean Cities, explores the environmental challenges and opportunities facing coastal communities. As part of this year’s World Water Events, the documentary will be screened on March 22 at 5:30 p.m. in Clark 107 at the University of Virginia. Beatley teaches urban and…

By Peter Debaere- March 12, 2018

Environment, Water Quality

Q&A With Lex Van Geen on Arsenic Contamination

Lex Van Geen is a world-renowned arsenic specialist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. He has been working on arsenic contamination for 20 years, especially (but not only) in Bangladesh. The World Health Organization has called Bangladesh’s arsenic problem “the largest poisoning of a population in history.” On…

By Peter Debaere- March 1, 2018

Water Productivity, Water Quality, Water Scarcity

Q&A With Julia Harte on Ilisu Dam

Julia Harte, a DC-based journalist for Reuters, gave a public lecture at UVA on October 25th2017. The title of her talk was “Damming Eden, Water Security in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.“ In 2013 she traveled with a team for National Geographic along the Tigris River to conduct field research…

By Peter Debaere- January 3, 2018