by A. Pesarosa

Created on: March 24, 2009   Last Updated: December 14, 2010

The global water crisis goes even beyond the realm of people having enough water to drink. It seems clear that concentrated efforts by the United Nations will become even more necessary as water shortages loom and the war drums beat along the boundaries of dry and impoverished nations.

American President Barack Obama addressed the issue in his inaugural speech, pledging to work alongside poorer nations to "make your farms flourish and let clean water flow," and to urge other plentiful nations to do the same.

Corporations and industry, both those that consume vast amounts of water and those that play part in exploitation and degradation of underdeveloped areas, must act as leading contributors to the ongoing advance of clean water strategies. Companies, at the very least, should not stomp over the basic rights in other nations they would hold sacred in their own countries.

Must we rely, though, on governments, agencies, corporations, and organizations to remedy this ongoing and further impending crisis?

Organization is often one of the first steps taken to resolve crisis; every good leader knows success lies also in the administration and individual work of people coming together for a common goal. Global partnership and communication across borders are essential to finding a solution.

The Knight Foundation's Onewater project is bringing global awareness to the water crisis by working with ITVS (Independent Television Service) and utilizing media in its different and exquisite forms. Partnering with Helium.com, a global writer's website, provides global voice and platform to both professional and citizen journalists, opening the issue worldwide to writer's with knowledge in all aspects of technology and science, as well as vital personal perspective and insight.

These media enterprises and partnerships enable further examination in addition to civil discussion and debate of both local and global water issues and concerns, even acting as a model for transboundary nations who will need to work together to ensure the most humanly beneficial preservation and development of this most precious resource.

The power of one, and the growth of personal relations across borders cannot be underestimated or discounted, either. After trips to Kenya as an aid-volunteer, Patty Hall, through email exchanges with one of her guides, found out the people of his Kathungu village desperately needed to build a dam to aid in bringing water to over 2000 residents in the Kwa Kasolo area of Kenya.

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