Water as a Resource or Human Right with Dr. James Jensen

[Bonnie Vest]

On Thursday October 15th, Dr. James Jensen, from the Department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering, and also our very own head of the Research Exploration Academy gave an informative talk on some of the issues surrounding water access in our world today.

He started by saying that although most of the planet is covered in water, only a very small fraction is actually available for use by human populations.

He discussed whether or not water can be considered a resource, in the same way we consider timber and fossil fuels to be resources, noting that water has many properties that make it distinct from other resources. One of these properties is that water cannot be created or destroyed; there is exactly the same amount of water on the planet now as there was 4 billion years ago, it just changes form.

He also addressed the impacts of current processes of global climate change, noting that the effects vary depending upon the area; some places will experience problems of too little water and others will have a problem with too much water.

Finally, he addressed the human rights aspects of water access; noting that it is only within the last 7 or 8 years that access to water has been addressed in the human rights legislation, so this is a relatively new area of policy.

Overall, his talk was extremely informative, and demonstrated how the Academies can come together and explore and contribute to the study of an issue, such as water access, from all three perspectives: global perspectives, research exploration, and civic engagement.

Thank you Dr. Jensen for sharing your expertise and knowledge with us!