Education & Resources

Academic Courses

• Click to download course syllabus for ENVS 637: Global Water Issues
  ENVS 637: GLOBAL WATER ISSUES— SPRING 2011
  This course taught at UPenn by Stanley L Laskowski, PGWI president, uses the MDG targets as a central focus and provides an overview of water issues around the world. The goals of the course are to provide an understanding of the scope of the water-related problems, the causes of these problems, what is being done to address them, and how the students can become involved.

PGWI in India and Sri Lanka Jan 2011 for water project tours, meetings, and partnering.

• Trip Report
• Photo Slideshow

PGWI Products

For downloading, printing, copying, and distribution, these short documents and presentations are a useful tool for explaining different aspects of the global water & sanitation crisis.

• Issues overview & resources
• PGWI’s 2009 Annual Conference: “Exploring the Public health and Water/Sanitation Connection in Low-Income Regions”
  • Conference Summary
  • Highlights of All Presentations
  • Key Note Speaker: Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH
  • Published Article About the Annual Conference by Mr. Alan Biehn, Senior Writer at Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
• 4,900 Children Will Die Today – a short essay by Stan Laskowski on the importance of meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
• A longer report (34 pages): Philadelphia’s Water Supply and Sanitation History: Lessons in Sustainability for Developing Urban Areas.
• PGWI Newsletters (archived & recent)

Recommended General Readings & Reports

• Ned Breslin, the outspoken CEO of Water For People, is calling for transformative change in the water and sanitation sector, and he is starting with his own organization.
• PGWI’s 2010 Conferenced on WaterWired Blog
• Water Watch. National Geographic’s special web section on water issues, with fascinating descriptions from around the world, powerful photos, and a series of maps that puts things into perspective.
• WaterAid. “Bridging the Gap: Citizens’ Action for Accountability in Water and Sanitation.” March 2006.
• Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty, and the global water crisis. Human Development Report 2006. UN Development Program.
• For Her It’s the Big Issue: Putting Women at the Centre of Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. UNICEF, Gender and Water Alliance, Norweigan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. 2006. 
  This 36-page publication emerges from a joint undertaking by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) to collect and analyse noteworthy examples that demonstrate the widespread impacts of women’s contributions to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions, worldwide.
• Characteristics of Well-Performing Public Water Utilities. By Aldo Baetti, William Kingdom, and Meike van Ginneken. Water Supply & Sanitation Working Notes. Note no. 9, May 2006. 115 p. Published by the World Bank
• The United Nations World Water Development Report 3, “Water in a Changing World”, 2009
• Safe Water as the Key to Global Health
• Water: A Shared Responsibility. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2. World Water Assessment Report, UNESCO, Berghahn Books, UN Water. 2006.
• Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths from Water-Related Diseases 2000-2020. By Peter H. Gleick, Pacific Institute Research Report. August 15, 2002.
• In The Public Interest: Health, Education, and Water and Sanitation for All. Oxfam International and WaterAid. 2006. 126-page report.
• http://www.unwater.org/statistics.html for an overview of water statistics
• http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/monitoring/jmp2008.pdf for an excellent overview of progress to date on drinking water and sanitation browse the following report with special attention to Goal 7
• http://www.unwater.org/members.html for UN-Water organizations.

Interactive Tools

• Children Short Stories and Educational Tools, by Nalat Phanit, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
• Visualization of MDG progress (charts and maps)
• Running Dry is a comprehensive public information/education project, established to raise awareness regarding the worsening global humanitarian water crisis. The project’s centerpiece is an explosive and enlightening in-depth documentary, Running Dry. It was inspired by former U.S. Senator Paul Simon’s book Tapped Out: the coming world crisis in water and what we can do about it.
  • You can view the 20-minute “Call to Action” version of Running Dry on their website
• Water Quality Worldwide (Searchable Database)
• From Mashable: “HOW TO: Help Solve the Global Water Crisis with Social Media”

Background on Finance Issues

• Hall, David. “Water Finance – A Discussion Note.” Public Services International, World Social Forum Delhi/Mumbai. January 2004.
• World Water Council. “Costing MDG Target 10 on Water Supply and Sanitation: Comparative Analysis, Obstacles and Recommendations.” March 2006.

PGWI at the 2009 World Water Forum 5, Istanbul, Turkey

• Click to download student’s report on the WWF 5 by Reema Walia
• Click to download student’s interview with Professor Vivian L. de Vignaroli, Director of the Department of Education at Asociación de Amigos de la Patagonia, by Nalat Phanit
• Click to download student’s interview with Julisa Tambunan, Communications Coordinator for Mercy Corps, by Libby Newman
• Click to download student’s interview with Dr. Sara Ahmed, Chairperson for the Gender for Water Alliance (GWA), by Reema Walia