The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT is exploring the crucial global challenge of water resource management in a four-part series titled "The Future of Water."
The series will explore social, environmental and political aspects of how water is appropriated and regulated internationally and how access to drinking water and sanitation produces patterns of consumption, health and development.
"Water" begins with a world premier of "Water Please No," a documentary on the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh and Nepal, Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Room 6-120 at 7 p.m.
Rob Kramer, filmmaker and co-founder of the Global Water Trust, will discuss the film and the arsenic crisis with Charles Harvey, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
"Water Please No" includes a segment on the Kanchan Arsenic Filter, an affordable water filtration system developed by MIT researchers including Susan Murcott, research engineer in civil and environmental engineering. The Kanchan Filter recently won a 2005 Wall Street Journal Innovation Technology Award.
On Thursday, Oct. 27, Vandana Shiva, author of "Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit" and "Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace," will present a talk on "Hydro-politics and Earth Democracy," in Room 10-250 at 7 p.m.
Shiva will discuss the politics of water consumption, focusing on the victims of water scarcity and presenting the social and political landscape that frames the debate around water resources in developing countries.
On Nov. 3, Marcia Brewster, U.N. task leader on gender and water, and Shauna Currey, director of international operations and advisor at the Centre for Affordable Water & Sanitation Technology, will discuss "Women and Water" and the health, educational and economic implications of the burden on women and children of collecting water, in Room 6-120 at 7 p.m.
On Nov. 10, Murcott will discuss the U.N. millennium goals for clean water and how to achieve them with current and future technologies. Murcott's talk, "Innovating for Clean and Abundant Water," will be held in Room 6-120 at 7 p.m.
This series is free and open to the public; seating is first come, first served.
For more information, please visit web.mit.edu/tac or call x3-0108.
This series is co-sponsored by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Office of the Dean of Graduate Students, the Program in Women's Studies and MIT Sangam.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 26, 2005 (download PDF).
